Did you ever fish through the ice with a decoy Fish? I do not mean as the Indians do, down on your knees on the edge of a hold in the ice with your nose within a few inches of the water and three or four thicknesses of an old mackinaw blanket over you to shut out the light, and then in that position play the fish with one hand and hold the gaff in the other until you get so stiff and cold that when you want to gaff a fish you can hardly use a muscle; but rather with a well constructed fish box and a spring spear such as were often used thirty or forty year ago before their use was generally prohibited? If not, you have missed an experience not only charming in itself, but intensely instructive as to the habits of fish. Let me give you a little experience of my own in the days "long gone by."
During the fall of 1856 and early winter following, I happened to be in Fon-du-Lac, Wis., and at that time there were many Indians still living in the neighborhood. The lakes and ponds abounded in pike and perch, and during every winter the Indians were constantly fishing through the ice with their decoy fishes and gaffs in the manner described above. These decoys were whittled out of a pine stick, so as to resemble in shape a fish about six or seven inches in length; the wood was then stained a dark color, a few places were then scraped or chipped so as to give the fish a mottled appearance, a couple of pieces of tin stuck in each side answered for fins, and a grove was made in the fore part of the belly and filled with lead, which was kept bright. With a string in the head the fish could be jerked to the surface of the water and the lead would carry it down head first when the string was slackened, and so a very natural motion could be given to it. What was most remarkable was the fact that the less the decoy fish resembled a real one within reasonable bounds of course, the more successful it seemed to be.Some two or three years previously an old Indian had whittled out a fish which soon had the reputation of being the most killing and successful decoy ever made in that vicinity, so successful, in fact, that for a long time he refused to sell it on any terms, but at last a friends of mine through the offer of a considerable sum, tempted its owner to part with it and became its possessor. When the Legislature of Wisconsin soon after prohibited the use of such fish, it was sent to me as a souvenir of my trip. The record of one day’s sport will show the killing qualities of this fish. On one morning in December 1856, I visited with a companion, Lake Horicon, a lake some fifteen miles long situated a few miles distant, for a day’s sport at catching pike. We cut a hole in the ice nearly four feet in diameter, and over it placed our fishing box with the open side downs. This box was 4 ft. square, lined with heavy paper to exclude the light; we entered through a door in the side which was fastened with an inside button and sat opposite each other, each resting his feet on the ends of the narrow boat occupied by the other; our spring spear had a handle some 15 ft, in length which passed through a hold in the center of the top of the box. The decoy fish was played with the left hand and the spear held in the right. The water was about 10 ft. deep, and the light shone so clearly through the ice that everything in the water, even to the smallest fish, could be seen with perfect distinctness.
In four hours we took twenty-one pike, which weighed a little over 70 lbs., and we took every pike that came within sight except one small one. As I sat looking under the ice I saw a large pike chasing a small one, which darted across the hold, but as soon as his pursuer saw the decoy fish it ceased the chase and turned around and seized it with such force that he came partly out of the water right between our feet, and I speared him in the head above the water with the decoy fish in his mouth. His weight was over 5 lbs.
During all this time two Indians were fishing for pike only a few feet distant and on equally good grounds, and together they took just two fish, their decoys failing to attract the fish.
The box, which to the fish appeared like a dark spot on the ice, afforded an elegant opportunity to observe the habits of the pike in taking its food. Once on this day a large pike missed the decoy and he came with such force that he went perhaps 20 ft. beyond us, but he turned and came back slowly near the bottom and stopped right under the decoy fish and then began to rise very slowly toward it, but he was speared in deep water before he had a chance to make a second rush. Usually, however, the fish would approach cautiously until near the decoy and then make a sudden dash for it.
On Lake Winnebago, where we usually had good success, my companion and I both took yellow perch quite freely and they manifested none of the caution of the pike, but the black bass which abounded in that lake never came near enough to be taken; curiosity sometimes led very large ones to approach within sight, but they always kept close to the bottom and soon slowly swam away.
I have never been able to reconcile the results of my fishing with this decoy fish with the theory of may anglers for trout, that the more closely we can imitate the flies which then abound upon a stream or lake, the more sure we will be of sport, as in my experience the reverse is very often the case.
I have often observed that when I have been using a certain fly with success, the same fly has suddenly made its appearance in large numbers on the water, and that immediately my sport almost wholly cased for the simple reason that my fly then constituted but one of say 10,000 of the same kind; and I, therefore, had but one chance in 10,000 that mine would be taken, which was, of course, relatively diminished by the artificial character of the fly. May it not be so with a decoy fish or artificial minnow? The closer the imitation the more we put it in competition with the natural fish, which if we use one which will attract although it is different from the fish inhabiting the same waters, may it not prove to be very successful?
With this article I send to you for your inspection this old relic of past sport, although I fear it will sorely test your faith in the veracity of your correspondent.
V. C. – Poughkeepsie, N. Y., March 9, 1892.
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