Ice Fishing Spear used by Lewis Dixon
name: label: user
content: Dixon, Bruce
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Black, metal spear with seven prongs with a long narrow handle with adhesive tape wrapped around shaft . There is a hole in end of the handle with a rope tied through it for retrieving the spear after it is thrown. This spear belonged to the donor's father, Lewis Vernon Dixon of Backus, Minnesota and used to spear the fish when the fish came in range or close to the decoy. Fish decoys are used in ice fishing in which a fisherman cuts a hole into the ice of a frozen lake, lowers the decoy into the hole on a string to attract the fish and then spears the fish when it comes to the surface of the water. While spearing fish is illegal in most states, some of the northern most states, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin allow this form of fishing to continue. Fish decoys are usually hand carved from a strong wood, such as white pine but which is still soft enough to carve. The fins are usually made from aluminum and an exact amount of molten lead, specific to each fish, is added for ballast to allow the decoy to sink but still maintain a horizontal float pattern. According to the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, carved fish are one of the earliest forms of American folk art which traces the practice back to 1,000 A.D. when hunters in the Bering Sea first used small bone or ivory decoys for ice fishing.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: Minnesota, Backus
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: Ice Fishing
label: level of sport
content: recreational
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Bruce A. Dixon
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1995.0361.03
label: catalog number
content: 1995.0361.03
label: accession number
content: 1995.0361
objectType: label: Object Name
content: spear, ice fishing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rope (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: tape (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19.5 cm x 145 cm; 7 11/16 in x 57 3/32 in