One man canoe?

I have a chance to buy a one man canoe, I think it's 10 or 12ft.
How stable are these for fishing? How comfortable are they?
What is a good price for it?
Thanks in advance for your response.

That's a dinky canoe. I don't think I've ever heard of one smaller than a 10', which is still very small..You won't have much room for yourself, let alone any gear. Add some chop and it sounds like a bad deal. I'd pass and look for a 12'

my bought a 16ft for 300.00 last year don't know if that will help is a very good one jmo

Canoes are relatively comfortable, and plenty stable for fishing. I've had the same one for 30 years, so I can't be much help on price. I think if you do buy you will enjoy it.

I would sell you my Mad River Guide, a solo tripping canoe, if you were in Alaska. 14.5 feet long, made of near-indestructible Royalex; sand color, with ash rails and cane seats. Very pretty canoe. It's considered a tripping canoe because it holds a considerable amount of gear for a one-man canoe. 700 pound capacity.

I wouldn't get a solo canoe under 14 feet. The front and back ends of a canoe require a given amount of space, so when you shrink or add feet to a canoe length, you're taking or adding it in the middle of the canoe, where your storage is.

Jim

Depends on the hull shape as that's really at the extreme end of short canoes. There are some great old "trapper" models out there in that length range that are wide and stable. I'd love one for poking around in the swamps here. If it's on the narrow, round bottomed side, I would avoid it for sure unless you're child sized.

In general 14 feet or so is pretty ideal for a solo canoe. I solo my 16' all the time, but it can be a handful in wind.

A friend of mine had a solo canoe. Smallest one Old Town made. He loved it. He stated it was good because it was very easy to carry back and forth to his truck. Bigger ones are better but a tad difficult carrying them solo.

Prices are hard to put a number on , fiberglass/aluminum/Royalex all have different values , brand name means a lot too.

Of note , solo canoes are more for an experienced paddler. Due to their smaller size they are more unstable.

i'd get a bigger one.

was a jon boat guy and laughed at canoers til kayaks came along and now i have a bunch of all a them.

they are like guns,never have too many.

plus you need a boat to claim all your guns fell out of in the great accident of 92.

I used to have one of these -
http://www.indianrivercanoes.com/otter.htm

I bought it new in Florida about 10 years ago for $240
Cheaper construction, fiberglass. Very stable. Huge 39" beam , flat tunnel ram hull , square stern for outboard.
A tad heavy but very nice for one person with gear. Flat water use only.

My next canoe will probably be Royalex. Very , very durable but somewhat light. I heard a story from a Maine guide that they were flying a bush plane into a remote pond. They had a Royalex canoe strapped to the floats. As they made their approach to the pond , the canoe came loose at 700ft and dropped to rocks below. They landed the plane , checked out the canoe , it had a huge dent from hitting the rocks. They kicked out the dent and it was good other than a crease type mark where it had dented.

I have a Old Town Pack canoe that might go twelve feet, maybe ten, I'm not sure. Go bigger. It only weighs about forty pounds but it's really not a practical canoe. Tippecanoe.

I’ve had a 16’ Osagian for 25+ years. It has flairs on the side down low and can carry crazy loads. It’s just “ok” for a one man unit. Not even “ok” if the wind is blowing much when running alone. I would love to have a small one like H72 describes. I think it would be the perfect size to throw in my John boat and use to paddle up small feeder creeks etc that are to small for the big boat. Even my 18’ John seems full when I throw the Osagian in her.

I guess what I’m saying is canoes are like boats, ones not enough!

In solo canoes there is a fine line between having a stable canoe and one that you don’t regret buying. Remember, you are the only thing providing forward energy to everything you put in the canoe. Cragar mentions having one with a 39” beam! If it works for him great but I would never paddle that. I expect forward progress would be akin to paddling a cast iron sink. Then you also need to make sure you aren’t getting a white water canoe if you’re going to be on lakes and vice-versa.

I bought a Wenonah Vagabond. It’s a general purpose solo canoe (good for nothing? or anything?) and in Royalex it weighs only 45 lbs. Not as stable as many people want (29.75” wide at the waterline) but it makes decent progress while paddling. If you want a royalex canoe you should find it sooner than later. They stopped making the product and I see Wenonah does not offer it as a hull option anymore. I bought mine just as they were phasing it out. The used market may start to value them more and it would make sense given their attributes.

I have the Old Town Pack canoe-12 feet long-33 pounds-Royalex. It is a very good canoe for what I use it for. Wouldn't use it on a long trip though. And kinda tippy too.

Clark , I rarely paddled that canoe with the 39" beam. I used a Minn Kota Maxxum trolling motor on it mostly. That and I have a 3hp gas outboard too. The electric was kinda the best of both worlds , quiet and serene but no effort to paddling it.

Shame they stopped making Royalex , I gotta find one. Good stuff.

It would help to give you specifics on the canoe you're asking about if you could tell us the make and model.

I have been looking for a canoe around 12' for at least 2 years. Every time I find one, it gets sold out from under me. Happened last week with an Old Town Pack listed for $300. Last year someone was selling a nice short canoe for probably half what it was worth, that one got bought out from under me too then showed up for sale a week later priced a few hundred dollars more. In certain markets, you need to act fast and be ready to go with cash as soon as you see the ad. I have alerts set up on Craigslist and facebook marketplace to notify me if anything fitting my criteria is listed.

I currently run a 14.5' 1987 Blue Hole canoe. Its royalex and has a center kneeling saddle as opposed to a seat, its built for whitewater and I got it for a really good price. When I went to pick it up, the guy said it was 12' and I drove an hour to get it, so I bought it anyway. It has worked ok, but for the short distance and tight quarters I use it in the rat marsh, I still want to try something a little shorter.

Golden Hawk makes some nice short canoes, they have a handful of models, both square back and traditional in 11' and 13' models. Bblwi on here has ome or two he uses, maybe he'll chime in with his opinion.

I don't get in canoes under 16' now after almost drowning as they are to tippy.

I'd like to have this one.

Sportspal canoe

I ran into a deal on a Raddison for $200. It's about 10' but very wide and stable. Extremely lightweight. My oldest Son floats down the Niobrara and bowhunts. He killed a great buck and floated it down the river in the canoe. There is a good current so it works well in that particular situation.

After many years in an 18' Trailcraft, my Brother and I climbed in a 15' Coleman and were treading water very shortly. They are dangerous.

I hunted Moose out of a Sportspal for years. There is 1/2 a Moose, me and some camp gear in the one in the pic. They will carry crazy loads, are light and very quiet. The one I have is the seatless model, I found the portable foam seats about as useless as they look. I sit on a couple of boat visions and switch from knees to butt often to keep from getting stiff. Takes a few days to get used to that. After two weeks or so it seems normal.

[quote
After many years in an 18' Trailcraft, my Brother and I climbed in a 15' Coleman and were treading water very shortly. They are dangerous.[/quote]

Agreed, only canoe I’ve ever tipped on accident was a Coleman.

Not to spoil the party but length of the canoe has very little to do with stability. If length is the only factor then these canoes, at 18’ 6”, should be just fine:

https://wenonah.com/CanoeCategory.aspx?cat=47

Royalex is anything but lightweight. Durable as heck but not light. Sadly the raw material whole sheets are no longer made. Not profitable for the maker as canoes became it's only use and canoes are a niche market.
Fortunately that same durability means used canoes should be available for some time to come though expect prices to appreciate.

There's more to canoes than length and weight. Hull shape is everything in performance. Long and thin is fast but not stable. Wide is stable but not fast. Then add in round, semi round and flat bottoms you go from tippy to less so to stable. Then there's rocker or how much the keel curves stem to stern. Lots of rocker puts bow and stern high out of the water and will turn on a dime but will prefer the spin like a top rater than track in a straight line. To a lesser extent having a keel or not has a similar effect. And to compound matters the taper or flare on the bow will determine if it cuts or plows through the water or give a dry or wet ride. And if that bow and stern rides high in the wind you could weather vane in any sort of wind.
You may actually be better off in a tandem canoe paddled in reverse from the bow seat with ballast forward to level it out.

BTW, mine is an Old Town Tripper 17' in royalex. It's a beast at nearly 90lbs.

Trippers are real workhorses, I cut my teeth on whitewater and big windy lakes in one as a kid. One of the few plastic canoes I'd be happy to own.

It'll probably be my only plastic boat. I lust after a nova craft pal in tuff stuff but that's just a pipe dream.

Have you considered a pirouge?

A Chapman Moccasin 12' is just under 1k.

Canoes come in all different shapes and sizes-it all depends on what you will use them for.I have a lightweight 14 ft kawartha fibreglas that I have used for years trapping and fishing on bigger rivers,and lakes but I wouldnt take it on a trip down to the bay where you would be covering 30 or 40 miles a day and running some rapids.It is OK for trapping out of a truck.
I like the sportspal for small water and limited paddling.It is extremely light and stable and I can easily carry it on top of the 4 wheeler and throw it off an on a bunch of times in a day.I own a couple of them.They come in 10,12 and 14 ft as far as I know.I use the 12 footers for trapping.
Sportspals are no good on bigger water-wind will blow it around and it doesnt paddle well because it is short and wide and extremely lightweight.
The Cree people up north that hunt and fish all the time on dozens of the big rivers use 22 or 24 ft freighter canoes with 50 hp outboards,these will freight a couple moose and gear easily and will go up as well as down rapids.They also use the freighter canoes out on the bay which gets extremely rough very quickly at times.They will lash several together with long poles to navigate such conditions until they get where they want to go.
So-there are so many different kinds of canoes made that you will be able to find one that will match your need.

16' Chestnut Prospector, wood canvas, on Lake Superior last summer. The other guys in our group had an old town disco, they could go faster than us in flat conditions, but they had a much wetter and slower in rough water. Both boats were the same length and beam, but very different hull shapes.

I've found that Radissons or Sportspals are better rowed like a guideboat than paddled. They become even more stable, much easier to deal with in the wind, and you can cover a lot of water in no time.

A one man canoe is called a kayak.

how much do you weigh?

my one man canoe is a 17 foot touring canoe most people would think is a 2 person tripping canoe , A i have it and B I am 300 pounds in my boxers maybe more some days by the time I get me and any gear in a canoe I need 350 minimum

you don't find that in small

Way cheaper than a good kayak and almost as usefull. Just my 2 cents

I soloed a 17' aluminum Lowe Line (forerunner of Osage Canoes) canoe weighing right at 80# for many years, I wouldn't want a canoe less than 14.5' with "normal" lines and width >30" and a capacity of at least 500#.
But as someone mentioned it can depend on how big you are, at ~200# as a young man I never fit in the kayak group.

I have kayaks and canoes, they're both useful. I've hunted out of my kayak more than my canoe and I could just as easily trap out of it. Stealth itself and probably more stable than any canoe I've ever paddled. Fast! I custom ordered it from Dagger years ago. Camo with peddle operated rudder.

I currently have 3 13 foot canoes. All wide and with keels so they are very stable. From my perspective length does not determine if a canoe is stable for tippy. The hull design, width and center of gravity and weight distribution make the most difference. I can handle the 13 foot canoes very easily alone. Mine as stated are wide and with keels and thus are stable.With high sides they can carry 750 lbs and are good in chopping water from a wave aspect.
They are not white water canoes, nor are they real good in heavy vegetation like wild rice etc. from a turning aspect.
Another thing to think about canoes and stability is are they rockered or flat and where do you do most of your work from. If you set in the stern near one end and say are setting traps etc. over the side and you have little weight in front of you, you have most of the canoe out of the water and thus you lose significant stability. That is one reason I set in the front seat and paddle the canoe backwords as the weight is distributed much more evenly over the length and width of the canoe.

Bryce

I have a 16' Coleman Tupperware canoe.

I use it solo regularly. I can put it on my shoulder but the center designe puts my head forward.


Its nearly indestructible. I bought it after I got tired of patching my glass canoe.