After guiding "canoeing & fishing newbies" for about 25 years and renting canoes to outfitting customers since 1976 to the present day, I had a lot of opportunities to test many different canoes in a wide array of wilderness conditions. I grew up paddling Grumman 17's and preferred using the Alumacraft 18.5 because it was faster and carried a slightly bigger load. I have literally thousands of hours logged in Grumman 19' squaresterns and I've had the opportunity/misfortune to paddle (and row)in some of the absolute roughest, ugliest waters Mother Nature could throw at me. I did this all while insuring that I got my clients home alive, safe and sound. I know BWCA conditions and I know canoes.

I've spent paddling time in various Sawyer kevlar canoe models, many of which I liked. I've paddled Wenonah kevlar canoe models which also had some decent hull designs but some of the Sawyers, most Wenonahs are racing hulls so they don't ride up and over the waves, plus, the vast majority of Wenonahs are much too narrow in the bows for anybody who wants to fish comfortably for longer periods of time. I've paddled Bluewater's Saugeen which were a nice stable canoe on the water but didn't offer any durability on the rocks so it was much like the Wenonahs and Sawyers. Being used to aluminum canoes and having customers who have enough difficulty handling their own rod & reel, I never liked the idea of wet-foot canoeing. That's where you jump out of the canoe into the lake 10 feet before you get to shore so you can carry the canoe to shore to prevent rock damage. When I was guiding heavily, my feet were wet all summer - I sure as heck wasn't going to add to the problem and my clients weren't real;ly thrilled by the idea either. Other canoes that I tried out were the Old Towns both in royalex and polyethylene hulls. These are also OK canoes but while they offer substantially increased durability, the increase in weight for portaging is just plain stupid. Why would anybody want to spend $1000+ on a royalex canoe to have it weigh more than and aluminum, blow around in the wind more than the aluminum and be fairly tippy to boot? Not only that, anecdotally, I find Royalex canoes to be much slipperier in the water than either kevlar or aluminum. We rented Old Town Penobscots for a period of time in the early 90's and they made very little sense to me. Fortunately, we discovered Souris River Canoes. What a huge difference a better design makes!

Without boring you with all the history of Souris River Canoes, all you really need to know is this. They are light, tough, and hold up in rentals far better than any other canoe we've ever rented including aluminums. Our customers absolutely love the Souris River Quetico 17's and 18.5's. They haul a huge load and unlike Old Towns, they are not tippy or heavy. Unlike Wenonahs, Sawyers, and all other kevlar canoes, Souris Rivers are made with tough, flexible, epoxy resin and kevlar. They are not racing-oriented canoes so they have good freeboard. When you load a Souris River down, you still have a lot of canoe sides sticking out of the water.

Souris Rivers track AND turn. This means that when you run over the top of a reef and need to move over ten feet, you don't have to make a circle around the entire lake ot omve over. You just turn the canoe with your paddles and move. Wenonahs and Sawyers won't do that easily. Now that Sawyer is complete defunct, Wenonah is pretty much all that is left in kevlar canoe in the BWCA. Bell and Mad River gain nothing over Wenonahs and certainly nothing even close to Souris Rivers. Bells are pretty looking, a bit tippy, and as fragile as Wenonahs and Sawyers - Mad Rivers are all those things and slow to boot.

If you want a stable, fast canoe for 2 people, get the Quetico 17 in kevlar whether you are renting or buying. If you'll be hauling 3 adults, you need a Quetico 18.5 with three seats. We never recomend that our rental customers "wet-foot" canoe with a Souris River. We always request that the renters not slam the canoe into shore at 30 mph. We made this same request with our aluminums and Old Town royalex when we used to rent them. Any canoe will wear out when you screech it into the rocks and gravel of the shore.

When we used to rent Sawyers, Old Towns, Grummans, and Alumacrafts it was not uncommon for somebody to come back and say they rolled a canoe on their canoe trip. The Penobscot 16's and 17's were by far the worst for rollovers, followed by Sawyer Crusiers and aluminum canoes in our rental fleet. When me moved to Souris River Wilderness 18's, we had some rollings as well. When Souris River developed the Quetico's 17 and 18.5, canoe rollovers pretty much became be non-existant. Instead of 6-12 reported capsizings per summer, we're now hearing of 1 or none per summer. Why? Souris River Quetico's are just plain better canoes. Call it design, luck, or a little bit of both, but these canoes perform most requirements of fishing-oriented folks very well. Nothing beats a canoe that will ride up and over waves, survive a hit to the bow from a big rock, and be stable on the water with light carrying weight for portaging.

Don't just sit there and take the easy way out by concluding that because we rent and sell Souris River Canoes, we have a specific agenda. At Red Rock, we generally base all of the equipment that matters and that we sell on its performance in REAL conditions. If duct tape is a planned necessity on any trip for a particular kevlar canoe or other equipment, I consider that canoe and equipment to be pieces of junk. Remember, there are lots of canoes out there, we are dealing in a relatively no-name brand yet we offer no other name brand canoes for sale. If we were wrong, how would we make a living? Slick talk or real people's performance when it counts the most? If you have the opportunity to try this canoe, you owe it to yourself to do it. Read More about Souris River Canoes

Call 1-800-280-1078 to reserve your Souris River Quetico 17
for your next BWCA canoe trip

 

Back to Main Page