Pity the poor wintering muskie, lumbering along near the bottom of ice-covered inland lakes.
Through the gloom, the big fish spots what looks like a tasty bass flitting about a couple of feet under the ice.
Warily, the muskie spirals up for a closer look. It slowly nears the bass from underneath. Then, the smaller fish seems to leap through the ice and zap!-the muskie winds up with a nasty, three-pronged spear in its head.
If you`re the Ojibwa Indian or other canny spearfisherman lying atop the ice, it`s a cold way to catch your lunch. Shivering and pulling the bass decoy around with strings like a submarine marionette for hours on end, the hunter waits for the fish to come within spearing distance.
It`s a survival enterprise requiring patience, a bit of puppeteering dexterity, and the skill to fashion a decoy out of pine or basswood that will act like a fish in the water and not a hunk of wood. That skill is celebrated in ”Beneath the Ice: The Art of the Fish Decoy,” a special exhibition at the John G. Shedd Aquarium through April 6.
Organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, ”Beneath the Ice” looks at the origins of the fish decoy in spearfishing as practiced by American Indians and as adopted by immigrants to the colder reaches of New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The exhaustive presentation of decoys is arranged by state, highlighting regional variations in style.
By the early part of the 20th Century, professional carvers were creating decoys for sale. Many of those displayed are lavishly painted and decorated, enhanced with bits of leather or cloth or outfitted with metal fins. One is all aluminium. Others look like model airplanes with fins rather than wings.
Indeed, if our ill-fated muskie had not been closing in from underneath, he might have noticed some distinctly un-basslike glitter topside and the words ”Prince Albert” printed on the fins.
According to John Snow, an Ojibwa who will be demonstrating decoy carving at the exhibit Saturday, ”The top is for collectors; the bottom is for muskies.”
Michigan`s Oscar ”Pelee” Peterson was one of the most renowned professional decoy carvers of this century, and his work is highlighted with that of Hans Janner Sr.
Snow is one of the few hardy, frostbitten souls who still fashions decoys for dinner and profit. Recently, before an invited crowd previewing the exhibition, he displayed a number of his decoys and put a few to work in a tank of water.
A deft flick of the wrist by Snow had the decoy skittering in a circular motion, looking for all the world like the real scaly thing. Someone in the crowd noted that some of the decoys in the show were identified by species, others were not.
”Don`t make much difference if it`s bass or whatever,” Snow offered tersely. ”It`s the ones that swim the best that catch the fish.”
Later, he amended those remarks as he propelled a small decoy resembling a sucker through the tank. ”Muskies really go after suckers. They`ll come after `em three, four times in a row.”
It takes years of trial and error to arrive at the proper shape and weight for fake fish that move with verisimilitude. Snow makes his of basswood, a light, dense material that`s ideal for carving. He leaves a cavity in the decoy, into which he pours a small amount of lead for ballast.
Traditionally, the spearfisher cuts a hole about 1 1/2 feet in diameter in the ice and erects a small teepee over it. This provides a little warmth and keeps too much light from filtering through and scaring off muskies, sturgeon and other prey.
The decoy is lowered two or three feet into the water, attached by one or two thin lines to a stick that the spearfisher manipulates. Then the waiting begins.
”When you`re pulling it, you can`t let the line go slack,” Snow said.
”And you can`t touch the ice with it, or a muskie will run when he hears the sound.”
When the fish does come after it, though, the spearfisher must quickly ready the spear and zap!-put a serious crimp in an otherwise fine day beneath the ice.
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On March 21 and 22, visitors to ”Beneath the Ice” at the Shedd, 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, can create their own fish decoys with recycled materials. Call 312-939-2438 for more information.
