Hazelbakers Canoe Rental
We met at Hazelbakers Canoe Rental at 9:30AM for our yearly Float Trip down the Youghiogheny River. Upon pull in we were greeted with a big crowed of people which seemed like a popular place to rental canoes and kayaks. If your google float trips on the Yough you will find this is one of the more popular places to rent canoes from so I was excited for the trip. I also heard good things by word of mouth. Our first experience with Hazelbakers may be our last for awhile compared to other places we have gone with. I will note but this was a one time experience with them so I would take my comments likely and maybe we just had a bad experience with them. I will just state the facts of the trip but give them the benefit out the doubt.
Check in seemed un organized and they weren’t very friendly. Mind you we had 6 in our party but the others were 20+ deep which could be hectic for them. They are a popular destination spot so I would expect them to be able to handle mass crowds and something they are used to. The first trip was out at 10am so we had to organize our waivers in our group which was fine. Some of the staff members were short tempered with questions about he trip and didn’t seems willing to field questions from customers in our group or in others. I let Suzy handle most of the coordinating but from what I observed they didn’t seem to be pleasant compared to other places. I felt the price was heavy compared to other places we have rented and I was disappointed on the fishing tackle they had on site. They did have a few odds and ends like worms, hooks, weights and a few lures for sale (no minnows) but I would think the demand of fishing would be high. I expected more fishing tackle to be accessible so if you plan to go for fishing … come prepared like I did. I called ahead of time to ask these questions so I knew I had to come prepared. I stopped at Unlimited Tackle on Route 51 to get minnows which was 26mins outside of Hazelbakers on our way. I can’t say enough good stuff about this place. It was like a fishermen’s dream with all the tackle and offerings. Check them out!
Canoe Rental for 2 people, Oars, Life Jackets and chair backs was $71. dollars for the long float trip. I felt this was pricey but others may disagree.
The float trip itself was awesome which provided a great fishing day. I started off hooking into tons of smallmouths but I was having trouble landing them due to the speed of our float. I had to make adjustments with weights and different hooks.I had a straight hook on with a weight about 6 inches from the minnow with a float. I adjusted to a octopus hook with no float and slowed our drifts. Each hook up I requested Suzy to back peeled to slow our drift and I let the smallie run with my bait for some time before I set the hook which worked great.
All day long I had action with these guys and lost count of how many I landed it was so frequent. I had night crawlers and other tackle but the action was so good I didn’t try much else. Multiple times I would see fish swimming past that looked like suckers but they had a red tail. Some may have been trout but we were moving so fast it was hard to see exactly what it was. We also came across schools of carp which were big in size but I wasn’t fishing for them.
Towards the end of the tirp I noticed the ball thumb I had from lipping so many fish caught. It looked like chipped ham! Thats an indicator of a good day smallie fishing!
Another complaint about Hazelbakers was the exit of the trip. We ran into some rain towards the end of the trip and we didn’t notice any mile markers along the way of the river to let you know how much farther of the float you have. This would be a recommendation to add some sort of trip makers to give you an idea how much farther you have. They are pressing about the time you need to be back which is 6:30pm but how are you supposed to tell how far you came unless you have a map? They do have maps for rent but IM not sure how easy it would be to tell how far your traveled. The fish commission was out toward the tail of the trip and they were ticketing fishermen who didn’t have license and beer drinkers. I had mine which was a button which he asked to see but I dont think he would see it. Our float trip crew had some beers so I asked Suzy to paddle to the far side of the river hoping we didn’t get stopped which we didn’t. There was a mass of people he had to stop so we scooted by (veteran move).
The deload of the canoes where they have your exit was the worst. It was a muddy slope hill with Hay that was hard to pull your canoe up the hill. There was no one there to help and tons of canoes coming in. There was a group of ladies that weren’t strong enough to pull the canoe up the bank so they asked for help from other people. A gravel size or a better slope would be ideal for canoes. I felt we paid good money instead of unloading into a muddy pit. The place we rented from last year had a cement boating ramp with tons of staff there to help with the canoes. You basically pull up, took your stuff off the boat and they took care of it from then on. Set it and forget it..
My overall experience was awesome and I can’t express how much fun I had. The fishing was great and so was the company. I can’t wait for next year!
We finished our trip off at Buratory in Robinson which I like to say its a tradition or the start of one since this is year 2.
Fish on!
-Rye
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