RE: Canoes
I enjoy fishing from canoes.. I own a 17'4" Old Town Discovery canoe and a 14'7" Old Town guide canoe. One thing to keep in mind when purchasing a canoe is what you want it for. For instance if you are to be fishing mostly dead water you would want one with a keel on it. If you are to do alot of current then get one without a keel. The keel will help you keep the canoe more steady in a dead water with a breeze blowing. Thet keel will work like a drag, but in fast water or current the keel will cause problems. The problem is when the keel gets caught in the current and it takes you where the current is verses where you want to go. I was white watering in one when the keel caught the current. When trying to catch it to bring the canoe back around the canoe spun. The next thing I knew 2 of us in the canoe went backwards over a small waterfalls. The half gallon we had with might of helped cause the problem but we was glad it was tied in the canoe for us. A canoe can take a little getting used to though as they can be tippy at times. I find that my longer one the 17'4" discovery is more stable than the shorter 14'7". No matter what you decide have a great time with it. Sometimes we take them out during the summer just to dump then and have a little fun with them on purpose. Good Luck with what you decide..
I will admit they can be tippy, however the size of them and other factors make up how stable or tippy they really are. Here they are used for white watering as well so it takes a little getting used to. Once you get used to it you will find they are not all that bad. They too take little water to slide threw. My 17'4" takes about 2 inches to travel threw and I enjoy it. For as far as noice goes mine is very quite in reality but it is not the aluminum one either.
And yes, welcome to the forums..