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St.
Paul Pioneer Press
Published:
Sunday, July 9, 2000
Small-craft crazy
CHRIS NISKANEN
OUTDOORS EDITOR
Fish
aren't safe when Bill Plantan Jr. patrols the
Zumbro River.
On a warm Friday afternoon,
Plantan plies the pool below the Zumbro Dam aboard
one of his company's custom canoes. He is a
one-man fishing machine, and his craft has more
esoteric weapons than the movie ``Gladiator.''
The canoe is outfitted with an electric trolling
motor and 12-volt battery, a custom rack
containing four rigged fishing rods, a padded
swivel seat, three adjustable drink holders, an
insulated cooler with cold bottles of pop inside,
two anchors and a pair of spare paddles.
A well-stocked tackle box
lies at Plantan's feet.
It all fits inside a canoe
that just under 13 feet long. Granted, a lot of
the gear is for comfort, but fishing is Plantan's
singular pursuit when he climbs into one of his
decked-out canoes.
``I'm just hooked on
fishing,'' he says, no pun intended. ``I'm also a
small river and stream fanatic.''
Three years ago, Plantan and
a high-school pal named Dave Frink took their
obsessions with fishing and small rivers and
melded them into a canoe company called River
Ridge Custom Canoes.
They set out to build the
perfect small-water boat: a short, stable craft
with a square stern that could handle a small
electric motor.
They borrowed a design from
another Wisconsin boat company and added their own
improvements. The canoe measures 12 feet, 9 inches
long with a width 39 inches. It weighs 84 pounds
and is made of fiberglass.
It is not a canoe designed
for paddling. It's wide and stable. Plantan often
stands in his to cast.
Believing they found new
careers, Plantan quit his job as a school-supply
salesman and Frink sold his shares in a garden
center and started building canoes full time in a
shop near Rochester.
Plantan lives in Rochester,
while Frink continued to commute to the shop on a
weekly basis from his home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
where he builds many of the accessories.
Before long, word spread
about their boats. Orders trickled in from around
the country, mainly from their Web site (www.riverridgecustomcanoes.com)
and word of mouth. A Japanese company discovered
the boats and put in an order.
In three years, they've sold
about 400 boats and shipped 96 of them to Japan, a
country filled with rabid anglers in need of small
boats.
With a crew of three
employees, they hand-build about four canoes a
week and hope to produce about 135 this year. They
have no distributors, selling all their boats
directly to customers.
Plantan likes dealing with
customers directly because most of them are
anglers who share his passion.
He also doesn't want the
company to grow too fast or too large because it
will eventually take time away from his favorite
pastime: fishing.
That is what we indulged in
during a trip down the Zumbro River last week.
The river was running muddy,
high and fast -- the products of storms that
dropped record volumes of rain on the region last
month.
Before setting out, our day
started early at the River Ridge boat factory. A
three-man crew laid layers of fiberglass and resin
into the canoe mold. The canoe was constructed in
halves, then joined later in the morning.
In the afternoon, a whole
canoe would be popped from the mold, ready to be
prepped for seats and other equipment.
In the meantime, Plantan
offered an afternoon fishing tour of one of his
favorite rivers. The goal was to entice a few
smallmouth bass from the angry and swollen river,
though Plantan wasn't hopeful.
``It's running pretty high,
but it's a lot clearer than I thought,'' he said
of the Zumbro.
As our entourage of two
River Ridge canoes slipped down the river, Plantan
demonstrated the boat's maneuverability. The
electric trolling motor propelled the craft
against and across the current, in and out of
eddies and around low-hanging trees.
The purpose of the boat,
Plantan says, is to be able to cruise rivers and
small lakes without having to paddle. That gives
an angler more time to fish without worrying about
the boat drifting out of position.
Plantan deftly demonstrated
this technique by alternating between his four
rods, casting jigs, crankbaits, topwater lures and
a Rapala, while operating the trolling motor.
The bass still weren't
cooperating, however.
During such trips, Plantan
has ensured that anyone owning his canoes won't
have to suffer any discomfort. Earlier in the day,
he showed me an arsenal of accessories that can be
purchased for a River Ridge canoe.
You can start with a
mahogany accessory tray. (``Good for preparing
sushi in Japan,'' Plantan said, ``or it's a wine
and cheese tray.'')
Next, you can add a solar
panel for battery charging. A custom rod holder.
An umbrella mounts on the back of the seats. Then
there's a plastic cigar humidor and a gold-plated
cigar holder that mounts on the accessory tray.
And a thwart marked in inches for measuring fish.
A stock canoe costs about
$1,500, but a fully loaded model can go for up to
$2,000. Plantan and Fink even designed a custom
duck blind for the canoe, which you can order in
camo patterns.
Plantan was right about the
Zumbro -- it relinquished just two smallmouth in
three hours of fishing. Back at the factory, we
watched as a new canoe emerged from its bright
orange mold.
Next week, it would start
all over again.
And fish around the world will feel a lot less
safer.
Chris Niskanen's outdoors
column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Send items
of interest to him at Pioneer Press Sports, 345
Cedar St., St. Paul, Minn., 55101. Fax at (651)
228-5527, or call him at (651) 228-5524. E-mail at
cniskanen@pioneerpress.com |
