I almost always carry a spare. I say almost because sometimes I forget or just get lazy when I'm just out paddling locally. It's a plastic straight blade that cost me around $16 at a local sporting goods store. The extra weight on a portage is insignificant, and there are times when I like using a straight blade vs. a bent shaft.

My bent shaft is that $40 plastic thing from Spring Creek, nice and solid, don't have to worry about busting it up on rocks. But it could happen, or I could lose it.

One time I almost needed a spare... I was fishing on Devil's Lake in ND two years ago in the spring, and anyone who's ever been there is probably familiar with how choppy that lake can get. Long story short, the wind picked up when I was ~1/2 mile offshore jigging a walleye reef, and I stupidly had the straight paddle just sitting on the gunwale and cross beam in front of me. Chop picked up, paddle went overboard and started drifting away fast, lucky I had a line in the water and I was able to quickly wrap it around the paddle shaft and pull it back to me.

I would have been in a bad spot right there, as the wind was blowing off shore at a pretty good clip. I would have drifted out into the big open water and had no good way to align myself against the increasing waves. Temps were probably in the mid 30's that morning too... wasn't too long after ice-out (ND doesn't close fishing seasons like MN does).

I always have a spare.  It is an older straight wooden paddle with a big blade that is excellent to fillet on.  Fits across the canoe in front of me and dip it in the water when done - no mess.  I would hate to paddle for days with it but did many years ago when that was the only choice of paddles there were.

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Hey "Jax,"

That's hilarious. But I agree. I have two Bending Branches -- a Viper I use for when I'm in the bow, a Sun Shadow for the stern. Please don't touch them.

As for extra paddles, we've gotten lazy. We usually bring one extra one for the group (two or three canoes), but because I'm paranoid about dropping a paddle, I keep it within reach in my canoe.

It's usually a basic bent-shaft wood one, nothing fancy, because we clean fish on it.

- kypaddler

mastertangler wrote on Oct 8^th, 2010 at 11:30am:

More room?  I'd say that is a function of how you put it into your canoe.  For me, as a solo paddler, I often take a Bending Branches bent-shaft as my backup paddle (although this year, I experimented with 'yak paddles as my backup).  When my bent-shaft is placed into my canoe, one lash point is the rear thwart (just behind my seat) and then the wide end of the paddle is secured inside a nylon strap loop that is anchored to the side of my canoe.  In this position, the paddle actually follows the contour of the canoe as it bends toward the aft end.  The paddle stays in this spot unless needed (meaning that I portage with it in that position ... it tends to offset the the weight of other gear lashed in toward the front).  

As for a fillet board, I was lucky enough to have purchased a triangular-shaped thwart bag (I seem to remember it was from Granite Gear) many years ago.  I use it primarily for fishing and related gear.  However, it has a 1/4 inch plastic plate in a zipper compartment in the bottom.  It was probably intended to be a fillet board since it has a hole with hanging strap in one end.  This is also where I store spare zip lock bags for storing fillets (after having to trek back to camp more than one to get one on earlier trips).

dd

mastertangler wrote on Oct 8^th, 2010 at 5:58pm:

I picked up some cheap plastic clips from a local discount store (its called Big Lots here.)  They have a foam/adhesive back to them, which I get rid of in favor of a stronger bond to the canoe.  I then super glue them to the interior hull.  (I start with the gel form of the glue and once its dried, I'll fill in any gaps with the liquid form.)

The clips have a circular plastic loop that is a permanent part of the clip at one end and has a "latch" on the other end.  I slide one side of a plastic strap guide (it looks like a squashed number 8) into the circular clip and then run the nylon strap through the other side.  The straps I use are 1/2 inch nylon (with their own buckle) and perfectly fit the strap guide.  I use two of the clip arrangements, vertically about 8 inches apart, to secure the blade part of the canoe.

One word of caution.  I have a kevlar hull which will flex and I'm also dropping a back beside the lashed down paddle.  Eventually, the clip will pop loose.  So I always take a couple of spare clips and super glue for "in the field" repairs ...  1 such repair over a 2 week trip is not uncommon.  To minimize the flex issue, I'll generally place the clips near one of the internal stiffeners of the canoe. (It seems that the top clip pops much more often than the bottom one, so I suspect the detachments are more a function of a pack load/unload than portaging.)

BTW:  I use these same clips as mounts for the golf club sleeves I use as rod/eyelet protectors ... on each side of the bow ... and as a lash point for the back-end of the rod/reel.  I use velcro straps for the sleeves and "deal-e-bops" around the butt end of the rods.  This is part of the "counter weight" that the paddle balances out.  This makes for a pretty workable rod "holster" from which the rods can be easily extracted.

My canoe is sufficiently balanced with these "extras" inside that I rarely have more than 1 hand on the gunwales while I'm portaging the canoe ... if the terrain is relatively flat ... sometimes no-hands.

dd