Here's my question: should I rent the Souris River Q17 or the Souris River Q18.5 for my upcoming Quetico trip?

The group will be me and a friend (both <190#), and my hound (<40#). I do know that everything will fit in the Q17 - I've done it a few times before. We're not doing any really aggressive portaging, so the extra few pounds doesn't matter. What I want to know is which is the better option for paddling big water, and which is the better option for fishing out of while unloaded?

We'll be spending time on Pickerel, Batch', Nym, et al. And we're not moving camp every day, so we'll be fishing out of the boat a lot with no load.

My outfitter has always recommended the 17 in the past, but I recently had a trusted veteran advise me to take an 18.5. I thought I'd get opinions here for a tie breaker.

Won't the bigger one be tougher to control without a load? I have a 17 and find that unloaded even a slight breeze is a challenge and I'd think the 18.5would be an even larger "sail".

I had the same question before this years trip in June. Same objectives, not much portaging and a lot of fishing. We went with the SR17. last minute decision...but we did not have a 40 LB dog along. Our boat worked out fine but I think I'd go with the 18 footer just because of your little four footed companion.

mastertangler wrote on Jul 24^th, 2014 at 11:39am:
few years back we rented the SR18. that same year we used a very lightweight drift sock that i had dear old mom sew up with nylon and nylon webbing. bought a largish one from basspro and let her use it as an example. while it didn't fit every situation there were some times that it did work perfectly. i hate getting blown around but overall do prefer the larger boat.

Hey Ranger, you've got a nice diversity of opinions on this dilemna you face.  Did you decide to use the bigger or smaller canoe?

I own both the 17'6" and the 18'6", so I'm curious which way you went. 

puckster