Canoe advice. Looking to buy another one

[LeeB]

I too applaud the life jacket use. Just an observation about color though, blue is hard to see on the water. Orange is much more visible. 

[Don P]

Did you all run that? That's quite a drop into what looks like a waring blender!
The New crosses the state line and comes into my county as it crosses from the headwaters in NC. Mostly class 1 and 2 although there is one class 3 at Molly Shoals. Back in the day I ran the gorge and the Gauley in a kayak, it's a whole nuther beast up there.

[coalsmok]

No we didn't run that , I don't think I have ever heard of anyone trying it.  The falls are part natural falls with a man made dam built on them I believe, on one side there is a hydro electric plant and there are warning floats on a cable across the river above the dam.

This was short sidebar to a weekend camping trip further south in the Beckly area. We didn't take cameras on our day on Bluestone lake. Wanted it to be a strictly family day as our daughter starts the summer week on week off with her dad this Friday. Seen some pretty stuff there but didn't catch any fish like WV Sawmiller shows photos of :(. 

We purchased this canoe off of a canoe rental shop down in North Carolina based on one of the forks of the New River.  Lady just laughed at me when I told her it was a whole different river on our end of it. Looked like long quite pools was the norm there, I had always thought of the New as big rocks and fast water.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Glad you came down and brought some money to the local economy. :D We had a bunch down this weekend for Memorial Day. Some stranger in the local Kroger asked me where to get fish bait and I sent her to the closest bait and tackle shop. Sorry I didn't know you were here but glad you had good family time together. I guarantee you passed over some big catfish as I have caught them every spot I put out lines - some more than others obviously.

[coalsmok]

Wv the trip to Bluestone wasn't a planned thing. We were going to stay at Little Beaver park and let the oldest paddle the canoe some on small quiet water. First sign on the gate there ended those plans. Can't use private water craft on the pond there.
  As you can see from the picture most of my fishing buddies don't have the attention span to catch much due to their age.  They are still learning and I don't get to set in one spot long if the fish are not hot to strike.  Throwing a line in and napping till a fish comes along isn't their thing.

[WV Sawmiller]

Coalsmok,

   Let me know when you are here again and if I'm available I'll run down with my 18' johnboat and a bunch of 10' crappie poles to a couple of my smokehouses where I catch my bait and they can jerk little green sunfish out of the rocks to their heart's content. I take my granddaughters down there and they help me stock up on bait and we have a blast. I'm not talking about big fish just aggressive little bait fish we use to catch the big ones. A 3" sunfish will nearly jerk your pole out of your hand and a 6" version feels like a whale.