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Trolling for the deep boys is my most successful technique. What lures and sinkers do you guys like for canoe trolling? I like a 3/4 oz jig and a yellow or white twister tail grub. A green tube has worked well too. I also us a jointed shad rap when they need more enticement. They don't go as deep though.
 
dang, those are some pricey pieces of wood. I'd like to try one, but a Sanborn is more likely. The ZRE is a great cruiser, but not great in the marshy bays where smallies reside.
 
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A good paddle can cost a fair fraction of the price of a canoe. But considering what it can do and is being asked to do nearly every second that is is in use, it is all part of the required package for a serious paddler. It is better to have a quality paddle with a crappy cheap canoe than to have a crappy paddle with a quality high priced canoe.
 
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I just finished a paddle yesterday. It is one I started many years ago. I used a Sugar Island pattern. Made from a glued up blank of white ash down the middle with elm sides. Very light and strong, but not that easy to work with hand tools. Wish I could post a photo.
 
On calm waters, I have often used an old wooden ping pong paddle to skull with. I have a short piece of cord attached from the end of the handle up to my seat frame. I just make small skulling strokes and then let the paddle go without ever lifting it from the water.

I wish I had thought of that when I was sneakboating for ducks on moving water. I essentially needed to float with the current, kept bow forward closer and closer to a raft of ducks before they jumped and took wing, and a full sized paddle was too obvious.

I cut down a kid-sized Feather Brand to one handed use and tied it off, so I could drop it in the water when the ducks jumped. A ping pong paddle would have been better.

I don’t duckhunt anymore, but I am digging the idea of making a custom wood hand paddle, size and shape and narrow in-water slicing edge to be determined. Another project for Blackfly, custom hand paddle.

Nessmuk used a ‘pudding stick’ basically a short one handed paddle. A little search and you should be able to find a little bit about it.

Don't Google search "pudding stick".

Oh lord I wish I hadn’t Googled that. I knew Nessmuk was tubercular sick; I didn’t know he was a sexual deviant.
 
dang, those are some pricey pieces of wood. I'd like to try one, but a Sanborn is more likely. The ZRE is a great cruiser, but not great in the marshy bays where smallies reside.

Have you tried a straight shaft Zav? Zav offers custom angles and you just request a 0 degree angle. I've put a lot of miles on straight shaft Zavs...I find them very handy in shallow water since the short blade makes for a short paddle and the light weight makes them handy.
 
I agree with Al on the "indian" stroke or "in water recovery", I prefer an ottertail or even willowleaf blade because it's long narrow profile helps prevent cavitation and makes it harder to catch an edge.
 
chocolatepudonstick.jpg

Jeez, that's pretty deviant with all those preservatives, I can see why you guys were grossed out. Add a few chocolate chips to your bannock if you have to, but keep it healthy and wholesome.
 
using a narrow paddle like an ottertail really helped me when I was learning the indian stroke, but now i can do it well with a wider blade. I have owned expensive thin edge paddles, but my bending branches expresso plus works just as well.
 
You could probably do the Indian stroke with a 2x4, but it would cause a lot of gurgling and not be very smooth or quiet as the stroke is meant to be. Blade with is not a big factor, but edge thickness is. Think slicing through the water.
 
what i meant is that the slightly thicker and blunter expresso plus does just as well as knife edged and thinner expensive
paddles.
 
Until this thread, I had been, for over 35+ years, completely satisfied with the performance of my stock wooden ping pong paddle being used as a one handed paddle.

I still have a couple of it's siblings around somewhere, even though the ping pong table has long been gone. It did not survive raising teenagers unfortunately.

If I can find one of them, modifications will be made. Feathering the edges to almost knife edge sounds imperative.

And then edge reenforcement with a light weight glass cloth epoxied on, using peel ply of course. Sanded and then varnish coated several times, matt finish of course, and only after removing any blush.

Or, do I just use it as a starting pattern for a custom balsa cored carbon fiber layup. Decisions decisions.

Or do I just use the original (which shall remain original), and hope that no one reports me to the technical paddle blade committee.

Not much need for worry though. Most of the technical paddle blade committee would most likely never get to the places that I hunt and fish. Guess I'm going to have to go rogue, and maybe be the last known canoeing fisherman to use a lowly ping pong paddle. But if I ever run into one of you high tech guys, I sure would like to try one of your new fangled carbon fiber one handed paddles. Sort of a bucket list kinda thing.

Carry on, while I reflect upon the errors of my ways. Dang it, I just know now, that I surely would catch more fish if I just had a more high tech paddle:cool:

And as a side note, if any of you are ever in North Louisiana at the Bass Pro Shop in Bossier City, LA, go into the fly fishing section and look up on the wall. There is a plague and a replica fish of my Louisiana State Fly Rod Record White Crappie, with my name on it. And yes, my wooden ping pong paddle was utilized.

And YES Mr. McCrea, there has been many a feather cut using the simple ping pong paddle for boat control, in both pirogues and canoes.
 
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Or do I just use the original (which shall remain original), and hope that no one reports me to the technical paddle blade committee.

Oh no no no, the official report has been duly filed with the committee. We want to see exotic woods, laminated in a striking pattern, feathered edges, maybe some dihedral with a stiffening spine on the non-power face.

I foresee considerable testing and experimentation to get this just right to pass committee muster for open canoe hand paddles.

There are any number of manufacturers of WW kayak hand paddles.

https://www.google.com/search?ei=dvU...sclient=psy-ab

An easily “drop-able” (tied on), grab the shotgun or rod hunting/fishing canoe hand paddle would be significantly different than those strapped-on kayaker gloves.

Please feel free to send the rejected models my way ;-)
 
Before ping pong paddles, Nessmuk, pudding sticks and the Piragis catalogue, native paddlers used the one arm paddling technique I mentioned above.

yKQFIIK.jpg
 
I have a Patrick Moore freestyle instructional video VHS tape that starts off with Patrick doing some cool freestyle moves with his paddle almost completely underwater. Then he pulls the paddle out of the water and it turns out he's using a shovel.
 
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