TomT,
EXCELLENT question!
For me, it was a major experiment outside of my comfort zone! I pretty much stayed in the bow for the entire trip. My reasoning? I was looking to take advantage of Wally13’s expertise re: fishing for walleyes and let him steer us into position. Also, we were having difficulty mounting his transducer in the bow of the canoe.
I will admit to experiencing the jitters & some very anxious moments when we hit some big waves en route to North Bay that very first morning. Wally13 exercised a great deal of patience with me and I learned to trust him in the stern... but it took a while, especially when we started taking in water over the side!
My comfort zone has ALWAYS been paddling from the stern. Only once before did I ever paddle from the bow & that was also with a QJer (Tripper, way back-in 2003). Ultimately, I gained faith in the experience of Wally13. Also, it didn’t hurt that I was extremely confident in the seaworthiness of my Souris River 17 footer.
Finally, I eventually became a better bow paddler for basic self-preservation reasons. It is far easier for the stern paddler to swing his paddle at the guy in the front than it is for me, in the bow, to swing my weapon backward at the guy in the stern who is screwing things up.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Jimbo