Paddling Education

Kayaking and kayak fishing are ideal activities for older adults. Bending Branches ProStaff team member Bill Schultz is himself a senior and an avid kayak angler. He offers his best tips and tricks below.

Bending Branches Regional Ambassador Terrell Hester is a huge advocate of turning kayak fishing trips into overnight camping trips. Here are his best tips.

Kristen Elgo has been a volunteer with San Diego Girl Scouts for more than a decade. She and other adult volunteers have gotten ACA certified so they can pass on their love of canoeing and kayaking to the girls they serve.

Camp Manito-wish YMCA is one of the top wilderness camps in the country. 2023 staffer Dave Scott co-led a 45-day canoe trip in northern Canada and shared his experience with us.

Thousands of you read our blog! We thought it’d be fun to highlight your favorite canoeing and kayak fishing content of 2023.

Kayak bass fishing tournaments are a great way for beginning kayak anglers to learn more about the sport of kayak fishing while getting in some friendly competition.

Lake Superior isn’t known as an ideal canoe camping lake because of its vast size and unpredictable weather. But Canadians Jon and Erin took 11 days in 2023 for such a trip along some of its northern shoreline.

You might think our underlying purpose at Bending Branches is to craft world-class canoe and kayak fishing paddles. But our Why goes deeper than that—it’s to inspire YOU to have memorable outdoor experiences on the water!

5-minute read + 23-minute filmIn this beautiful short film, cinematographer Jamie Barnes takes us along with him and fellow canoeist Martin Trahan on A Canoe Perspective of the Scottish Highlands: Jamie graciously took some time to offer additional thoughts and...

Tyler Thiede is a Bending Branches Regional Ambassador from our home state of Wisconsin. He’s been an avid kayak angler for many years and now enjoys bringing his son Jackson along to fish too.

Today’s paddlers and anglers have technology at our fingertips we could only dream about a few years ago—thanks to our handheld GPS and computer systems (commonly known as smartphones).

Kayak fishing in swift water requires different skills than flatwater kayak fishing. IN these two videos Bending Branches ProStaffer Drew Gregory covers basic river fishing tricks he uses all the time that you can learn too.

Do you have a furry best friend you want to bring kayaking or canoeing with you? Some of our readers graciously gave us their best tips for how they trained their dog(s) as paddle partners.

People seem to have a love-hate relationship with frog fishing. The ones who hate it just haven't figured it out or been properly taught. Or maybe it’s the smell of the swampy weed mats, the black mud of the lake or river, or the swarm of bugs.

Ready for a fun canoe video or two? The Okee Dokee Brothers canoed the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to St. Louis, writing the songs for their album Can You Canoe? along the way (you might recognize their paddles!).

A couple weeks ago a group of eight women took a week off work to head north and spend four days in the Boundary Waters together.

Modern canoes are made of many different materials, with Kevlar and aluminum being two of the most popular. How do you know which to look for when shopping for a canoe?

In 2011 Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho canoed 2,000 miles from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. They were the first women to take on the route made famous by the book Canoeing with the Cree by the late journalist, Eric Sevareid.

Inflatable kayaks and paddle boards are everywhere—but an inflatable canoe? It’s worth considering if space is at a premium both for storage and transport but you love canoeing.

Our friends at Minnesota-based Midwest Mountaineering offer a helpful walk-through of the differences between river and flatwater canoes. Before buying a canoe, watch this video first so you buy the correct type for your paddling excursions.

Bending Branches Regional Ambassador Steve Hrynewycz is a huge believer and action-taker in getting kids in kayaks, whether for recreation or fishing.