Family Canoe/Fishing Trip

[ccmtcanada]

Our little one wanted to get out in the canoe soooo badly, so when we told her we'd take her this weekend, she was very excited! The canoe is pretty tippy, and we didn't think just telling her to stay still in the middle of the it was going to make for a happy time out there. I looked at some canoe stabilizers and was FLOORED when I saw how much they were. The cheapest set was well over 200 bucks....and as high as $500. I looked at the designs I saw online and decided to try to make my own.The first thing was trying to find something that was very bouyant, yet economical (yes, that means I'm cheap....LOL). I tried calling some packaging places to see if any had large pieces of styrofoam....no luck there. Finally, one place I called said there was a styrofoam place next door to them, so I called them. They happened to have a HUGE piece of "scrap" that they said I could have for $20. I drove over there and it was perfect! It was a dense piece of styrofoam...that he said could hold over 500lbs of weight in water. This was big enough to cut 4 "pontoons".

 

First I fashioned a quick stabilizing bar that would attach to the canoe. It looks rough, but the final version had two clamps per side, attached with duct tape and string...LOL. It was surprisingly strong.

 

I then reinforced the styrofoam with a piece of wood, used some threaded rod to attach it to the arm that came off the support. A small cross brace for support and voila....

 

All the pieces were made to be compact, so I used wing nuts for easy removal/attaching...

 

I went to bed hoping we wouldn't be swimming with our 5 year old the next day!!!

 

We got up and our little one couldn't wait to get into the canoe...LOL. We got to a local conservation area around 11am, and the moment of truth came....would the thing work???We launched and my little contraption actually worked quite well...we didn't come anywhere near tipping the entire time we were out there! Here's a pic of it in action...

 

Here's a little video of my little one paddling....not sure why the colour is off, but oh well.We paddled for a while and found a nice beach area for a quick lunch and a nice walk along the beach.....After our stop at this nice place, we put the canoe back in the water and decided to fish a little bit. The wind had picked up and it was hard keeping the canoe in place...guess a home made anchor is next!! Anyhow, the only one who caught anything was....you guessed it, my daughter. Here's a pic of her catch!By 2pm, we had had enough and we came on back home. Had a great time out there...and most importantly....we didn't go swimming!!!I'll be shaping the stabilizer a bit more to make it move through the water a bit more freely, but overall, it did the job. The cost of the stabilizer....$20 for the styrofoam (makes 4), I had the wood lying around the garage, and I spent about 20 dollars on the clamps, threaded rod, wing nuts, and washers.

Edited March 11, 2009 by ccmt

[live2fish]

Good idea with the styrafoam. I have made them with barrels and it worked well also.

 

 

Bowen

[danbo]

Check out the wide one I have in the classifieds, bro!

[ccmtcanada]

Isn't that called an Outrigger?

 

Great idea!

 

Yep...they are called outriggers...I was surprised at how well it actually worked. A few more tweaks and I think they'll be perfect for our needs.

[Greencoachdog]

That's pretty good Cliff!

I don't know how durable the foam will be if the water gets choppy... but until then, you've got it made!

 

Another good method for stabilizers is 6" schedule 40 PVC pipe capped on both ends.

[fishindevil]

Well cliff as the saying goes ...you had to mgyver it.. ...lol..lol very good idea,but i was wondering the same what about choppy water,and big waves from bigger boats how will it hold up??????? cheers

[ccmtcanada]

Well cliff as the saying goes ...you had to mgyver it.. ...lol..lol very good idea,but i was wondering the same what about choppy water,and big waves from bigger boats how will it hold up??????? cheers

 

Thanks Shawn and GCD....this stuff surprised me actually. Sydney spend all day hitting it with her paddle and it barely left a dent in it. It's pretty hard to break....took more than I expected to saw through it. I have 3 spares, so I'll push this one to the limit just to test it out. I'll go the PVC tube route when I run out of styrofoam. Oh yeah...and we aren't planning on taking it out on Lake O or anything like that...LOL

[TJQ]

Awesome man... i love it when ya dont let anything stop ya!!

[007]

Looks like a good job Cliff! Glad the little one is outfishing you these days!

 

Take care

007

[njones]

I,ve got a fibreglass kayak myself, and I've been thinking along similar lines. It's a simple and workable solution.

The only thing I might add would be drilled metal plates either side of the bolts to spread the load. It isn't nice having to worry about tipping over with a child in the boat, so it's a great idea. Neil

[Dano]

Well done Cliff!

[solopaddler]

Nice job of improvising Cliff!

[Carp]

Cool.

 

Great idea Cliff.

[Victor]

great job with the canoe! sounds like a fun day on the water!

 

now lets see some downrigger put on that canoe and i'll be waiting for that lake O salmon/steelhead report LOL

[Nanook]

 

Hi Cliff; great idea for the 'outrigger'

 

When I bought my canoe [years ago] I told the guy who made it, I was afraid of tipping it. All he did was put the seats in lower down. Never tipped the canoe, and I felt comfortable.

[MJL]

Nice work with the outrigger Cliff. Cool use of foam! Nice to see your daughter having fun fishing. That's what it's all about.

 

When she's old enough to paddle the canoe by herself, you've got the perfect system to bait up your carp swims...I would imagine that canoe would hold quite a lot of corn before it starts to sink. No need to spend thousands on a remote controlled bait-boat when you've got a canoe and an able bodied kid.

[Douger]

nice pics, cliff. that last one with your daughter & the fish is great. glad the outrigger worked.

 

take care

-d-