My excuse for being absent of late..

[12gauge]

last April I ordered a Golden Hawk canoe and it was finally completed so a friend and I took a road trip to Wisconsin and picked it up. It is 12' 9" extra stable for fishing and a small outboard. 
Pics here.

photos.app.goo.gl/xD28VkTLB9osPZP26

[papaof2]

You need to get speech-to-text on your phone so you can dictate the stories while you paddle ;-)

[willc453]

F canoes.....they're NOTHING but alligator bait traps in Florida. Brother had one and I tried it ONCE and NEVER, EVER again. His had a flat end on the back part of it so you could put either a small horse power motor on it or one of those electric trolling motors. He had neither. He took me to the Kissimmee river where we got it launched and he takes off while I'm putting my fishing gear in it. Once I got in it, find I'm ONLY a couple of inches above the water? Not wanting to fish out in the middle of the river, I headed for the opposite side of it so I could hit the reeds, etc. along the shoreline. Then comes along one of those flat bottom boats with those BIG motors and props ROARING and ZOOMING by WITHOUT SLOWING DOWN! I quickly paddled so the bow was facing what looked like a tsunami size wave that would knock over the statue of Liberty. Bobbing up and down was NOT conductive to my mental health well being. Had this happen twice. And remember the HUMONGOUS crocodile that eventually ate Capt. Hook? Well, I met his alligator cousin or whatever that day. And I'll tell you something..... no matter how big or small an alligator is, when you're in a canoe, they're ALL humongous when you're only INCHES from the water. And because of Jaws, this is why to this day I REFUSE to go fishing in ANY size of ANY boat in the ocean.

[papaof2]

A canoe is a nice vessel on a small lake or pond - not so much on bigger water IMHO.

I was a counselor for teens at a church camp one year and the lake there had canoes. The best and worst experience was letting a girl who'd lost a leg to cancer go out in a canoe with another (very responsible) girl. When her parents found out, they were almost hysterical that she'd been out in a canoe with her $6,000 prosthetic leg - but they weren't there to see her radiant smile when she came back in from "being treated like all the other kids". I think it was worth getting yelled at ;-)

[bretf]

I was one of the advisors when our Venture Crew took a five-day canoe trip down the Payette and Snake Rivers near here. We had no exact destination in mind each day, just rough ideas. When we found a decent spot, we’d beach and camp on islands. We had a few capsize on rapids but always recovered in great shape, and with a better understanding of how to navigate future rough water.

Amongst the youth, it is still considered the best outing they’d ever been on in Scouts.

My one gripe: I didn’t get enough time fishing.