# Fish Spearing Decoy's



## TIGGER

Hey everyone, 
I have always been amazed with the incredible gifted woodcarvers that are out there in the world. Three years ago I can across and art form that is called "Fish Spearing Decoys". It is a carved piece of wood that is weighted and in the shape of a fish. The body has a slight curve and it will swim in circular pattern. The body should be weighted so that is sinks very slowly moving forward in spiral. At a dead rest it should sit as level as possible. The lures are attached to a short wood pole.

Woods... Many different types of wood can be used. Cedar, sugar pine, mahogany, poplar , bass wood, and tupelo. The best woods have a tight grain characteristic and are lighter in color. Many of the world champion carvers use the "tupelo" for their pieces. Tupelo wood comes from the stump of the tupelo tree that lives in the southern united states swamps. It is paper white, easy to carve, and shows almost zero grain. I believe you may have heard reference to " tupelo honey" It is honey that comes from the tupelo tree flower is said to be the sweetest" I want to try this wood some day.

Styles of decoys... There are many types of decoys. Super realistic, working decoy's and fork art styles. Fish decoy's have been around for a long time.

Their purpose... For many years up North people use these decoy's for fish spearing. I believe the nearest state that still allows fish spearing is Michigan. The main fish targeted are Pike. A large hole is opened up in the ice ( approx. 3 foot by 4 foot ) and " dark house" is placed over it. The fish from below can't see any movement from above as they come into the decoy. The decoy is jigged until a pike is attracted into spearing range. The fisherman will plunge a pitch fork type of spear into the back of the pike and it is retrieved. It has been a tradition for many years but is always under fire from the musky fisherman. You are not allowed to spear musky's so great care is needed for a proper identification of the fish in range. Here is video of what it looks like


http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=349855DE651B7B2D9549349855DE651B7B2D9549


I finally got the desire to try some after watching every video I could find on the web. This first one is a 13" "Tiger musky" carved from cedar.


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## TIGGER

The second I tried is a 9" yellow perch that is carved from mahogany.


































































Here is an underwater video I shot of this bait.


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## TIGGER

The third one I did is Black Crappie carved out of mahogany and is 9" also.























































Here is video that I made of this decoy,


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## Snakecharmer

John you continue to outdo yourself. That crappie looked alive when you work it. Perfect balance. All I can say is WOW.


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## Uncle Paul

John; over in Wisconsin on Lake Winnebago they sturgeon spear in the winter and the method they use is as you described however your decoys are works of art the ones they use are crude compared to yours. The paint jobs look nothing like the real thing and the so called season is more like a college tailgate party it can be as short as a weekend to as long as a month, plenty of videos online


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## partlyable

TRIGGER thanks for sharing this thread and picture might be one of the most interesting threads I have read in awhile. The realism of your fish is incredible. They look better than mounted fish. How long does one fish take you to complete?? Are the find carved in the wood or do you add them with another material? I would love to see your next one before it's painted. Thanks for sharing.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys for the kind words. 

Snakecharmer the crappie was fun to do. The fins were handful but still fun to do. I would love to try a white crappie next.

Uncle Paul I didn't realize they spear Sturgeon also. Do they taste good? I will do a search on the videos.

Partlyable it takes about 8 to 10 hrs . Much of it is the learning curve of trying something new. The decoy fins can be aluminum or plastic. I have been using aluminum. It still cuts well on the bandsaw and can be sanded on the edge sander. 

I started taking pictures of decoy's in the building process to post on here. I will do a step by step the best I can. This is all new to me compared to the veterans in this field. I have made many mistakes and will share them. By no means am I claiming to be an expert. It was a big advantage coming from a lure mking background. I now many of the seasoned builders would like to see some newer / younger people getting into this hobby to keep it going for the future. My 11 year old daughter is going to start making some with me soon. 
John


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## Many Eyes

They are way to nice to use!!! They look so real!! Great work!!!


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## Uncle Paul

Tigger only had it once and it was smoked and served like a pork chop and it was very very good and Im not the kind of guy that says W.Bass tastes good. The Wisconsin thread on Lake-Link has lots of reading about it


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## TIGGER

Here is a an amazing video on fish decoy carving. I learned so much watching this. I hope to meet Harley some day!


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## All Eyes

John, your work is truly amazing! The life in those decoys both in appearance and action is just ridiculous. It makes me wonder what's next for you. Remote controlled baits??? You have to admit, a giant Muskie or Shark to mess with people at the beach would be a lot of fun.


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## TIGGER

Thanks eyes, I see you are tinkering with some musky lures. There is a lot more surface to paint on. Those smaller walleye lures you build are amazing! I can't wait to see what you do with the larger ones.

Here is an Alwive baitfish carved from mahogany.











































This one was weighted heavier to make it spiral and fall more like a dying baitfish. It also have a tighter radius to keep it more straight up and down.









A 10" walleye carved from sugar pine.



































It is painted in a Lake Erie pattern.


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## TIGGER

This was a fun one to build. It is a 8" bluegill carved from sugar pine,
















































This one swam nice.


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## Treeman

John you let me know if you ever need any special wood for any of your projects. I come across a lot of different wood...basswood, linden, black gum(tupelo) and sweat gum which I've heard is also good for carving. All kinds of pine, cedar and fir. If there's anything in particular you want let me know. It would be cool to be involved. 
You're quite an artist.


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## MassillonBuckeye

I'm thinking I coulda took big fish at the OGF crappie tourney last week with that crappie you made. Astounding. I'd give my right arm(or left for that matter) for a saugeye decoy


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys,

Treeman thanks for the offer. The carving time is about shorten a bit with the night bite fast approaching. I am learning a lot about the different kinds of word (good and bad). Hard to believe the Fall Brawl starts in a couple weeks. Sounds like some bait is moving into the shoreline. That is the one thing that makes me crazy! LOL 

Massilon, Saugeyes are super cool fish. I got to catch some at Indian Lake years ago. I guess they can tolerate warmer temps. Working on a couple kinds of sucker fish and a brook trout. I want to do a Bluefin tuna at some point this winter.


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## All Eyes

Absolutely love your gill carving work. Hard to pick a favorite but that Alwive looks ready to swim away. Still not sure how you manage such a flat glass finish over such deep dimpling and contours on some of your baits. Especially your large dimpled honeycomb foil work. Even multiple heavy coats of epoxy still show slight variations in high and low spots, but the finish on your stuff is great. I wish you would post pics of everything you make. It sure looks like you stay busy at it.


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## TIGGER

Eyes, the epoxy by itself will level everything out. If the epoxy/ lure is spun on a drying wheel it will fill any depressions. 

Here is super cool one I just finished. It is 3 shad swimming together. They are held together with their fins. I about lost my mind installing the 18 fins! LOL The group is 9" long and carved from sugar pine.































































Here is video of them swimming along


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## All Eyes

Just incredible John. I've never seen anything like it. That is way cool!


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## topwater

Incredible work. Why just for spearing? Seems if those were scaled down a bit you could throw some hooks on them for ice fishing


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## Mr. A

I an seriously amazed! While on YouTube I checked out a few of the other decoys, and have to say that you have true talent.


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## Fishingisfun

topwater said:


> Incredible work. Why just for spearing? Seems if those were scaled down a bit you could throw some hooks on them for ice fishing
> 
> The blue gill looks alive swimming and feeding from the surface. I agree a smaller size with hooks and this should be a great lure to swim in a circle until that big bass smashes it. Thanks for posting, I had never seen anything like em.


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys, 

I have been tinkering with the idea of installing hooks on a couple. Did some research on older fish decoys and have seen some that had cheater hooks installed. 

Looking back on some fishing situations in my past where something fished vertically would have made a difference with muskies and walleyes. Hoping for some thick ice on Erie this year to try something out!


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## ezbite

that alwive needs some hooks and jigged under the ice.. great baits John. very impressive my friend.


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## TIGGER

Here are a couple more I finished recently. 

The first is Brook Trout carved from African Mahogany.

































The second is a Sucker that is carved from sugar pine. I used some imitation gold leaf to high lite the cheeks and sides


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## TIGGER

This last one is a Quillback Sucker carved from sugar pine. It has silver holographic foil for its sides. I ended up applying the foil one scale at a time. It took forever! LOL


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## Mr. A

Those are awesome works!


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## ML1187

Amazing works of art Mr. Snow! Thanks so much for sharing. Any plans for a beautiful river Smallie ?


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys,

ML Hopefully this winter I can try a smallie. That would be one tough pattern to carve!

Here is a fall Brown Trout I just finished. It is 10" long carved from African Mahogany.


































Now that open water fishing is can get more time in the man cave.


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## All Eyes

Once again, amazing work Tigger! Watching them swim is just as impressive as they look. Some of those are going to get pounded. You should def consider adding hooks. It would also be great footage with your Go Pro watching Muskie and Pike take off with them. 

Question: I've just been commissioned to carve a life size wooden duck and have never attempted anything but baits. The guy is not particular about any certain type of wood I use. Any suggestions on what wood might be best as far as both carving and local availability? I would imagine that a piece large enough would need to be dry so it doesn't split over time? Planning on doing the head and body out of two separate pieces. Any advice would be very helpful.


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## Uncle Paul

All Eyes; Lots of Videos on the internet how to get started and my first duck was over 30 years ago, my choice of wood has always been based on the style of duck you will be carving. For working or what I call crude carved you can use almost anything I have a Canadian I carved out of pretreated deck wood and a few made out of large drift wood pieces these pieces are made with draw knives and rasps. If you are going with the highly detailed carving you need as little grain as you can get and most guys will tell you to use basswood or tupelo and unless you have a source they can be expensive. Lately I have been using companies like www. sugarpinewoodcarving.com for wood and study casts. If you plan on starting with a block of wood give me a pm as I have lots of patterns but to be honest with you for years I have been starting with the precut blanks they save lots of time and money.Paul


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## TIGGER

Thanks Eyes, I can't wait to see the wood duck! The bird carvers are amazing. 

I just bought a block of Tupelo on ebay. It was 3" thick x 6" wide x 15" long. I paid 26 bucks with free shipping. I guess there is a big wood carvers show in Strongsville in the spring I was told, fish and bird decoy carvers. People sell the tupelo blanks there for a good price I guess.

The thing I have been admiring are the people that carve the "wood spirits" out of driftwood and old stumps. I will post some pics later when I get home.


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## TIGGER

There is a carver who lives on the West coast named Nancy Tuttle. She is an amazing carver! She takes driftwood and carves faces based on the shape of the wood / knot areas.

Her stuff just blows me away. 

Do a search on her work. Simply amazing.

I would like to try one this winter.

Here are just a couple pictures of her work.

They are called "Wood Spirits"


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## All Eyes

Paul, Thanks a lot for the info. Time is limited for this carving and starting with a blank would be a great way to go. Glad I asked!

John, Those carvings are amazing. I will check out her gallery. 
Lately I've been looking at these high speed engravers like the SMC 400x in the picture. Basically a dental tool. They aren't cheap but man could I have a lot of fun with one of these. It's like tracing a template with a pen only they spin at 400 thousand RPM's. They engrave steel, glass, wood, ceramic, etc. Look at these gun stocks done with one of them.


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## TIGGER

That is amazing. I would be so afraid of messing it up when I got close to the end. LOL

I have been doing my carving with a dremel but have been looking at the Foredom tools.


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## TIGGER

Had trouble at the end of the last site format posting pics. Lets see how this goes.

Here is a 10" steelhead trout.


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## TIGGER

A king salmon


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## TIGGER

A male river run steelhead.


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## TIGGER

A Chum Salmon


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## All Eyes

Out of adjectives. All I can say is wow. I would think that a large percentage of your work is bought by collectors for display purposes only. It would be a shame to see them get dinged up by use. Please keep the pics coming John.


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## TIGGER

Thanks Eyes, Hope you have been out fishing some with those beautiful lures you make. I have been out 3 time chasing night bite walleyes in the last week downtown Cleveland. The bite has been good. 


This is a golden shiner that I wrapped with gold foil from a candy bar.


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## TIGGER

Here is a bluegill that I used abalone shell for its scales along with some real turquoise rock for its cheeks. The body was cedar.


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## TIGGER

A bone fish


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## TIGGER

Even tried a saltwater fish, yellow fin tuna


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## TIGGER

This was a super cool one I finished last week. It is called a steampunk. It is an art form that spins off the steam era. There are many styles of this for fashion clothes to motorcycles. This is a steampunk angler fish. It has heat formed copper over a wood body. I had the body on fire 3 different times! LOL


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## All Eyes

Those are over the top! Love the gill with the mosaic shell pattern but that steampunk has to be the coolest lure I've ever seen in my life! Just incredible work.


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## ML1187

That blue gill is CRAZY good. Belongs in a glass case. WOW!


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## TIGGER

Thanks guys! I have really enjoyed making the decoys.

Here is a sockeye salmon I did late winter. I used some green foil for its head.


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## Thundergut

Just stumbled across this thread. I normally spend my time on this site on the Erie forums. I just felt that I had to say that I am floored with your work. Beautiful, functional art. You have some awesome talent.


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## TIGGER

I saw that Eyes was thinking of trying some fish decoys and I am super excited about it!

It is a dying art that needs new blood to keep it going.

Here are couple that I finished this summer.


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## All Eyes

John, your work is off the charts! It really inspires me to keep going and try new things. Thanks for sharing these amazing works of art. I will be buying some wood blocks and aluminum after the holidays. Can't wait to get started on decoys.


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## All Eyes

This is one of the best spearing decoy's ever made IMO. Having fished sauger waters most of my life, they are some of my favorite fish. This one makes real ones look fake.  A Snow masterpiece.


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## TIGGER

Thanks Eyes, that was a fun one to make! I think sauger are one of the coolest fish out there.

I got to fish the Cabela's MWC circuit this year and the first stop was Spring Valley Illinois. The river is mostly filled with sauger with some walleyes mixed in . While prefishing we got some nice 3 pound class fish. The night before the start of the tournament the water went up 5 feet and visibility was zero and winds gusting to 40 mph!










It was fun fishing the circuit but man does it take a lot out of you traveling , prefishing, and the multiple day tournaments. I give those guys a lot of credit that do it year in and out. 

I fished with OGF member "HVAC Man" (Sam Cappelli) . Our best finish was atthe Lake Erie stop out of Lorain , Ohio.


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## TIGGER

Eyes here are some others I carved over the late summer . I am still learning a lot with each one.

This one is a hammer head shark from Planet "X"



















Planet 'X" Stingray with a stinging eye.


















Planet "X" vampire sucker fish


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## TIGGER

It is fun doing the Planet "X" style ones for free you mind and take the edge off .

Folkart ones are also fun to do. 





















Red River catfish with Red Christmas foil


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## TIGGER

Some more naturals


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## TIGGER




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## All Eyes

Your talent level is out there beyond planet X somewhere. Very cool stuff!


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## TIGGER

Thanks eyes, 
It is all fun and a little change up from luremaking.

If the pics help inspire someone than it is all worth it. 

There are some amazing artists / builders of fish spearing decoys.


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