Ron W. Deiss

Born June 30, 1956, Lincoln, Illinois

2034 15th Street. Moline IL  61265

Ph 309-764-8703

Deiss1@att.net

              I began carving fish decoys in 1999 and am still carving for my own use.  Also I make spears and dippers, but they are miniature versions used in my models of darkhouse, ice spear fishing scenes.  I have enjoyed carving as a hobby most of my life.

              When I moved to Moline, Illinois on the Upper Mississippi River in 1988, I was naturally drawn to the river and its history.  I first learned about ice spear fishing from my own research on Native mussels shell use.  I was familiar with the mussel shell fish decoys excavated from prehistoric Native American sites in the upper Midwest.  The earliest of these sites are nearly 1000 years old.  In my trips up and down the Upper Mississippi River I learned more about the history ice spear fishing during the Great Depression from Bud Henrickson of La Crosse, WI and Carl Noel from Prairie du Chein, WI.  They ice spear fished on the Mississippi River as young men, prior to spearing becoming illegal in the late 1930’s.  I am good friends with Ron Dickenson of Fairmont, Minnesota, a state where ice spear fishing for pike is sill legal and a popular winter sport. 

             Ron Dickenson was born in 1936 and speared for fish most of his life in central southwestern Minnesota.  He was friends and spear partners with Louis Leech, also from Fairmount, and known for carving hundreds of fish decoys.  Ron helped Louie Leech make fish decoys and knows many legendary stories on ice spear fishing in Minnesota which fed my enthusiasm.  Ron Dickenson collected and carved decoys, and knew many of the early Minnesota carvers.  A real and honest to goodness, knowledgeable, and adept ice spear fishermen, Ron still spears when he can.  During later retirement years, Ron related that he spent almost every day during the winter months spearing for northern pike.  A couple of years ago, Ron gave me his “Jigging Machine,” built by an unknown Minnesotan, who like Ron, spear fished every day for weeks on end.  In effect this battery operated machine is made from parts of a small electrical engine and was suspended over the ice hole with a string that tethered to the decoy.  When turned on, the Jigging Machine rotates the decoy in a continuous, somewhat mesmerizing pattern, which is said to hypnotize pike. 

              In the late1990’s, I had planned to spear fish in southwestern Minnesota with Ron Dickenson, but we found out that only Minnesota residents could ice spear fish within that state.  In preparation for the failed ice spearing fishing trip to Minnesota in 1999, I taught myself to make fish decoys, which was probably a mistake, since many of my first fish didn't swim as well as I desired.  In 2000, I used internet searches and spoke with with Frank Baron of Livonia, MI, Doug Davis of Williams Bay, WI, Tom Richards of Cadillac, MI, Tom Bachler of Port Huron, MI, and other spear fishermen.  I had long talks with Tom Richards and Tom Bachler, who made offers of spearing trips.  Tom Bachler unfortunately passed, but we did have plans.  Frank Baron mentioned that Jim and Marge Wicks of Curtis, MI., rent out darkhouses on South Manistique Lake in the Upper Peninsula, and are owners of South Lake Decoys. 

              Since 2004, I have  rented Jim Wick’s darkhouses.  Residents from other states can ice spear fish in Michigan (plus, you can spear musky, as well as pike).  Most of the time I have use the traditional wood decoys, but I have had success with a jar of live minnows, a live sucker in a plexiglas tube, and a sucker in a harness.  Also, Jim and I once placed a live sucker with hooks on a tip-up just outside of the darkhouse, but still within eyesight and spearing, from inside of the darkhouse.  As for this experiment, I speared a pike going for the tip-up sucker while I was decoying, while another pike was simultaneous hooked by the tip-up.  The tumulus activity, which ensued both inside and outside the darkhouse was a spectacle, involving a tangled fish decoy with string and tip up lines crossed and knotted with a tip-up, a tethered spear, and two still lively, hooked and speared pike. 

         I enjoyed all methods of spearing fish, except for the last one mentioned, but the live suckers really go crazy when they see a pike bearing down on them.  Jim and Marge Wicks, as well as other UP contacts, became good and fast friends.  Those interested in ice spearing are the nicest and most helpful folks around.  I learned quite a lot about ice spear fishing from Jim, as he has perfected every traditional and contemporary method, trick, style, and decoy to spear fish.  He is a believer that one should appreciated the history, as well as the local techniques to really be a proficient ice spear fisherman, while adhering to the rules and regulations.  I typically spear my limit of two pike nearly every day, but have yet to see a musky.

              I have to say, that under Jim’s tutelage, I have never speared an illegal fish nor have I ever missed a fish that I took aim at with the spear.  Jim is one of the very best teachers.  I have speared in the same darkhouse with Jim and learned so much.  The last time we speared together and I speared a pike, he woke immediately from a dead sleep straightaway yelled, “Did ya get it?  Naw ya didn’t get it!  Did ya get it!  Did ya get it? Naw ya didn’t get it!  Did ya get it?”  This is known as the somewhat mystical, but common, Yooper darkhouse chant, and usually ends about the time the lake bottom sediment settles and water clears in your ice hole. 

              Usually what happens in the darkhouse stays in the darkhouse, but if you are by yourself, you don’t want to nod off.  Since the darkhouse shacks are enclosed and heated, there is always a potential for fire, drowning by falling into the hole, freezing your feet while walking home after falling into the darkhouse, suffocating on exhaust fumes, or spearing your foot.  Although, when two people are in a darkhouse, when one person is decoying fish for endless hours and the darkhouse is warm, your partner is guaranteed to go to sleep, since watching someone else decoying naturally makes your mind completely blank, then succumbs to numbness, and before long a deep slumber ensues. 

              Through my contacts since 1999, I began reading all that I could on ice spear fishing, and I purchased the out-of-print fish decoy books by the Kimball family.  By 2004, I had assembled a fair collection of Upper Mississippi River, La Crosse fish decoys.  The La Cross reach of the river is only a few driving hours north of my home in Moline, Illinois (part of the Quad-Cities), also on the river.  With its imposing bluffs, wonderful vitas, and entrenched valley, the La Crosse section of the river is beautiful, but buckling or flowing ice is unbelievably hazardous during winter months.  Unlike the placid, frozen lakes typical for spear fishing in Minnesota, the river’s iced surface is constantly changing and its underlying current and changing water levels beneath are mighty and dangerous forces to be reckoned with.

              The fish decoys in my collection date prior to 1937, when it became illegal to ice fish spear on the river.  I am a firm believer that fish decoys used on the Mississippi River were made for the specific conditions of this region by people that knew the river and what ice spear fishing was all about.  In late 19th century, La Crosse was a city of immigrants, who embraced the abundant resources the river provided and were more acceptable of regional and traditional Native methods of spearing than the earliest pioneers, who considered ice spear fishing somewhat a primitive and lowly activity. 

              In 2003, I contacted and became friends with fish decoy historian, author, and the best known proponent of fish decoy collecting, Art Kimball.  Art became a friend and mentor.  I appreciated his humor, knowledge, and regional expertise.  No one had done more footwork in researching, writing, thinking about, and collecting fish decoys.  Although excellent fish decoy books have been printed and will undoubtedly be published in the future, Art was the first and he will always be considered the father of the regional interpretation and identification of fish decoy styles (ice spear fishing history, material culture, and behavior associated with a particular geographical area). 

              I began writing articles on ice spear fishing in 2003 and Art provided support in this endeavor.  Following Art’s death in June 2007, friend Steve Robbins of Clifton, Ohio, and I have spend many hours in conversation discussing many aspects of fish decoys and Art’s influence in this field.  Steve is a fine and artistic carver and gave me a number of pointers over the years, which would have improved my decoys immensely if I would have listened to him. 

              The first decoys I carved in 1999 in preparation of the ice spear fishing season in Minnesota the following year, was made with the aim of spearing baskets full of enormous musky with my own decoys.  The first decoys I made for spearing were small had pigtail hangers with five (rarely, but sometimes 3 or 7) loops, so I could increase my chance of getting good balance.  I have traded a few fish decoys for my rental fees up in the UP of Michigan in and around Curtis, Michigan.  I carved my decoys primarily for my own use with the goal of owning a well groomed, working rig that would one day seduce “The Big One” with reach of my spear. 

              This may sound silly, but I never actually test my fish until the first day of ice spear fishing.  This adds to the expectation of the spearing season, allows me to compare the swimming nature of the decoys, and retains my interest when there is no darkhouse action.  In other words, even though I went home fishless sometimes, I still got a chance to play around testing my decoys.  Every ice spear fisherman has favorites and usually spends more time with those tethered to the jigging stick.  It has been common practice in recent years for an ice spear fisherman to retire a fish decoy that was used in spearing a real large musky, especially one that has a tooth imbedded into the surface. 

              I never entirely adhered to the general concept that spiral swimming decoys are the only ones that work.  Like a few others that spear, I have made (purposely and accidentally) decoys that exhibit other attitudes or swimming patterns.  The patterns of live fish are based upon needs or instincts — such as schooling, spawning, foraging, resting, fleeting, preying, and migrating.  A few of my decoys swim in typical patterns, the most common being crippled (erratic), foraging/feeding (spiral), fleeing or preying (in and out), and holding position (wriggling slightly or stationary).  While, most of my decoys are weighted to swim in the common spiral pattern, I do have very successful decoys that use a running pattern and when jerked with the jigging stick, which proceed straight out directly under the ice for a large distance before returning to center of the ice hole.  

              I have carved and used tadpole and small bluegill decoys with a high degree of success that when jigged that have an erratic tumble of crippled swimmer.  I have been told by seasoned ice spear fishermen that these wouldn’t work well.  After giving them one of these decoys to use, most have since changed their mind, a few put them on a shelf and didn’t use them, and the remainder either are lying to me or just can’t remember.  No matter what the decoy does in the water, if it keeps bringing in the fish within spearing range, keep using it!  Also, tethering fish decoys that make other motions is not as monotonous and allows for more neck movement during the day, which allows for less neck and shoulder stiffness the following morning.

              I usually carved my fish out of hardwoods, such as beefwood, maple, walnut, and cherry.  I typically make my fins of brass or copper sheeting and the 5-loop pigtail hanger predominates.  I hand bend the wire loops for pigtail hanger with an alternating twists, with an odd number of turns for good luck.  An odd number of loops always look best, since the symmetry of an even number of loops look too unnatural.  I usually carved a “fixed position” or wooden tail.  I would say that my fish exhibit a particular, look to them, since I first began carving.  In the case of fish decoys I say the word “carved” very loosely, since when I began making decoys I have never used knives or blades to form the decoy.  I band saw out the fish shaped blocks, the use a grinding wheel and sander to shape the decoy into the species that I desire.  I use different shapes and sizes of files to put in details.

              Sometimes I use a drill or motor tool with small bits to make holes or do some heavy duty sanding on fish decoys.  My eyesight is good but too poor to use cutting machinery and blades all of the time.  I use some acrylic paint highlights, but typically used dyes (Ukrainian Easter egg dyes) in combination, to provide a semi-transparent base colors which let the natural wood grains show through.  I use clear glass eyes, which I back with various colored foils.  Also, I have used opaque, colored and reflective, glass bead eyes.  I estimate I may have carved about 150 fish decoys, but I never counted them or signed them.  Generally, I have made larger decoys in recent years.  I have always been told that larger decoys attract larger fish, but on the other hand, smaller decoys will get you more action with smaller northern. 

              I have carved pike, musky, bowfin, paddlefish, shad, drum, catfish, madtom, various sunfish, sturgeon, dragonfly, snake, trout, tadpole, and sucker decoys.  Also, I have made plain carved fish and four ice spear fishing darkhouse scenes.  These small darkhouse scenes are enjoyable to make, but take a lot of time.  Also, I made small ice spears for these scenes, which are made of sterling silver forks, and make dippers made from sterling silver spoons.  I have made these miniature tools completely by hand and they take many hours.  Also, I have made a few jigging sticks.  Honestly, the fish decoys I have traded for rental fees or darkhouse use are not my best swimmers.  Most of these decoys are sold by friendly Yoopers during the summer months as souvenirs to tourists and are kept as evidence that people not only live in the UP in the winter, but go outside and brave the intemperate, blizzard weather.  

              For me, ice spear fishing is like most of the northern winter sports, you try to have as much fun as possible, without maiming or killing yourself, or anyone else.  I plan to ice spear for sturgeon along the Fox River in Lake Winnebago, in northeastern Wisconsin someday.  Also, I would dearly love to ice spear fish Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior, near historic Ashland, Wisconsin or anywhere in Alaska.  In my mind, the last two places have the potential for spearing a legendary “The Big One.”

Articles

2007    A Brief History of Ice Spear Fishing on the Fox River and Its Tributaries in East Central Wisconsin (reprint).  Hunting & Fishing Collectibles Magazine, July-August 7(4):8-16. Lawsonville, N.C.

2007    Frank Talbot’s River Ice Spear Fishing Decoys.  Hunting & Fishing Collectibles Magazine, January-February 7(1):48-50. Lawsonville, N.C.

2006    A Brief History of Ice Spear Fishing on the Fox River and Its Tributaries in East Central Wisconsin. Oshkosh Public Museum 18(2):i-viii. Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

2006    Ice Spear Fishing on the Upper Mississippi River. Illinois Antiquity 41(1):3-9.Champaign, IL.

2006    Spearfishing through the Ice. Big River, January/February. Winona, MN.

2005    A Brief History of Ice Spear Fishing on the Fox River and Its Tributaries in East Central Wisconsin (CD). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island, IL.

2005    Ice Spear Fishing Focusing on the Upper Mississippi River La Crosse Reach (CD). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island, IL.

2004    Ice Spearfishing on the Upper Mississippi River. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District Tower Times, 27(2):6, 7. Rock Island, IL.

Bio courtesy of Ron Deiss

Jan. 2008