As the Crow Flys: Black Bear

As The Crow Flys:

Where did this black bear take pause?

In front of Tonys's Trail Camera only 35 miles away from here (as the crow flys).

  This bear carving has been sitting in my shop,  unfinished,  for about 15 years ~  since Montana days.   We lived at the base of Hollowtop Mountain and so did a bear or two.

  I did carve a few realistic grizzlies in Montana, but this will be a totem black bear covered mostly with Montana wildlife.        

 

 

                           Have a happy Thanksgiving.

This morning,  I dusted off some of my spearing prints:  This one is a  look into the past of John Jensen's spear fishing environment - His dark house, his decoys, and even a corner of his red clad house where he carved and painted a lot of decoys, and served many a cup of coffee to folks interested in fish decoys.   

Winter Ritual 

by Carol Tappe 1998 

   

 The ice continues to form on the lake today, and  the geese are flying South with  a North West wind that's blowing 30 miles an hour.

   Any self respecting goose should be able to fly 50 miles an hour, so combined with the  North West wind speed  -  that's 80 miles an hour,  so it shouldn't take them long to get to where they're going !

Two in my trap line this morning.  Mice that is.  Here's a good give away - one of my mice catching secrets: Wedge a sunflower seed in the trap pan. The mouse has to pull and work to get at the seed triggering the jaws!

     

                                    First Ice

   Most every morning I go out and take a walk around the house. 

  There's a sciff of ice forming along the lake shore,   it's covered with a dusting of last night's snow.  

   The crows fly over, and that's what I'm inspired to carve,  a flying crow.  (This was a few days ago.)  Click on photos to enlarge.  

Crow carving hanging from a string.  

      The Flying Crow has a 10" wing span.

      High gloss finish for easy dusting.  

 

  

                               For Sale   5-29-21

Here's a 7-1/4 inch Alaskan Red Cedar Decoy from McEvers that has his Northern Pike hand burned and painted on each side. Burn detailing with an different look. It has glass eyes, stone ground and toasted copper fins, and is stamped "J" on the lead. Made right here in Ottertail County Minnesota, Pike spearing hub of the world! Free shipping on the decoy.      Sold

                                         for Sale   5-5-21

Here's a dandy 7-1/4 inch Alaskan Red Cedar working decoy from McEvers Folks !  Punched with hundreds of pin punches to hold the paint and cut the glare !  Designs burn outlined and the decoy is totally hand brush painted. 

   Quality made right here in Ottertail County and Vergas Mn. With over 500 spearable lakes, a good portion of the county is frozen solid for six months. The decoy holds true to the classic  styling of carvers long since past.                      Sold

                                           Deep water Spearing

   I'm set up in 13' of water and the water is a little cloudy yet. Now that we have snow the snow will cut the light and the algae should clear in a week or so. I'm running the decoy at about a 6 ft. depth. I've only had two fish come to decoy but the angling has been good with good numbers of Crappies, Sunfish, and an occasional Bass hitting the wax worms.  Both Northerns I've speared were within a few ounces of 7 lbs.  I've been surprised at the size  of the crappies. Largest have been 13-1/2 and 13 inches. Nice fish for this neck of the woods.

                            Work em fast and let em sit! 

 

Working fish decoys early on.

At one of the decoy shows,  a friend of mine had this small collection of vintage working decoys on display. (Click  the picture twice to enlarge.)

Some of my more well known fish decoys are  the Totems,   (Examples are shown on earlier blog posts).   But for the next couple of weeks of hot and humid weather,  I'll be focusing on classic working decoys. 
Pictured below is one of the first working decoys I made to take to the dark house years ago.    

Early McEvers working decoy. 
 Made in the last century.  

The decoy was weighted with lead shot

from a shotgun shell.

This 7 1/4"  Cedar Fork Tail
recently sold on Ebay

7-7-20   For Sale      This 4-3/4 inch Decoy is made from River Birch and has the natural background color. The designs are hand burned and totally hand brush painted. It has the 2020 paint pattern "fish net grid".It has glass eyes, copper fins and is stamped "J" on the lead.   SOLD