Gibbs Stewart #8 Spoon

[FurnaceFace]

Hi There,
I'm interested in the Gibbs Stewart #8. Most of these older spoons have likely found their way to the bottom of your tackle box or storage area. If you have one or some, please let me know, as I would love to purchase any you are willing to part with. They can be rusty or whatever shape. Although the the spoon size is #8, the actual spoon is 6" long. I am willing to look at the #7 as well. Thanks so much in advance

 

[Discus]

I have couples of Gibbs Stewart #7 spoons for sale.

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

Just curious are you sport fishing these spoons or just collecting?

 

[FurnaceFace]

Just curious are you sport fishing these spoons or just collecting?

I'm fishing with them. I enjoy refurbishing them and trying to catch fish with older stuff for generations ago.

 

[Gerry V]

Is this the style of spoon your looking for?

 

[FurnaceFace]

Is this the style of spoon your looking for?

Hi Gerry V, I have sent you a PM

 

[FurnaceFace]

.97 One of my favorite stores as a kid growing up.
These will have a purpose in my future.

Awesome Spoons!! Are any for sale?

 

[Klob]

They still kill fish.

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

I'm fishing with them. I enjoy refurbishing them and trying to catch fish with older stuff for generations ago.

Do you refurbish to new or alter them with glow tape / paint and colour?

 

[Original]

Add some nail polish and some glitter, pinks loved em

 

[Rockfish]

As I recall the large Classic Stewart Spoons came in both a high speed version and a slow speed version. The slow speed version has more squared off ends and the high speed version is narrower at the end (tapered), especially the line end.

Next to the shovel nose plugs, the slow speed classic Stewart Spoon is considered as a must have for the Campbell River rowboat Tyee Fishing Club and are very much in demand, increasing in value and sought after. They have not been made for some years and unlike the plugs which float to the surface and can be retrieved when broken off, when the spoon is broken off it is lost, so there will be less of them overtime. I suspect, however that there were a lot more of them made than the true Shovel Nose Louie Plugs.

Not surprising there are lots of people searching for the large true slow speed classic Stewart Spoons. If I see any classic large slow speed Stewards, I pick them up for the row boat guys because they are effective at the slow speeds they row at. Will they ever be worth hundred of dollars like some of the slow speed shovel nose plugs? - perhaps not, but they are still very much in demand. It is common to get the old ones re-finished and I have seen them restored and even gold plated for use in the Tyee Pool.

 

[CRGreg]

Both the original Standard Stewarts and the Improved (tapered) Stewarts are sought after. Both row well. Most can be polished back to life and if not, they can be painted. Definitely NOT worth values of shovel noses... but I am buying !!

Greg

 

[Bugs]

I am buying too... with a preference for the tapered/improved/fast Stewarts. Mid Island area.

 

[Rockfish]

In the Victoria/South VI area, if anyone has any large #8 Stewart Spoons, I will also buy them and see to it that they get to Campbell River where they will be lavished with affection, and fished in the Tyee Pool behind a row boat. I will not be flipping them for a profit. I just want to see them rescued, restored and fished and not end up in the trash bin when us old timers pass on. Send me a private message.

 

[Rockfish]

Both the original Standard Stewarts and the Improved (tapered) Stewarts are sought after. Both row well. Most can be polished back to life and if not, they can be painted. Definitely NOT worth values of shovel noses... but I am buying !!

Greg

I was just on the phone making arrangements to go up and get in a few tides. Predictions of rain and showers between now and the 14th so I may get wet.
I asked about the high speed version and they have produced especially with a little current. The slow speed version does very well rowing slow in a slack tide.

As I understand it the original Stewarts went way back, perhaps the 30's but Gibbs with a little lobbying did a run of both the original (slow speed) and the improved #8's something like 20 years ago. I had a number of them that I recently gave away to be rowed that were still new from the re-release. As I understand it, the shovel nose Louie will never be re-released because the cost of the required two injection molds is prohibitive and not many were made so that keeps the price up.

However, if there were to be some sort of Tulip Bulb crazy price inflation on the Stewarts, I would assume that Gibbs or someone else would just do another run if there were lots of money to be made until the price dropped. That I think will keep the price in check. Who would want to pay big bucks for a beat up used one knowing that there is a good possibility that new ones could come out for $10 or 12 dollars and drop the value of theirs.
It makes sense that the original was a slow speed spoon as it was developed at a time when a lot of fishing was done with a row boat and now the club has allowed them to come full circle and be relevant again.

 

[paulo]

Would anyone be interested in a Wonder #8? I believe it is a Worden"s Wonder.

 

[paulo]

 

[John Ingram]

As I recall the large Classic Stewart Spoons came in both a high speed version and a slow speed version. The slow speed version has more squared off ends and the high speed version is narrower at the end (tapered), especially the line end.

Next to the shovel nose plugs, the slow speed classic Stewart Spoon is considered as a must have for the Campbell River rowboat Tyee Fishing Club and are very much in demand, increasing in value and sought after. They have not been made for some years and unlike the plugs which float to the surface and can be retrieved when broken off, when the spoon is broken off it is lost, so there will be less of them overtime. I suspect, however that there were a lot more of them made than the true Shovel Nose Louie Plugs.

Not surprising there are lots of people searching for the large true slow speed classic Stewart Spoons. If I see any classic large slow speed Stewards, I pick them up for the row boat guys because they are effective at the slow speeds they row at. Will they ever be worth hundred of dollars like some of the slow speed shovel nose plugs? - perhaps not, but they are still very much in demand. It is common to get the old ones re-finished and I have seen them restored and even gold plated for use in the Tyee Pool.

Rockfish,
would it be possible to get some measurements for these spoons. I would like to try and reproduce some of them.

 

[Rockfish]

Rockfish,
would it be possible to get some measurements for these spoons. I would like to try and reproduce some of them.

I will bring one down when I return. They have curved cupped ends so I would think you will need a hardwood mold/jig to cup the ends on it. I imagine brass would be malleable and is what the originals are made of. Stainless would be nice but it is rather hard and brittle.

Have looked at a lot of the Stewart variants while I have been in CR including 5 of the reportedly rarer Candy Cane variant in great condition. They have the natural brass finish with a wide serpentine chrome section down through the middle of it on one side. Word is there were only 200 of that variant ever made.

We are about to throw some steaks on the BBQ and then head out for an evening row.

 

[Rockfish]

The Cambell River Tyee pool Stewart #8, diver bucket horde legend.

I have heard a story that a diver in the fishing off season dives in the Tyee pool area and picks up the Stewart #8 spoons that have broken off and over time has amassed a bucket full that someone, ???? once saw. So is this just another urban legend with no basis in fact, or has someone actually picked up a few. I was curious so when I was recently up there I asked about it in one of the dive shops that knows a lot of the local divers, and they know nothing about it. I would think it is a reasonably big area and not that many get broken off, so I am leaning towards Urban Myth.