So…my plan was to do some fishing at the north end of Canandaigua Lake, and writeup an awesome fishing report, with impressive smallmouth bass pictures. 🎣 However, the fish weren’t cooperating, so, now this is just a kayaking report. 😄🚣
We parked and launched the kayaks from the Hotel Canandaigua. They have a nice dock on the Canandaigua Outlet, which made launching and retrieving pretty easy. This is also the dock where the staff will launch kayaks and stand-up paddle boards rented from the same location. I asked the rental staff if it was cool for me to park and launch there, and they said ‘absolutely’.
The lake was more choppy than I was expecting, and there was a lot of boat traffic (this was 4th of July weekend), so we didn’t venture as far from shore as I originally planned (one of my many excuses for not catching many fish 😕). Still, we did manage to catch a couple of small pan fish.
In retrospect, I wish we had explored the Canandaigua Outlet instead of going into the lake. On the map at least, it looks like you could do a circuit, starting at the Twisted Rail Brewery, then follow the outlet up and around, finishing up near the city pier. If any readers have actually taken this route, please let me know. Otherwise, I’ll add this trip to my list, and report back in the future.
Our trip ended up being 2.7 miles. By the time we headed back to shore, there were a lot of boats anchored in the shallow water – with folks playing music, and having a good time…..looked pretty awesome. 🍹🍺🍷
I put together a short video with shots from my action camera.
Fun fact – according to the Wikipedia page on Canandaigua Lake: The name Canandaigua is derived from the Seneca name spelled variously Kanandarque, Ganondagan, Ga-nun-da-gwa, or in a modern transcription, tganǫdæ:gwęh, which means “the chosen spot”, or “at the chosen town”.[2]