Hometown :
KV - Elm Springs, AR
KP - On the banks of the upper White River, Goshen AR
Favorite rivers :
KV - Mulberry River
- White River, Buffalo River all hold a special place in my heart, however there's not a solid blue line in the Ozarks that I won't attempt to put my canoe on.
KP - I grew up on the White River, chasing white bass, small mouth and walleye. I love the Kings, War Eagle, the Buffalo National River and the Illinois.
Favorite boats :
KV - I looked for years to find the perfect lightweight craft for hunting and fishing adventures. The Cargo 17 is light enough to car-top & carry solo, and with a small outboard motor on the stern we run straight up the shallow, rocky creeks in my region and float right back down to the truck - no shuttling required. The Cargo delivers day in and day out with its versatility to effortlessly handle limestone creek smallmouth adventures, accessing hard to reach river bottoms for deer, and getting deep into flooded timber to my favorite duck holes.
KP - Esquif Cargo 17. I've used it to access deer hunting spots along the Ouachita river, duck blinds on Big Cypress Creek, Turkeys all up and down the MO and AR Ozarks, and for taking the kids crappie fishing.
Most memorable moment on water :
KV - Last year's 3-day turkey hunt on the lake with my good buddies. We camped lakeside and paddled into public land in the still of the foggy mornings, quietly listening for a gobbling tom along the lakeshore and followed by afternoons of hunting morels, crappie fishing the lake, and swapping stories with friends back at camp. Any day doing that or just creekin' around in general is one worth remembering.
KP - I took my brother and a buddy deer hunting last year in the Cargo 17, and we scouted and hunted from the river. It was a blast to paddle softly and quietly through the water, with one person glassing all the time. We had turkeys flying across the creek (and I pinned their location for the spring), deer we could slip up on, and one missed big buck in the river bottom flat. We hunted hard with success being mostly measured by the joy of being way back on public water, with a whole section of land hunted only by canoe access.
