Sk8man

Thanks for the tip Chas. My in-laws and brother-in-law live there so they may be familiar with it. I appreciate your mentioning it.

Thanks Bob . We're heading for Clearwater, Florida for a week but I'm planning to be home for the Watkins tackle "extravaganza" Still have a couple days left here though Pap At least I don't have to worry about you taking all my fish with your "new" boat while I'm gone Bob because you won't be finished with all your "modifications" until a few seasons from now (once you figure out how all your stuff will be mounted)

The adipose fin (little one behind the dorsal the main fin on top) is present on each one so assuming that the hatchery didn't miss clipping the fin they look to be non-hatchery (naturally reproduced) fish.

In the above brown photos it wasn't indicated WHERE they came from

I'm not sure about the Lake O browns currently (whether they clip additional fins or not) but in the Finger Lakes they clip different fins on trout to designate the year the fish were stocked.

It looks to me as though the one on left is an adult male fully colored from being in the stream for awhile while the one of the right appears to be a juvenile that may have just come in from the lake but absent any shots of fin clips etc. still a question in my mind whether either came from a hatchery.

Only after you get off the ice

Here are examples of relative sizes: The first on the left is 5 inches The second spoon is 3 3/4 inches The third is 3 inches The fourth is 2 1/4 inches They originally came with treble hooks

An interesting tidbit from last nights ice fishing at the south end of Canandaigua. I was fishing alongside Scott B. the owner of Makiplastics (best plastics for panfish jigging around) and Pro staffer for Vexilar and Clam and others and we were chatting about jigging in the various Finger Lakes and we each fish Honeoye and I've fished it since the late 60's. We were both commenting on how difficult the bite can be and you get "lookers" (those fish that examine your jig but won't actually bite) that won't take the bait no matter what you use or how you use it. Scott then eloquently stated something Ihad felt for many years...he said " If you can learn to jig successfully on Honeoye you can catch fish that way anywhere. He has fished all over and we agreed that tough fishing conditions combined with perseverance teach you more than any video, seminar, or Youtube video can ever do. So when you are out there jigging your azz off but paying close attention to detail keep that in mind because the lesson applies not just to Honeoye or to jigging for that matter. The year after year of picking up on the "nuances" makes all the difference in the world and patience is the key to it all.

Guess that is a bit different than the pontoon Justin might not want to have many lures in the water with that one

I wouldn't be reluctant to run orange with red dot Fire Plugs or the red ones or orange or red Hot n Tots either if you have them or can find them They will tolerate speed a little better than the flatfish type lures.

As far as the trout scene goes it seems to me that the lamprey control may at least be a factor in the differences. At one point Seneca seemed worse than Cayuga and now Cayuga seems worse I saw somewhere that an adult lamprey can account for about 40 lbs of fish (unsure whether that was lifetime or per year) Either way it can account for a lot of fish over time. I'm sure there are multiple factors involved but the levels of lamprey in the lakes should be taken into account.