Who is shotgunning from a solo canoe?

[memaquay]

I have been hunting from my bicycle for years. It's a good way to combine fitness with hunting. I throw the bike in the back of the truck, drive to a logging road and ride for a couple of hours. I usually stop before I shoot, but have been known to slam a one hander in before rolling to a total stop.

 

[Iskweo]

Wow Mem, you are my hero. I am totally going to do that. A much better idea than using my lawn tractor.

 

[Guest]

I have been hunting from my bicycle for years. It's a good way to combine fitness with hunting. I throw the bike in the back of the truck, drive to a logging road and ride for a couple of hours. I usually stop before I shoot, but have been known to slam a one hander in before rolling to a total stop.

My father used a bicycle for surf fishing. He loved to camp at Hatteras and Assateague and surf fish, but wanted to be miles away from the campgrounds and guarded beaches and did not want to take the car, or later motor home.

He had a rusty POS Schwinn with PVC pipe surf rod holders out either side \ /, with cooler and tackle box attached. He looked like an overloaded two wheeled headboat when he peddled off.

He would dump the POS Schwinn in the dunes, where no one ever bothered it, and fish in peace and quiet a few miles up the road.

I have never understood why trout fishermen on the local Blue Ribbon trout streams do not do the same. There is a Rails to Trails bike path that runs for 40 miles, mostly following alongside the Gunpowder Falls, Little Falls and Bee Tree Run, all trouty streams.

http://bikewashington.org/trails/ncr/ncr.htm

I have yet to see anyone with a fly rod on a bicycle. Or even a Zebco and can of corn.

 

[DanOver]

Mem - I was thinking about a bicycle on those roads when I was up your way hunting grouse in October. But the distances made me feel a dirt bike or 4 wheeler would be more my speed.

I do have a "stealth bike" which is an old 10 speed racer that a Chicago Bike messenger turned into a fixie ( one gear, straight chain) and I put cyclocross tires on. The bike is simple, super light and useful. Not parts to steal off of it besides the bake pads and tires. Painted in original gold and left dirty, it comes out as desert/cornfield tan.

 

[Odyssey]

Hell on wheels in Geraldton, maybe, but IMO you'd be better off getting a horse. Chaps on a mountain bike just get in the way.
https://truewestmagazine.com/cowboy-mounted-shooting/

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Sorry, I couldn't resist linking this.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I haven't tried wingshooting from a solo canoe. I don't think either of my solos would work well for that. Solo in the Prospector might be do-able....but I really have lost interest in shooting ducks myself anymore.

But I do really enjoy doing the paddling from stern with a shooter in the bow. I do this with my son or my long-time hunting partner. It's a little different for us than what Mike describes. The Snake river near here is wide and flat, with several islands fringed with brush and bulrushes. I don't do a lot of paddling - mostly just steering the boat and working the current. We have mostly Goldeneye and Mallards. The Goldeneyes never let us get close no matter what. Mallards out on the water see us coming and move away before we get in range. But there are always some hanging in the rushes where they can't see us coming - and we don't see them. So we skirt the islands as close as possible, ready to shoot as they flush right in front of us (well - not always ready). They always, without fail, flush out over the water, so once hit, they fall where we can see them and do an easy retrieve. It's a really entertaining way to hunt (or, in my case, to paddle), but not very productive. The flushes with no shot fired can be pretty amusing - and who wants to clean a pile of ducks anyway?