Larry has spent a lifetime trying to find just the right item to collect that would wow him every time he sat down to enjoy the act of collecting and he did. In 2004 a just over four (4) years ago from now Larry's wife ask him to come to see what was being shown on Antique Road Show and that is where my collecting fish decoys started. They were talking about fish decoys on the show and when it was over, I went to my computer and type in fish decoys on the Google search engine and found that there was lots on fish decoys and I just started reading. Then I truly found eBay, both a great and bad source for fish decoys. I started buying to build my collection of decoys and with in a couple of years I had accumulated over 700 fish decoys and a few duck decoys along with many miscellaneous items related to spear fishing and just regular fishing. The first years I collected just about every type of carver's fish to old and worn out to brand new contemporary just made for collectors decoys. I learn allot about where the came from, who carved them, how to identify them and even how to identify something called a MIKKO type decoy. I started recognizing styles of carvers and soon realized the fish decoy was just an extension of the person carving it. Man, woman, child or young person it did not matter as it was about the carver and their craft. I put together a website, Fish Decoys Net and started collecting the fish carvers names and information about them. I summarized the information into a short biography on them and their Fish/Carvings. Not so quickly I amassed over 1700 names across the country, but mainly in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. Other states were represented, but these three (3) states seem to dominate the craft. Yes Illinois, New Hampshire, New York and just about any area where one can walk on water in the winter and setup a means of a dark area so you could see through the ice and spear fish is a candidate to find fish decoys. I started teaching myself how to carve fish decoys by looking at the decoys, reading books and magazines and listening to others. Even reading the great material that Fred and Jo Anne Campbell put in their book on decoys, which I found to be an excellent source as they are multi-year world champion recognized carvers in several different states. My first attempts taught me about paint and weighting and how to place the fins. These early decoys were disasters. Even Don Preston from Canada got in on the action to help as he sent me a half done mud puppy decoy to finish with very detailed instructions. After 1 1/2 years I still do not want to destroy his work with my bad work - so I am saving it until I can do it justice and return it to Don for his critique. Here in these pages I will be putting my collections up for all to see. Ask questions and I will try to answer them - just a note - there are many much more knowledgeable on fish decoys that I and many time I do refer to their words. Now with over 800 decoys and adding more weekly if not daily, I expect my collection to exceed 1200 within the next year. Collecting or addiction, whichever you want to call it - I enjoy it.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this and please enjoy the collection.

Larry Christy

2008