Our Readers’ Favorite Content of 2025
5-minute read (for starters)
It’s the end of 2025 already, and we’re thankful for our thousands of new and continuing customers who visit our website and enjoy our paddles! For your reading pleasure, here’s our Top 10 List of your favorite content of 2025…
(Photo: Tyson Crockett)
10. Kayaking for Seniors: Why To and How To
Coming in at #10 is our interview with ProStaffer Bill Schultz, who’s an avid kayak angler and a senior by age bracket. He loves to encourage other people to either keep kayaking or to start kayaking in their golden years.
It’s a fun, low-impact and relatively easy way to stay active and enjoy the outdoors, whether you focus on kayaking or on combining kayaking and fishing as he does.
The interview covers topics such as why it’s a great paddlesport for older people, how to choose your kayak, paddle, and PFD, and how to transport your boat and gear to and from the water with ease, among others.
Read: Kayaking for Seniors: Why To and How To
9. Is Canoeing Harder than Kayaking?
For the brand-new paddler eager to try either canoeing or kayaking, this short primer should help you decide where to start.
We’ll give you a hint: canoeing is more challenging for most beginners. This blog post details what the main challenges are, but why, in the end, it’s always the best scenario to get into both canoeing and kayaking!
Read: Is Canoeing Harder than Kayaking?
(Photo: Tyson Crockett)
8. Paddles for the Solo Canoeist
Our 8th most popular blog post of 2025 is all about choosing a paddle for solo canoeing. We cover the pros and cons of using a single-bladed paddle (traditional canoe paddle) over a double-bladed paddle (i.e., kayak paddle), and why many solo canoeists like to have both in their boats.
We also give you a list of our paddles that are ideal for solo canoeists, along with brief descriptions.
Read: Paddles for the Solo Canoeist
7. Kevlar or Aluminum Canoe: How to Choose Yours
In this blog post, our 7th most popular of the year, we highlight a video Canoe Buyer’s Guide made by our friends at Midwest Mountaineering. We cover the advantages and disadvantages of two of the most popular materials canoes are made from: aluminum and Kevlar (a brand name of the aramid material).
Your budget, how you’ll use the canoe, and the water environments you’ll use it on are three of the things you’ll want to keep in mind as you explore this important topic.
Read: Kevlar or Aluminum Canoe: How to Choose Yours
6. How to Transport a Canoe on Your Vehicle
Once you have your canoe—unless you’ll keep it at the family cabin year-round—you’ll want to know the best way to transport it on your vehicle.
This blog post is a helpful guide to do just that, whether you have a roof rack or not. We cover how to get it up there, what to use to strap it down, and how to transport safely. We even cover how to transport two canoes at once, all without a trailer.
Read: How to Transport a Canoe on Your Vehicle
(Photo: Cameron Smith)
5. Why Your Fishing Kayak has Scupper Holes
This popular blog post highlights a video with ProStaffer Gene Jensen (aka The Flukemaster) answering one of the most frequent questions he gets when he’s at a boat ramp: “Won’t your kayak sink with those holes in it?”
Scupper holes serve a purpose, and this blog tells you what that is. It also covers if and when you should plug them up.
Read: Why Your Fishing Kayak has Scupper Holes
4. 20 Apps for Canoeists, Kayakers & Kayak Anglers
Coming in at #4 is this overview of almost two dozen apps that are very handy tools for paddlers of all kinds. In these modern times, we have technology at our fingertips that paddlers of yesteryear (i.e., more than 15 years ago) didn’t even dream about.
Some of the apps we cover are paddling-specific, some are fishing-specific, and some are more general apps that can be valuable for us. And then there are apps about rivers, weather and tides that are important safety tools.
You find them all here: 20 Apps for Canoeists, Kayakers & Kayak Anglers
3. Kayak Fishing Paddle Sizing Guide
This important page serves all the kayak anglers in our audience. While you can use an ordinary kayak paddle when you’re fishing, we think anglers deserve their own specs that make their paddles fit their needs exactly.
We cover how to choose the ideal size of your fishing paddle, of course, but also when you’ll want an adjustable-length paddle and why the blade shape matters.
Read: Bending Branches’ Kayak Fishing Paddle Sizing Guide
(Photo: Luis Delgado)
2. Best Entry-Level+ Fishing Kayaks [2025 Edition]
Our 2nd most popular blog post of 2025 also serves our great kayak fishing audience. This time, we help new kayak anglers choose the boat to go with their paddle.
We start with entry-level kayaks designed for fishing for budgets under $1,000. We then move up to a few suggestions popular with current anglers that are slightly more than $1K. These are specific boats with links to their manufacturers.
Read: Best Entry-Level+ Fishing Kayaks [2025 Edition]
1. How to Size & Choose a Canoe Paddle
Finally, our most-read content page of 2025 is advice on choosing a canoe paddle. This is the most thorough information you’ll find anywhere on this topic.
We start with how to know which length to get (and yes, the length of your paddle matters), with a few ways to measure the ideal length for you. We also cover what to look for in a paddle, whether to get a straight shaft or bent shaft model, and all about grips, materials, blade shape and durability.
Read it here: How to Size & Choose a Canoe Paddle
Thanks for being part of the Bending Branches family! We’ll see you in 2026.
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or bbinfo@bendingbranches.com
Even more for you...
