Sk8man

Hey Steve I think you did better than most

I talked with a couple guys coming off the ice at north end of Canandaigua yesterday. They said 5-6 inches of ice out as far aas you can see. They were out in about 14 ft. One guy said he saw absolutely nothing in about 20 holes he drilled the other guy had three keepers on the small side. They said it has been very slow. About a half dozen tents out there. Today only three, tents but I didn't stop.

😃 Worth the $ though unlike a lot of the stuff we buy.

They all seem to work well both places but the 35,87,22,666,777, performed very well on the Fingers for me but even the bigger 88 and 06 also caught fish. The 666, 777, 22, 06 caught multiple species for me on Lake O. Always pays to experiment

Really great year, but the looks on those kids faces says it all!

I guess although my original intent was to mention a way to shine spoons up and plating aspects of the Hinckleys it should be noted that these spoons have a nearly 150 year old design history, they are individually hand made, hammered and formed by hand (not robotic assembly line stuff) and what I believe to be the critical factor is their hand formed cupping at the back of them giving them action. Check out the website as it has elaborate detail on how they are made. I think the fact that actual silver and gold are used in the plating may make them more visible from further distances. Regardless, they work very well and are the most effective spoons I have ever used. By the way, I don't have any financial interest in the company (but kinda wish I did). The owner indicated that he gets orders from all over the country (Colorado, California, Tennessee, Vermont etc.) so I guess that sort of speaks for itself too

Mark - I've used jewelers silver polish on the Suttons with some luck but where the plating is actually worn off it seems hopeless....like yours the brass appears. I guess for the tumbler we have to choose spoons carefully to do it. Some of the Suttons also are laquered and some discoloration can occur under it but in all fairness they still work.

Brian I don't intend to make a regular habit of tumbling them but as I said the plating on these particular spoons is great. I was more or less experimenting as they were not tarnished at all just water spots which I probably could have just moistened and rubed off with a soft cloth, but I just wanted to let folks know that the method itself works. The spoons are very hearty so I don't really worry much about them as they survived chinooks and large steelhead this year without a mark on them.

Steve: the plating is pretty solid compared with other spoons I have used (e.g. Suttons). I believe that the only ones that are clear coated are the copper spoons. The ones that I did were mainly water spotted from not drying them off before putting them away not really tarnished. I only left them in for about 1/2 hr. as you probably would for shell casings. The gold and silver plating on them seems very durable after two or three seasons of use.

Just wanted to share a tip: I wanted to optimize the shine of my Elmer Hinckley spoons after a couple seasons of use. Incidentally, they are all I have been using lately on the Finger lakes as well as Lake O and have caught about 3:1 versus on usual favorite spoons. The gold and silver plating on these spoons is incredible. They were so shiny after polishing I couldn't get a really good pic of them....they are like jewelery. What I did was use a Dillon Precision ammo cartridge vibratory tumbler with walnut shells and a few drops of Dillon Precision polish. For those of you who reload this may be a good way to recondition some plated spoons so I wanted to pass it along.

Although my boat is fiberglass I believe this also works on painted aluminum. It works great for most stains. It can be found online or most Walmarts etc. carry it in the boating section.

Might want to upsize your spoons to see if change.

Great honest appraisal of the situation out there. Thanks Rick

Spoonfed - the data in derbies is radically skewed and not truly representative of the usual fishing conditions. With hundreds of fishermen running many more hundreds of lines and lures an unusual number of fish will be caught including big ones, but that does not represent the usual situation I was referring to . Normally, there may be only 5-10 guys (or less) out fishing for trout on a given day here. Most of the trailers at the launches are rec boaters and perch and bass folks. I based my comments on 35 years of keeping DEC Angler Diaries and sixty plus years of fishing here,. My intention was not to be critical of the lake but to alert potential people who may travel long distances to fish the lake that they may not be getting the results of the derby leader board; avoiding disappointment and the feeling that they were being unintentionally mislead by the derby data. John's results on the rainbows to laker ratio were about the same for us about 7 to 1 and most were in the 15to 18 inch class boding well for the fishery. We had one Rainbow about 6 or 7 lbs to the surface that got off but most seemed to be in the younger year classes.

Although Canandaigua Lake has produced some impressive trout over the years they are few and far between. The number of fish caught and present in Canandaigua Lake has been constantly reducing for many years now. I have fished it since the late 1960"s and the amount of bait present, the number of fish present has radically diminished. In the seventies and eighties bait could be seen stacked up over a hundred feet high for hundreds of yards. There were also large schools of Rainbow Smelt present in addition to the sawbellies. On the graph many fish were noted both on bottom , suspended, and mixed in or near huge bait pods. Now days bait pods are very much scattered and much smaller although there is still noticeable bait present in some areas. There is still a strong contingent of naturally produced rainbows present and strong year classes of smaller ones quite active. In the 1960's through the early 2000's there were a lot of Lake Trout across the range of sizes. Lately, there seems to be the occasional large one caught, but nowhere near the presence of small to medium sized ones that used to be caught. Although the occasional large Brown Trout is caught and mostly during derbies routine trolling does not turn up many and some of this is related to their habits which used to be exploited by night fishing for them and which is seldom seen anymore. Canandaigua Lake is VERY heavily used recreationally (e.g. ski boats, cigar boats, sailboats, and jet skiis) so during the summer given the crowded congested launch and parking lot, narrow navigation channel, and heavy concentration of people unfamiliar with fishing concerns or even boating courtesy it can be daunting. Luckily, the derby is early in the season when recreational boat traffic is lighter. The folks that caught winning fish in this years derby really earned them as the wind and weather was pretty brutal for trollers as you had very little control of speed/direction etc. because of the extreme WNW wind.

Hope I'm not the only one fishing it but at least I would have a chance to win

Hard to tell the condition of the hub but if it is in good condition I will take it.... message me for details.

Why no trash talking this year guys....kinda disappointing