Brockville/Gananoque, Ontario

     Gardiner Mills Skinner was born in 1845 in Brockville, Ontario. For reasons unknown, the Skinner family moved to Gananoque 15 years later. Gardiner worked with his father to create small farming implements. By the age of 29, after years fishing the St. Lawrence river, G.M. Skinnner applied for and was granted a patent for one of North America's most famous trolling spinners (As shown). In the same year, he was granted a similar U.S. patent for the fluted blade design of his spinner (Which is why most spinner blades are marked with 2 patents).

     Three years before obtaining his lure patents, Gardiner Skinner had married a woman from Clayton, New York (Just across the St. Lawrence). In 1879, he left his family business in Gananoque and became an official American resident to relocate with his wife in Clayton. Within a short time of moving to Clayton, Gardiner had established a small factory in his new hometown. Most of the spinners you find now are marked "G.M. Skinner/Clayton N.Y." as the company produced metal spinners and other metal baits from the Clayton factory for nearly 90 years. G.M. Skinner blades marked Gananoque are tough to come by and would make a nice adddition to any Canadian collection.

     During the height of his operations, Gardiner and his female staff of 20 were producing over 1200 baits a day and shipped them to retail outlets all over North America. Gardiner travelled extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada promoting his popular baits. He was honoured with numerous awards in the U.S. and Norway for his innovative lure design. Gardiner was also a lobbyist behind the enactment of fishing laws in Ontario and New York. After a long bout of illness, Skinner died in 1903.

References:

Willis, Jim, Hex - A History & Collector's Guide to Hex Baits Limited. (The Upper Canadian, 1999).

Typical G.M Skinner Metal Spoon

This is clearly the Clayton, New York version of the Skinner blade but shows one of many styles of his metal.