Been to BWCA four straight years and have had very little fishing success from a canoe. Three years ago, when leaving Basswood, we got caught in 25 MPH winds w/30 + gusts, for quite the sketchy trip in. Ever since we have been extremely reluctant to go out on the water even in mild wind. Therefore we tend to fish from shore, hence, limited success.

Advice on how to get more comfortable in a canoe and fish better? Strategies for a more stable/balanced canoe? Thoughts?

Response 1: Fishing from a canoe is like bicycling with no hands... it's all about balance. Limit all upper body movement, especially when casting and when landing a fish. Cast smooth and easy. Never reach for fish... bring them to the boat. The canoe should not have side-to-side movement. It is easier for the fisherman in the rear as he can see what the front guy is doing. Seems like you need more time fishing in a canoe.

Response 2: Quit being a weenie! So you had a little wind... 3 YEARS AGO! Put on your big-boy pants and get over it. Or get a new hobby!

Buy a basketball net, some rope and a carabiner. Put a huge rock in it and now you have an anchor.

Set up on promising spots (points, dropoffs, near islands/rock piles near deep water and mouths of bays) and work them over with leeches under a slip bobber or on a jig. You will catch way more fish this way than being blown around the lake casting lures around. Much more stable/relaxing also.

Good luck!!!!

I troll 95% of the time from a canoe. I will land the canoe to cast from a wind blown point or running water.

Rise early when it tends to be calm. Fish deep into the evening when it tends to be calm. If I'm feeling tippy, I sit on my haunches. It's practically impossible to tip when your center of gravity is that low. When the wind is howling, there's always some place on the lake where the water is calm. Fish that side.

I tipped this year for the first time in my life. I was in the water so suddenly that it shocked me. It happened because I cast into a tree and then caught another line as I paddled to the shore to free it. Two snags in different directions had me reaching too far to free one. So, my takeaway is to not take chances and don't have my canoe bristling with hooks as I approach the shore. No hooks will mean no snags.

As the others said; fish when it is calm, use an anchor, or get over it. My wife and I fish from a canoe quite often, and we are used to it. Tippiness is not an issue. A drift sock will help, too.

Try renting an aluminum canoe, much more stable than an empty Kevlar canoe.

Get a crazy creek chair to support your back, also aids in stability for you.

Basketball net anchor with a rock inside. Attach it to the rear of the canoe This will keep your canoe from turning sideways to the waves and wind.

Slip bobbers and crawlers or leeches a foot off the bottom and you will catch fish. With this setup it will be hard NOT to catch fish.

Get lighted slip bobbers for fishing in camp after dark. Fun to see the bobbers disappear underwater.

" I will land the canoe to cast from a wind blown point or running water."

This is great advice.

1) If right handed, fish only off the left side of the canoe. Cast towards the shoreline for smallmouth. Aim to land lures within a few feet of shore. Your canoe will be close to shore so you should be fairly comfortable with the prospect of tipping.

2). Use a stable canoe ideal for fishing, not paddling efficiency. Use a 17 or 18 foot canoe.

3) Use spinning reels with medium action poles no longer than 6 to 6.5 feet in length. Use lures that are easy to cast, i.e., use lures that have enough weight.

4) Put the best paddler in the stern. Sometimes the stern paddler won’t get a lot of fishing in when its windy.

5) Get out early before the wind is up, as others have suggested.

6). Be persistent.

These things will all contribute to boat stability...

Learn how to trim the canoe. Minor shifts in weight distribution can have a substantial effect on stability. And, depending on travel direction in relation to wind direction, or current, you may need to load the boat slightly out of level trim.

Under dicey conditions, it's a good idea for only one person fish and the other person paddling. 2 people fishing at the same time often has both of them engrossed in fishing and neither is paying attention to waves or other hazards. It's the paddler's job to keep eyes open, with paddle in hand and ready to instantly react to an issue.

And ALL paddlers need to know how to brace...high brace and low brace. It's amazing how well a brace can stabilize the boat and prevent a flip. A sudden wave or bumping into an obstruction can flip a boat in the blink of an eye but if someone has paddle at the ready, a strong and proper brace can avert a disaster and can possibly even save lives. An off-shore flip in cold water can be deadly. With a little experience, a proper brace is almost instinctive. You'll execute it without hardly realizing you've done it.

In choppy water, we often don't even lift our paddle out of the water. We'll use sculling strokes because a paddle out of the water does nothing for stability. In the water is the best place for a paddle.
And the worst thing a person can do is grab the gunwale. If the boat is leaning or tipping, GET THE PADDLE IN THE WATER and take a stroke, or brace.

Savage Voyageur: "Try renting an aluminum canoe, much more stable than an empty Kevlar canoe......
"

There are 2 types of stability...initial stability and final stability. Aluminum canoes have flat bottoms and they do feel very stable as long as the boat is flat on the water. But as the boat is leaned (either inadvertently by waves, or leaned by passenger movement) a flat bottom canoe becomes much more prone to flipping.
Composite boats with a proper hull design may initially "feel" tippy, but as they are leaned, the actually stabilize.

RunningFox: "1) If right handed, fish only off the left side of the canoe. Cast towards the shoreline for smallmouth. Aim to land lures within a few feet of shore. Your canoe will be close to shore so you should be fairly comfortable with the prospect of tipping.


2). Use a stable canoe ideal for fishing, not paddling efficiency. Use a 17 or 18 foot canoe.


3) Use spinning reels with medium action poles no longer than 6 to 6.5 feet in length. Use lures that are easy to cast, i.e., use lures that have enough weight.


4) Put the best paddler in the stern. Sometimes the stern paddler won’t get a lot of fishing in when its windy.


5) Get out early before the wind is up, as others have suggested.


6). Be persistent."

More good advice. I did a lot of solo fishing in a tippy solo canoe this spring when the water was in the high forties. I hugged shorelines.

I feel the same way in the canoe. It sucks sometimes being restricted to the shore but I honestly prefer it. I like walking the shorelines, picking up trash, finding cool rocks. I found a canoe paddle and a moose antler on LLC walking the beach. Would be nice to be more comfortable fishing in the canoe though.

Find some moving water and fish from shore with a bobber, split shot and a leach two or three feet deep. Let the current move your bait across your front. Easy technique that will almost always produce a few bites even for a novice angler.

I hope you get over your concerns with wind and waves, there is a lot of cool water to explore out there.

No great fishing tips here. But to feel more comfortable in a canoe, first be sure to always have your pfd on.

When I’m in the bow I tend to brace my knees against the sides of the canoe - our lab tends to move side to side so she can watch the lure flying and I feel more balanced that way - it might help you too in the waves.

At home try going out in windy conditions with someone who has more experience, either in the same canoe with you, or as a “lifeguard” in another canoe. Practice and time on the water is probably the only way to become more comfortable. Know your abilities and limits, as well as your paddling partners.

Really good advice here and I appreciate some of the reminders and have also learned several things. When my daughters first started to fish with me from the canoe I had them sit in the front and face backwards. It was helpful to see and understand the rhythms and patterns of the other person, especially when landing fishing. Now it is much easier to give each other verbal instructions in a variety of situations without the person in the bow being able to see the person in the stern.

i understand completely how you feel , at the start of trip me and my son went down in ice out waters and even for me , it was a little nerve racking to get back in the canoe and finish the trip in, considering we had 9 more lakes to Navigate that day. and we reache4d camp in the darkness.
so if you feel comfortable shore fish , research the camp site you may want , bays in the spring that drops off a little , islands as the water warms up. shore fishing can out produce sometimes.
Nothing beats experience and even with that , we need to respect mother nature and do with what your comfortable with , some big water up there with a boat and we're in a canoe.
as Clint Eastwood said "A man's got to know his limitations"
some canoes are way more stable than others , you'll will sacrifice weight for more stabilty. the Old Town royalex line (discovery) are the most stable canoe's i've been in. alumacrafts are descent.
when loaded balance your weight out , side to side and front to back (person's weight)
and most of all always wear a PFD and keep a calm head if things go south. never a bad idea to always carry a Bic ;) for you non-smokers

"tips" for fishing from a canoe. pun intended?
Maybe it should be tips WHILE fishing...
OK I'll stop.

lundojam: ""tips" for fishing from a canoe. pun intended?
Maybe it should be tips WHILE fishing...
OK I'll stop."

hmmm... lost on me.

Sounds to me like you just need more experience in a canoe in general, so you can become more comfortable in it during all (within reason, of course) weather conditions. I can't say I've ever had an issue fishing from a canoe, myself. But I think there's a lot of good advice in the previous comments regarding that specifically.

"i understand completely how you feel , at the start of trip me and my son went down in ice out waters and even for me , it was a little nerve racking to get back in the canoe and finish the trip in, considering we had 9 more lakes to Navigate that day. and we reache4d camp in the darkness."

^Humble and compassionate^

More time in a canoe is always a good thing, but I've paddled thousands of miles, across big lakes and down big rivers, and I still tipped. Suddenly. Zero warning. Not even a nanosecond to counter the tipping. I was in the canoe and I was UNDER the water. I do know the very thing that lets me continue to paddle, a 32-pound Kevlar canoe, makes paddling less safe. Light boats are tippy.

The Royalex tip is a good one. So is knee bracing on a windy day. If you're supple enough, sit on your haunches. Nothing makes me feel safer than doing that.

At 67, I no longer fish on windy days. I fish at four in the morning when it's calm and the fish are eager. I've caught a fish on my first cast many mornings. There are modern-day pterodactyls, i.e. eagles, in the air. Fish have to be wary, but low light makes them less cautious. Plus, it's gorgeous in the gray beginning. At least as beautiful as the golden, last light.

It seems every year I take a different number of newbies with me who have little to no experience fishing or fishing from a canoe.

I adjust. This time of year, I will have the person in front in casting for smallmouth...whopper ploppers or square bills...while I troll a green reef runner or shallow shad rap, depending on bottom structure or submerged trees.

Only the stern guy should paddle when fishing. This does 2 things. First, it keeps the inexperienced person in the front of the canoe from banging the canoe with an oar when he goes back to casting. Second,

I also hate the wind. Screw that basketball net full of rocks idea for an anchor. I take real canoe anchors. They are a pound and half. I can carry it and they are small enought they fit in the pocket on my lifejackets on portages. If you give the wind a vote, it will blow you into a shallow bay where only 1 pound northerns live. The ability to maintain position on good structure I think is pretty key. And you get to leave the rocks where nature put them.

Casting...this is the most important thing. Wanna guess how many times I say, "cast with your wrist, not arm." People who are used to fishing with a heavy weight and bait back home, cast lures like they are a heavy weight and bait. Have your people practice flicking the lures...they will go farther, be more accurate, and won't rock the boat.

Seat backers...plusses and minuses here. The SitBackers have a thick foam base that raises the center of gravity up about 2 inches. I have a Rio stadium that is about 1". My son's buddy was about 6'4" and 250 lbs and that inch made a difference. But he was also an arm caster. The important thing here is comfort. If someone's back starts to hurt, they start to squirm. If you get 2 squirmers that squirm the same direction....bad news.

Fish grippers. Arm casters are also very afraid of the fish. I know grippers are controversial for catch and release but they are not controversial for securely grabbing the fish and not capsizing or steadying a fish for hook removal.

Oh, and my trolling technique...

I cast a reef runner out a medium soft cast (very precise), paddle slowly (very precise) while the guy in front throws lures to shore for smb. I position the canoe a strong cast from shore, paddle slow, troll a reef runner....that will put you in good walleye water, especially in late evening.

Probably late on the reply, but there is much to unpack on this post. First is the issue of canoe stability. It was not clear what you meant. Instability comes from many things: the boat you are paddling, how it is loaded, the paddle you are using, the weather, and the skills of the paddler. There is lots of good advice on fishing techniques, but it seems your issue is more stability. Not knowing what type of canoe you paddle it is hard to know where to begin. I do believe the newer kevlar boats many people favor are more unstable, say, than old Grummans. They are definitely harder to track in a wind. Part of it is that in their zeal to design lighter boats that fit every condition they have eliminated what used to be common on all canoes-the keel. All older canoes had them. Still remember a long conversation with Joe Seliga about keels.

Ultimately stability is something that comes with a lot of practice in various conditions. You need to get comfortable with your boat, or if you rent then you need to get on the water as much as possible. When I used to be a canoe counselor, the first things we always did with kids was to have them tip a canoe so they could see the worst thing that can happen. I would always tell them, the canoe is your friend, not your enemy. It floats, stick with it, even if it is full of water. There is a technique where two or even one person can empty a canoe full of water, then get back in. If you learn how to do that, you should never be afraid of swamping.

best advice on not tipping a canoe is lose the seat pads. Every one of the guys that have tipped canoes in our groups had seat cushion or chairs with cushions that raised their center of gravity.

missmolly: "Rise early when it tends to be calm. Fish deep into the evening when it tends to be calm. If I'm feeling tippy, I sit on my haunches. It's practically impossible to tip when your center of gravity is that low. When the wind is howling, there's always some place on the lake where the water is calm. Fish that side.


I tipped this year for the first time in my life. I was in the water so suddenly that it shocked me. It happened because I cast into a tree and then caught another line as I paddled to the shore to free it. Two snags in different directions had me reaching too far to free one. So, my takeaway is to not take chances and don't have my canoe bristling with hooks as I approach the shore. No hooks will mean no snags. "

First time I tipped it was all my fault. My buddy missed a strike on a top water frog and I tried to cast into the spot to get the fish. Cast so hard I threw my bait caster out of my hand. Lunged to grab it, and the rest is history. There is a $250 rod combo on the bottom of Thunder Lake along with my precipitation glasses. It was a long week of not being able to see where I was going! Was in the lake before I knew what hit me. To make matters worse, the next day I broke my spinning rod in half!

"Was in the lake before I knew what hit me."

Yep, that's exactly how it happened to me. So fast. I don't even remember falling. In the canoe. Then underwater.

bobbernumber3: "Response 1: Fishing from a canoe is like bicycling with no hands... it's all about balance. Limit all upper body movement, especially when casting and when landing a fish. Cast smooth and easy. Never reach for fish... bring them to the boat. The canoe should not have side-to-side movement. It is easier for the fisherman in the rear as he can see what the front guy is doing. Seems like you need more time fishing in a canoe.


Response 2: Quit being a weenie! So you had a little wind... 3 YEARS AGO! Put on your big-boy pants and get over it. Or get a new hobby!"

There seems to be difficulty for paddlers, especially new paddler to evaluate wind risk in the BWCA. There is a certain bravado, expressed in this post to get over it, it's just wind a face is, but wind is one of the greater dangers you face in canoe country. There are simply too many tragic or near tragic stories from folks who took chances and did not have the experience or skill to make it through. If you are going to chance strong winds you have to have the canoe handling ability ability to handle it AND a viable plan with the skilsl to get out of the water and not blowing out into the middle of a large, maybe cold lake. At least wear a PDF, this is not a weenie choice but a smart one. Lots of good suggestions in this thread, they help evaluate risk and have a plan that can keep you alive. If you think it is scary to be in a big wind in the BWCA it can be, but it's not as terrifying as being in the middle of a lake with a boat full of water and no one around for miles.

Go with your gut on deciding to be on the water.

We take 16-20 men up each fall, broke into 3 groups. They are all at varying degrees of ability in a canoe. The one hard fast rule I have is a PDF must be worn, and properly secured, at all times when on the water. . .no exceptions.

Everyone tumps a canoe at one time or another. Those that have not have never been on anything but smaller glass like lakes.

Here is what we have learned from the guys that have turned over canoes: Get rid of the seat cushions as they raise your center of gravity; front guy never turns around to hand something to the guy in back; don't lean over to net the fish, bring them into the boat; no long reaching casts.

And if you feel the water if unsafe for your ability. . . don't go out. Hang from shore. Being careful is not being a weenie. It is simply knowing your abilities and what you can and can't handle.

There’s a lot of good advice here, in fact too much to remember while on your next BWCA trip. My suggestion is to try these things out on lakes a lot closer to home and in conditions where the stakes aren’t quite so high. Renting or borrowing a canoe and taking it out on a local lake when conditions are safer is a good way to practice good paddling techniques, proper trimming and like several people said tipping a canoe on purpose and knowing how to recover will equip you with the skills you need to stay safe when you finally do go back to the BW. Experience is the best way to learn anything. The more you do it the more good technique becomes instinctive.

I live in AK where the water is always cold and each spring my whitewater paddling partners and I get together on a small lake nearby and practice paddling, flipping boats, climbing back in while swimming, using throw bags and just getting used to the sensation of flipping over and being immersed in cold water. Fear and shock really cloud your mind and judgement, experience does a lot to reduce both of these.

Lastly, buy yourself a good comfortable PFD and wear it ANYTIME you’re on the water because sometimes things just happen.

Paddle and fish in the conditions you’re prepared for. I say this with the humility of a paddler who barely got a second chance.

Cannot add much to what has been said. Fish in the AM as it is one of the best times and seldom very windy before noon. Take a break and wait to see how the day progresses. If it does not get windy by 4-5, it probably won't, unless there is bad weather around, so fish in the evening as it is also a great time to fish. Buy a weather radio so you can get current forecasts ( I would not go without one). It will help you plan around the wind speed and direction. Fish smaller bodies of water. Buy or rent a stable canoe if fishing is a priority more than speed (you can't have both). Just returned from a 2 man 12 day trip where we fished for 10 of the days, about 6-7 hours a day. We caught just under 650 fish, including aprox. 100 walleye, a dozen lakers to 12 lbs. around 60 pike to 13 lbs. and the rest were smallmouths, some over 21". You have to get out there if you're gonna catch them, they are waiting for you! So, man up!

if you have a multi canoe group, you can tandemize the canoes. Makes getting in/out a little involved, but the most stable way for sure. Finding the right wood if not bringing the equipment is the hardest thing. Canoes need to be about three feet apart, bows just slightly toed in, stabilizers tied to both thwarts. We have used three pieces of PVC, middle piece larger, then the smaller ones pinned into it and attached to the thwarts. Super stable, can stand up if you want, but is not for small areas, lots of turns, etc. But bigger lakes, it is really a fun set up.

I usually troll. Get a floating rapala, gold is a good color usually. I put a larger split shot a few feet above it and just tuck the end of the rod under my crossed feet. When your rod bends you pull the fish in. Or the weed... If you are alone put a 5 gallon pail of water up front for ballast.

Having a St Croix rod I don't wasn't to lose I ALWAYS tie a length of parachute cord to it so if by chance I do something stupid, I won't lose the rod. I will also loop the carry straps on my tackle box/bag around a thwart to they don't get lost.

More weight in your canoe will greatly help in keeping the canoe steady. Both with movements of people in the boat and wind & waves.

Be smart!! Its a lot easier to fish from shore than it is to retrieve an overturned canoe and gear from an unforgiving lake.

Wind often drives me to fish from shore as well, hence I like sites with a decent dropoff somewhere as opposed to 2' deep for 30 yards out.
What I do like to do, if it's not overly choppy and there is a light, somewhat directionally consistent wind is to look at the contours of the map, pick a point/potential productive line on the lake, point into the wind, and drift backwards where there's plenty of open water behind me. If the drift isn't too fast, I can keep nice control of my jig/bait/lure.

Learning to fish and be comfortable in a canoe takes practice. Sometimes it feels safer to troll a crankbait with the rod under a thigh and in front of a knee. On my first solo, I tied off the canoe behind my seat right and in front of my seat left to a downed tree with some para cord and fished shallow topwaters from what was a steady platform. I was in a Wenonah Fusion, not an ideal solo craft, but flat and stable. I have a an old, 1974, lightweight, fiberglass 10 foot canoe I have hunted out of, but it is unstable when I'm motionless. I feel like it needs a catamaran on the side. No way I take it north. I never make long reaches over the side. Bring a fish right to my hand at the side of the canoe. I go nowhere in a canoe- even at home on local lakes and ponds- without a canoe cut PFD. There is no excuse to take even the slightest risk.