Exactly what I was thinking.

Toss a few coon and or beaver in there and stability and carrying capacity will go way up on your list of "must haves".

Classic case of "be careful what you wish for" !! If I have your catch ratio of 65% I'll have 23 coons to paddle out lol. I will have to call the woman and have her meet me at a bridge to offload some of the catch!

If It were me I'd scrap the canoe thing and get a small Jon boat. Getting In and out of a canoe 100 times a day to set and check traps Is going to be a real pain In the butt when trapping out of a canoe.
I have a10' Jon boat and I just love it. I can load It up In the back of my pick up and I'm good to go.

While a jon boat would be cool, I don't think it would navigate this too well this is penitentiary falls on the New River where we float

A little update…I found a mad river guide solo canoe 30 minutes away from my house. It is made out of royalex and weighs about 55 pounds. Plenty light to load up and carry by myself and it has a carrying capacity of 750 pounds. Supposed to handle class II’s no issue so I’ll be able to take it on the New River.

It should be the perfect happy medium between capacity for trapping and paddle-ability for leisure trips. It’s a 1999 model and the guy I bought it from bought it brand new. The wood gunwales have been refinished with new ash and they’re beautiful. Can’t wait to take it out for the maiden voyage!

^ that looks like a goodun if you get it for the right price.

I use an osage 17' that is 70# and holds 750#. Loads up on my jeep e-z. The best way to load a canoe is right side up /keel down, unless it is raining heavy.

I got it for 800 bucks. He was asking 1100. He definitely knew what he had. The royalex boats are getting rare and they literally aren’t making any more of them. I was happy with that price based on the other prices I saw of similar boats. Most sell for 1000-1400 bucks. This one is in immaculate condition and has been cared for very well

Good deal, I hope it goes well for you!

Make sure to post some pics of it on the line this fall.

I will for sure! Hopefully I can post a pic with about 20 coon and a couple beaver or otter!

Here are some pics of the canoe. The previous owner did a great job with the replacement of the ash on the gunwales and thwarts. I'm going to tread lightly when trapping so I don't ruin his work!





Fits nicely on top of the Yukon

Nice looking canoe.

Very nice !

Thank you sir! Planning a weekend camping/fishing trip next weekend to break her in!

I got to paddle a similar Mad river a few years back nice boat

enjoy

Have you by chance considered an Old Town "Pack" canoe? They were discontinued a while back, but still around used. A solo 12' at 33 lbs. Have used one for 30 years trapping, fishing and hunting, the older I get the more I appreciate the 33 lbs at the end of the day.

X2 what tomahawker said. Thats a lot of traps for such a small boat. Wet coons and beaver are heavy. i run a small river line (small river not line) at times. I use an outboard and small v bottom. boat gets chained and padlocked to a tree every night. Motor and fur go home with me in my pickup. I stash fur and traps under bridges. Pick up traps as I go and pick up dead critters at the end of the day. You better cut back to a dozen beaver traps if you cant do that. Hit a lick and a dozen will be to many. Run a dozen traps only and your going to set high probability locations. You may have a dozen beaver at the end of your run. that will be at least 400 pounds. maybe more. Going into the water on a bitter cold winter day is unpleasant to say the least. Sooner or later it will happen too. No need to make it even more likely by overloading your boat.

I’ll only be setting about a half dozen beaver/otter traps. Not many beaver in the area. I’ll be setting about 3 dozen coon/mink/muskrat traps. 1.5 dukes don’t weigh much! A stellar day for me would be 20 coon and 3 beaver. I would still be under my weight capacity with that load, me, and my gear.




I would have loved to have found one, but I never saw one for sale in all of my searching. I’m happy with my choice though!

When I float fur trapped, I used my old town, still use it all the time for pay jobs, just take a few skinning knives, etc, and skin some beaver etc if you get too heavy to drop weight. A lot of fun to be had on navigable water.

The 13 ft. Golden Hawk I have has a 750 lbs. capacity. I like the wide profile so I can put a lot of weight low in the canoe to keep it stable. The 2 inch keel keeps it in the water nice as well. Being wide and with a deep keel it is not as easy change direction etc. as others may be but I fish, hunt and trap out of these canoes, mostly trap and on flat water so they work out well for me.

Bryce