Glad you had fun.

There are many different types of paddles. It sounds like you might have to experiment a little to find which style suits you best.

I agree with Moe. I thought your planned first paddle in a new boat was a long one.

I should have 2 other kayak paddles. I remember that I found one in the river a year or 2 ago? It was wedged under a rock, 5 or 6 feet down.

The paddle that came with this kayak, it's ok, but the blade part just isn't curved like it should be. My opinion.

You see, I was on the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River the other day. I first planned on going to the North Fork, it's just a bigger and stronger stream. At normal flow.

I knew when we dropped off Moe's car that the river was low, that's when I cut down the length of the float. From where we were, back down and over to the North Fork would have been a 50 mile drive. It was just too late to change plans that much.

Just playing, I turned it around and paddled upstream, angled across the strongest current and back into a little cove. It handles good and is easy to paddle. I could have done the same thing in my canoe.

About the only advantages this kayak has over my canoe are it's length and weight. It's easier to load and unload, tie on secure and all.

Talking about my 15 foot Coleman canoe, one big advantage it has over this kayak, is room to haul stuff. And, it's easier to get in and out of too.

Not sure, just thinking about the kayak and canoe. Both of them have advantages. Need to check this thing out more.

They are both boats but they are definitely not the same thing. With a kayak you feel that you are more part of the water. They maneuver quicker and are more agile. Their ease in transportation is a huge plus.

But I am a canoe guy! A Coleman is tough to beat. They are also tough to portage.

Today makes a week since I had the kayak on the water, so I've had time to think. I've had a canoe for years, and I did compare this kayak to canoe the other day. My opinion, a canoe is more usefull, there are more things that you can do with a canoe. That's the thing. If you use it.

There are also things that you can do with this kayak, that you can't in a canoe. I've pretty much decided that the kayak is made for warm weather and warm water. If you'd be wearing a wet-suit, you could take it out about anytime. But you are going to get wet. Just from paddle drips.

As far as hunting, you can keep a gun dry in a canoe. Our early Canada goose season starts September 1st. I'm going to try this kayak, if I get a chance. Think I'll just load up the magazine and stuff it in a trash bag, and keep it between my feet.

Above where I said: If you use it. This kayak sure does have the advantage over a canoe as far as loading and unloading.

If a feller only has 3 or 4 hours to fish or whatever, I can have this thing loaded up in 5 minutes, and ready to go.

I won't put my gun in the bottom of a canoe but I don't care if it gets wet. Once home it gets dried and rubbed down with an oily cloth. But my stocks are plastic.

The latest Musher's Tails video has my son, grandson and I out on a pike fishing excursiion near the house. We used my son's Sportspal canoe. He has a set of pontoons he attaches that makes the canoe hyper stable. He says that a Coleman isn't stable enough if the little guy doesn't sit still. I disagree but I am not going to question how he deals with his child's safety. (Unless he is unsafe!)

The Sportspal is very light and loads/unloads quite easily.

I'm way behind watching your videos. I'll try to do that today, or part of them anyway.

I searched Sportspal, I'm not familiar with that boat.

My buddy Moe has a canoe, forget what brand, but he had some kind of outrigger rigged up for it. If I'm not mistaken it was a piece of 3 or 4 inch PVC, that was capped off on each end. So it was parallel to the boat. He would clamp it down on the canoe, honestly, he showed it to me years ago, I've never seen it on the water. Moe said it works good? But he's never had his canoe in a patch of water like where I was the other day.

Moe's canoe hasn't been on the water for 20 years or better.

Moe and I talked going up the road the other morning, I told him that he'd just as well get a kayak. He's been looking, reading reviews and all, the same thing that I did before buying. Honestly, he's zeroed in on the same boat that I ordered.

But I wanted to tell you this too. Moe sent me a message the other day, said that he was at the Cabela's store in Charleston, WV, asked if I needed anything. I had him get me 2 boxes of 2 3/4" steel shot.

Moe said he'd been shopping for a kayak. He said they had one similar to the kayak that I have, but he liked mine better. Cabela's boat was priced at either $900 or $1,000 ? Mine was $400 plus tax.

Anyway, Moe is to meet me in the morning and take my boat for a spin. Think I'll take him out to the town park and let him mess around, he'll have swift water and still water to play with. Once he gets in the thing, I'm sure he'll enjoy it. We'll see. I might take it on down the creek when he's finished?

Well, they were calling for 100% chance of rain here the other day, long story short, Moe hasn't had a chance to take the kayak for a ride. I would like to watch someone else in the boat, just to see how well balanced it is and all.

I'll tell you about the weather forcast, they were calling for 100% chance of rain, and thunderstorms most of the day and into the night. We had a light rain shower from about 8am until 8:30am and that was it. Just enough to get the grass wet. A very bad prediction on our weather, about as bad as you ever see.

Above we talked about these kayaks being open, from front to back, between the top and bottom halves. Moe was here the other day and we talked about that, he had his arm up inside feeling around, checking out how the boat was made.

That one video that I watched, the young man had a string tied to his little tackle box, so he could find it, and pull it out of the cubby hole. I first thought about taking a can of that spray foam, and spraying a "bead" of foam, in front and behind the cubby hole, just to keep stuff from rolling around and all.

The best thing that I can think of (so far), is to cut off a little piece of that foam weather stripping, like you'd use to seal up around a window AC unit, and stick it to the bottom. In front of the cubby hole and behind. Either way, you're going to be doing it blind. If you'd put your arm up in that little hatch, you're not going to be able to see what you're doing.

But the other day, I put my camera and phone in the front cubby hole, and finally found it behind the back hatch. I just had my hand back in there feeling around for it.

It's kind of hard to estimate stuff like this, but just looking at this kayak, it's 10 feet long, I'll guess that it would hold between 75 and 100 gallons of water. I mean on the inside. If you think about it, that's a lot of wasted space. Not like a canoe.

But I'm going to try to get it out on the water tomorrow.

Well, I finally had a chance to get back on the water. This is a busy time of year. School started here about a month ago, my daughter is a substitute teacher, so Kim is always on call. That means that I'm always at work.

We've had 3 or 4 or 5 inches of much needed rain here within the last week or so. As of last Thursday, our rivers were up a little bit and green. Not muddy, just a little bit dark.

Anyway, last Thursday, Big D. and I went out fishing for the evening. Working between rain showers and all, we didn't get started till noon. Went out to one of my favorite spots to get minnows, I knew the water would be up, but I didn't think it'd be up that much.

It rained here an inch and a half the day before, the water was almost waist deep on me, and cold. Ten days ago, the water in that little pocket, would have been 18 inches deep. I made 3 or 4 passes and ended up with about 2 dozen small minnows. Mostly creek chubs, 3 inches long or so? Almost to small for bass bait.

I've probably mentioned this before? I have a styrofoam cooler that I use to transport minnows. An EMT gave it to me, it's heavy duty, thick foam, and works good. With only 2 dozen small minnows and cold creek water, they were all on the bottom, and looking good an hour later.

But we tried the minnows on a bobber, down 2 or 3 feet, tried them down about 5 feet, tried them free and clear with small splitshot sinker, tried down at 20 feet. Just not much action.

D. did catch one largemouth bass, about a foot long, it was chunky, but put it back in the water. I don't like to mess with just one or 2 fish.

But we were fishing in the middle of the day, and they were very sluggish. We loaded up about 2 hours before dark, it seemed like the small bream were starting to hit pretty good. After we loaded the boat and all, I was standing there on the bank, I had something like a size 18 hook and a tiny piece of worm on, had 8 or 9 bites within a minute. Just holding the rod out at arm's length. I could see them pecking at it. A month or 2 ago, a feller could have caught some nice bass with those little sunfish for bait.

I tied the boat off to the concrete riser/discharge thing for a while, I'll tell you there was a lot of water going down the drain. It was roaring pretty good, made it hard for D. and I to talk. Not sure if all of the cold rain water made the fish sluggish or what?

But we had a great day on the water, and didn't have any fish to fool with when we got home.

Where's Waldo? No, where's Tim?? He stranded somewhere in his kayak? Covid? Over worked?? Always look forward to his orations. Need a kayak report.

Frank.

Yes, I was here at work when I first read your comment, I put in 13 yesterday.

It's just a busy time of year. I'll tell you the swim season is over for this year, I had 50* the other morning. Folks out of town have been down in the 40's. With the rains that we've had and the short days, our rivers just won't warm up enough to go swimming.

I'll tell you this real fast. One morning I was out swimming, beautiful sunny day, don't remember exactly how long I was in the water? Probably and hour and a half, maybe 2 hours? I was swimming in a shady area of the river, I got back into the sunshine and noticed I had goosebumps on my arms. I'd been out long enough and was headed back to the car anyway.

So I walked back to the car, flicking the water out of my hair, trying to warm up. Put my gear away and got my towel. There was a lady sitting in her car, about 5 spots away, I didn't know her but we waved at each other. She had her car parked under a shade tree, with the windows up, I know she had the AC on. There I was, 50 feet away, standing in the sunshine, covered with goosebumps. I was cold, I was chilled to the core.

When I got back into town, it was like 92*. And I was still chilled.

But the kayak is setting out on the porch. $400 ornament for now. I could take it out today, but the dog needs to go for a run.

Moe still hasn't taken my kayak for a test drive. I've told him to come get it anytime that he wants. I've only had it on the water once, but it's pretty tough, and there isn't any way that he can ruin it.

I think Big D. wants to go out fishing again this week? If we do I'll take the kayak.

Cindy, the manager at Tractor Supply, I've talked to her, she said that they probably won't put their kayaks on sale. She said they have a whole wareroom full of kayaks. "Seasonal". So I don't know, but she knows that I'd like to have one.

Honestly, I'm thinking about buying one for my daughter. That would be a nice Christmas gift for Kim. And I look at it like this, for $350, something that will last a lifetime and give us a chance to spend time together. That's dirt cheap.

So, we'll see what happens.