New style of spearing decoy sparking interest in old school way of fishing
Darkhouse spear fishing has a new kind of lure
Two Minnesotans have reinvented the lure for Darkhouse spearing, or a way of harvesting pike during the winter. FOX 9's Jared Piepenburg has the story.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Two local Minnesotans are designing a new type of winter bait that's gaining views on social media.
Darkhouse spearing has a new style of decoy made here in Minnesota
The backstory:
Years ago, Brent Miller was carving his own decoys when his uncle suggested he start making them out of rubber or plastic. He decided to take on the challenge and eight years later he now has this unique decoy on the market. Brent and his good friend Randy Hermann use Facebook to advertise and sell this new style of decoy.
They've dubbed their new decoy the Miller McTwister.
What makes it different:
Traditional style decoys are made of wood, weighted with lead, and given a paint job. Wood decoys vary widely in style and prices. Each one of the Miller McTwister decoys are hand poured and designed by Brent and Randy. The bait is similar to plastic worms and baits used by traditional angling for bass and walleye. They've added polycarbonate fins that flex. Fins on traditional decoys are often made of wood, steel, or aluminum.
The molded plastic body also comes with a twister-style grub tail. This combination allows for a unique style when swimming the bait and trying to draw in fish. The Miller McTwister comes in a single color or a dual-color decoy. Brent said it has been interesting trying to get different colors to work together so they don’t bleed into each other.
Often fish come in to look at or even hit a traditional-style decoy. Once the northern pike has tried to bite the wood decoy, they’ll swim off and not return.
The Miller McTwister Facebook page has many videos of northern pike hitting the decoy and continuing to come back to bite this fake fish. Brent and Randy say their decoy style makes it so the pike thinks it is actually a fish and feels like a fish when they strike the lure.
Local perspective:
Brent and Randy have asked their followers to send in their photos of fish they’ve gotten this winter using the Miller McTwister. The videos and pictures have shown how their new decoy has produced some good luck for those out on the water this winter. Their videos show not only fish coming back to strike the Miller McTwister, but big trophy fish coming back again and again.
The short videos of large pike have brought in the clicks. The Facebook videos that Randy and Brent have posted have wracked up over a million views and continue to go up.
Darkhouse spearing is a way to catch fish using a spear while looking down a large hole in the ice
The backstory:
Spearing fish through the ice predates angling. For thousands of years, this style of taking fish has been used in the cold winter months.
The idea of spearing fish these days is to cut a larger hole in the ice. This is often done by using a chainsaw, ice saw, and/or using an ice auger to punch many holes close together. The chunks of ice are removed. A shelter or "darkhouse" is placed over the hole to block out the light. Then a decoy is lowered into the water. This decoy is like a larger lure without hooks used to have the fish come in and look at the bait/decoy. A spear with multiple tines is then used to harvest the fish.
In Minnesota, a few species can be targeted this way, with the main fish being the northern pike.
More information from the MN DNR on Darkhouse spearing, click here.