The Wood Carver

Fanciful and Fine Fish Decoys Carved by Packwaukee, Wisconsin Man

First you notice the colors–iridescent blues and greens, mottled black and white. Then you see the shapes-soft curves, rounded bodies, sharp angles. Finally, you just have to pick one up to look closer at the fine detail; then you touch the smooth wood, feel the slight heft in your hand, and let your finger move the tail ever so slightly. You’re hooked. They caught your attention, then your interest, and then your heart. They’re the hand carved spear fishing decoys of Packwaukee, Wisconsin carver Jerry Bynum and if you’re like most people, even if you’ve never splashed a decoy through a hole in the ice, there is something about the grace, fluidity, and even the humor of these aquatic figures that makes you want to own one so that you can handle it and look at it again and again.

Jerry has always been in love with the outdoors, hunting and fishing every chance he got.

“I thoroughly enjoy every aspect of hunting and fishing,” he said in a recent interview in his home that overlooks Buffalo Lake. “My favorite sport has always been duck hunting, but I love bow hunting and musky fishing, too. But when I developed rheumatoid arthritis that limited what I could do, I still wanted to put myself in a position to take the most satisfaction from outdoor sporting.”

Jerry and his wife Jane, married since 1967, moved to Packwaukee from Pewaukee, Wisconsin about 18 years ago. Jerry is semi-retired from house painting and Jane manages a data entry office in Portage and is president of the Packwaukee Library Board. Jerry hunted and fished in the Montello area for years and one father’s day, the couple took a drive on the rural roads. Jane told him to turn onto a wooded lot on Buffalo Lake and said, “Happy Father’s Day, I bought you this lot.” After a lot of work clearing the land, the couple built their home in the midst of the hunting and fishing paradise Jerry loved.

The couple has a large collection of both antique and new fishing decoys. It was at a big fish decoy show in Minnesota that Jerry was encouraged to start to carve his own decoys. David H. Beighley, from a 3 generation carving family showed Jerry the world of decoy carving after another world class carver, Darren Kvam flipped him a piece of wood and told him to carve a decoy.

“By the end of the week, I’d made a decoy,” Jerry said. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just kept going and ended up with a lake trout.”

Ice fishing decoys are not like the tiny lures tied for trout or pan fish. They’re hefty, come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors, and are weighted. They’re carved and created so that they move realistically in the water to attract the fish that are being hunted. Spearing is only allowed in 7 states and in Wisconsin, only sturgeon can still be speared. Fishing decoy traditions go back to Native Americans who still create some of the most beautiful and best fishing decoys.

Antique decoys are a collectible group in themselves, but today’s carvers are creating works of art as well as usable decoys. All of Jerry’s decoys can be used for fishing, although he also creates fanciful mobiles purely for fun and eye-catching decoration. He carves his decoys all out of native woods, usually white cedar or red cedar or white pine or bass wood.

“I have to find wood with the least grain in it,” he said. “More grain and it’s harder to carve, easier to split. I’m always picking up pieces of wood that I find in the area.”