: I'm considering building a Wee Lassie for my brother-in-law, who would like a
: solo boat for fishing from that would be easier to car-top than their 70#,
: 17' aluminum canoe. It seems that there are many version of the Wee
: Lassie, but I've been looking at the 2 versions that are on the Newfound
: website.

: Is the original style Wee Lassie stable enough to fish from comfortably? On
: the Newfound site it's 11' long with a 26" beam. They also offer a
: larger Wee Lassie II that's 13.5' with a 28" beam. I think the
: smaller one would be easier to paddle but might be scary to fish from. The
: larger one would be better for fishing from, but with the wider beam I'm
: wondering if it'd be more of a pain to paddle -- more knuckle banging on
: the gunnels, or too long of a reach.

: Any advice would be appreciated. For reference's sake, the future paddler is
: about 5'6" and 150-160#...

: Thanks,
: Dean

Dean, I've flyfished for years out of my Wee Lassie. I find it to be very stable, tracks fine with a double bladded paddle and is relatively fast. My only complaint is that you sit on the bottom like in a kayak. Not a big deal, but I recently decided that I wanted a canoe where I could stand to stretch and look around for cruising fish. I did an extensive internet search for plans and narrowed it down to the 15.5' x 30" Merlin from www.northwestcanoes.com. I took it on a week long fishing trip to south Florida and am happy to say it met all of my goals...stable enough to stand and cast/paddle, relatively fast, able to be paddled with a double bladed paddle (generous tumblehome), relatively light (46lbs., easily could have been made lighter), straight tracking and can carry all of my gear. Another canoe that has a similar design to the Merlin is the Soul Mate from Carring Place Canoes. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Kurt