Brainerd High class offered in darkhouse spearing

Brainerd High class offered in darkhouse spearing
By Vince Meyer
"First appeared in print in the Brainerd Dispatch, January 2003."

Dark house spearing is in decline. In these days of catch-and-release fewer of us hunker down over the green-lit hole, spear in hand, waiting for a northern pike to stick its nose into view.

Once every third house on the lake had a spear hole. Today, believe it or not, houses are built with only 12-inch squares for angling.

Is Minnesota losing its spearing heritage?

Bob Johnson hopes not. An art teacher at Brainerd High School, Johnson wants spearing to live on and this past fall introduced "Darkhouse Spearing: A Minnesota Tradition" to the school curriculum. Twenty students in grades 10-12 completed the nine-week class and earned their graduation standard in history of the arts.

Though the class requirement was for a red and white decoy, several students experimented with other paint schemes.

Students learned the history of spearing, interviewed local spearers and decoy carvers and carved a decoy of their own design. On Jan. 10 the decoys were lowered into Lake Edward and put to the test. Only senior Chad Weiss succeeded in spearing a pike, a 6-pounder, but other students' decoys got a look and everyone made the grade.

"I want to pass on something I'm passionate about to the next generation," Johnson said as he sat in his fish house and worked a decoy with a hand-carved jig stick.

A few houses away sat Devon Martin, a student who already is passionate about the sport. He spears nearly every weekend and said he's carved several hundred decoys.

"It's my winter hobby," Martin said. "I once got $40 for one. But $10 is the average. I don't want to make them so expensive that nobody will buy them."

For many students this was their first look at spearing. Wade Rousu decoyed in a fish, but it took off before he could spear it. Brian Kirkvold threw at one and missed. (Sound familiar, spearers?) Other students on the outing included Andrew Heath, Taylor Crocker, Brandon Gruber, Bruce Coonfield, Brandon Norgaard, Nick Keller and Josh Schueller.

At noon the group cooked bratwurst at the public landing. Some went back out on the lake for the afternoon shift.

The carving of the decoys took about a week. Though most students stuck with basic designs a few tried some different looks (see photo). The decoys were formed on a band saw, honed with a sander, weighted with lead, painted red and white and tested in an aquarium in Johnson's classroom. If they passed the aquarium test they were taken to the school swimming pool and sunk off the deep end. Then it was on to Lake Edward for the real thing.

"What I look for in grading a decoy," Johnson said, "is swimming ability. If it floats it needs more weight. If it's tail heavy it won't swim properly. If it's too heavy in front the nose will dive. Artistic style is looked at, too. I encourage them to experiment."

To finish the class, students wrote about the trip to Lake Edward and displayed their decoys in the high school showcase. Johnson would like the students to enter their decoys in the junior division at the John Jensen National Decoy Competition in Perham in April.

A new class begins Tuesday. Next fall Johnson will make it into a single 18-week class to give students more time to carve.

"Nine weeks is about enough time to do the paperwork," he said.

Johnson said if one kid in each class takes up spearing as a lifelong hobby he will have succeeded. At Christmas he received a gift from John Folland, a former student in Karlstad who learned to carve in the 8th grade. It was a brown trout -- not the easiest fish to carve and paint.

"He's still at it," Johnson said with satisfaction.