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Spearing (Pics)


Stiff

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So far this year I have just been a spectator to spearing,,,Its been 40+ years since I have been in a spear house ,,,I'm being tutored by a seasoned spearer,,,I put out some tipups and sit in the house watching the fish swim in and learning as we go ,,,dummy decoys, live decoy harness spear and licence still need to be aquired but I may use this season as a learning experience and pick it up next year ,,,this thread has been as helpfull as the tutoring ,,thanks for the info

Randoid

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Hey loon. Glad your getting back into spearing. Its is a very fun sport and you have alot of different things happen in the spear hole. Have any questions, dont be affraid to ask. cool.gif

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"I got a Harley for My wife ...I kinda missed her...so I got LOUDER pipes!!!!"

LOL! laugh.gif

Also Pokegpike, - Sweet Pics.

~T

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Wow you guys have a great thread going here! I just joined the Forum about a week ago and have been poking around but this has got to be the best thread.

You all have me reminissing, I was an avid spearer when I was a kid about 30-35 years ago. Actually had one of those plastic red & white northern shaped decoys back then. I bought another last spring when it was on sale at Mills but that is as close to getting back in as I have gotten. I need a dark house and have been meaning to build one but never seem to find time. It would be easier to just buy one at this point. Any tips on finding one?

My fist "house" was a cardboard box from my mother's new refrigerator. I quickly graduated to a 4'x 4' house I built myself when in the 3rd or 4th grade.... It was not pretty and was very heavy as it was built out of scrap 1" boards and corregated tin I scrounged up on the farm. But I got a lot of use out of it down on the river in the pasture. Dad helped me make an ice chisel from scrap iron and a spear out of an old pitch fork, we even "oil tempered" them. He wanted me to learn how to weld so I was on my own making a wood stove out of an old oil pan from a flathead v8 Ford. The good old days! Didn't have money but had time. How things have changed.

Bob

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First off i would like to welcome you to Fishing Minnesota. This is a great place to be able to talk everyone about fishing, yet to have a god time joking around and having a hreat time. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. I will be able to help you.

Things have changed in the last 15 years. I remember when i was out there with my dad, trying to figure out how the heck to be able to cut hat spear hole, get things ready to go, and be able to have a good time doing it. Now that we have all these new saws, and amazing augers, its like its coming to the point where its getting to easy. Spearing is somethign that if you have not done it before, you as a fisherman, have to at least try it once. Ya its not for everyone, but its a sport that once u try it a few times, and see fish, its pretty tuff to beat it.

Once again, Welcome to FM and have a great time here.

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Check out this rig... I picked it up at a second hand shop over the weekend. It's pretty lightweight, but not so light that I think it will be a problem. Overall length is about 5 ft.

IMG_2824.jpg

IMG_2817.jpg

IMG_2819.jpg

The barbs seem very sturdy as they are not cut into the side of the tines.

Do you guys ever have trouble getting the spear out of the fish without damaging them??

Are there any tricks to this? (getting the fish off the barbs)

~T

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Nice pick up, although i dont like the spears that are set up like that. Reason that i say that, is i dont like how the barbs on the inside are smaller and shorter then the outside barbs.

As far as getting the pike off the spear, alot of times, if oyu get a clean hit on the pike, you should not have a problem getting the fish off the spear, a really easy way to get them off without hurting them, is placing your hand on top of the fish and pushing presure into to fish, where the holes will open up, and the barbs will come right now. Has worked for me.

I will work on getting pictures of my two spears, and get them on the this link.

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HEY STIFF I spear out of a permanent house with a door that opens out,I just open the door, Lay the spear on the bottem of the door frame with fish outside, close the door a little with the fishhead outside the door and give the spear a little tug, pops the fish of every time!!

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Sounds great -

Unfortunately I don’t fish out of a permanent and I don’t think I could pull it off with the zipper on my canvas portable LOL.

smirk.gif

Fortunately, I don’t have the problem very often. grin.gif

~T

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I used to spear quite a bit about a decade ago (I was about 14-16 at the time) and was given a 4x8 dark house that a friend of mine and I built when I was just a kid (like 12) and it is still very functional. I put it out around Xmas of this year and have been out pretty much every Saturday and Sunday on the lake that I live on.

I just had a few questions for those of you that may have more experience in the sport ( I really dont remember all the tricks and what not).

I set my house up so I could see the bottom of the lake. My hole is about 24 inches by 72 inches and one side of the hole is in roughly 5.5ft of water with a weedbed on it (was a solid weed bed but is dying off now and mostly brown). The weedbed side is on the low edge of a drop off from 3ft to 5.5ft. The other side of my hole is in about 8 ft right before a large shelf that drops down to about 14 feet. I can see the bottom very clearly and have no trouble seeing pike move in. Over the last couple weeks the pike action has slowed considerably though. I am wondering if it may be that I need to move my house.

Are pike territorial? I am wondering if I speared 10-12 in that area that not many more will move in for a while.

Also, I have a muskrat problem recently. He likes my spear hole. Will this scare off fish?

Are you typically spearing where you can see the bottom or are you in deeper water and just running your decoy where you can see it?

Thanks for information that you may have.

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TERIBLE FISHERMEN It sounds like you have your house in a good spot, I have sat for a week with no action and then you cant keep them away from your decoy,pike move around alot!RATS!!They STINK!!If you have a cover over your hole thats a start,try hanging a few mothballs in a small finch seed bag on a nail under the cover when you leave!! good luck!!

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Oh yea I forgot, I knew a old timer that used a decoy shaped like a rat, tail and all! so no I dont beleave a rat is spooking your pike!

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One other decoy that some of you guys might want to try is a BIG Dea Devil.. The biggest one u can find and just take the hook off!!!!

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What i think your talking about is a big dear devil. Alot of guys have been using them for spearing, where they take the hooks of the dear devil and jig it in the whole. But i guess u can use the hooks now that u can jig in the whole.

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Sometimes when the fish are not moveing and Im done cooking vennie and tatertots on the woodstove,Ill play with diferant decoys. Try a sucker minnow on a harness with a spinner blade pinned to its tail! It puts a little more color in the hole!sometimes it works!!

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hey Stiff;

Nice spear, what did that cost you and where do you find a second hand store that has such things?

The barbs look similar to the one my dad and I made a long time ago. We sharpened the end of the tines first, then heated them up with a torch and bent them around to become the barb. Then we heated and hammered the bend into a new point and polished the whole thing up with a grinder and then a file. Very durable.

Bob

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Stiff that spear is a good find indeed. The style of line tie identifies this as a "Brainerd Spear." It was likely made back in the 40s or 50s by Louis Gustas for the Foley Hardware store. A gentleman names Clarence Thomas made the spears after Mr. Gustus passed on. Nice Spear!

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I found it at an antique shop just east of Superior Wisconsin. They actually had quite a few, but almost all of them were pretty poor quality. I paid about $60 for it, which I thought was pretty fair. I was trying to figure out how they made the points / barbs on it. after close inspection....... I'm still not sure.

With a little luck I hope to give it a try Saturday morning. grin.gif

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Early Riser,

That's pretty cool - Thanks for the information. How do you learn the details of past decoys / spears etc. and their makers??

BNS,

What do you mean? or are you just teasing? I'm trying to learn some new spots. Hopefully I'll get a few more fish in the viewing window Saturday morning than I've seen so far.

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