Wisconsin decoys and decoy carvers are worthy of an entire post, but for today I wanted to share this pair of mallards we sold in 2014. They were made by Ron Koch of Rivermoor. Ron is a carver, author and sportsman. Here is a snippet about him I found on
Wooden-Decoy.com
"Ron Koch (Rivermoor, Wisconsin) is a renowned carver of gunning decoys whose work is featured in Loy Harrell's
Decoys—Sixty Living and Outstanding North American Carvers. Ron (the "River Rat") is a regular contributor to
Hunting & Fishing Collectibles, a historian of Wisconsin decoys (
Decoys of the Winnebago Lakes), and the author of two popular books about duck hunting. His latest book,
Behind the Back Shelf, tells the very funny stories behind his
The Back Shelf page in
Hunting & Fishing Collectibles magazine".
The Chicago Tribune did a great
article on Mr. Koch on November 16, 2003. It talks about his approach to duck hunting and the great outdoors.
OMRO,
Wis. — The old duck hunter huddled low in the cattails on a cold,
bright afternoon, the 25-m.p.h. wind twisting and bending the tall grass
like so many rubber hoses. It was a narrow point of land at the mouth
of the Fox River where the water bleeds into Lake Butte des Morts--and a
splendid place to wait for ducks.
The temperature was 28 degrees,
and faint-of-heart hunters were home tending fireplaces despite a
welcoming blue sky. It was just the old duck hunter here with his dog
Augie, a brown American water spaniel, and a 12-gauge Browning pump
shotgun.
"I like to hunt alone, mostly," Ron Koch said. "I'm kind of a lone wolf."
Gray-haired,
slightly built and wearing a uniform of full camouflage, Koch, 64,
recognizes he is in the autumn of his duck hunting career after 51 years
of working these waters and nearby marshes. He estimates he has put in
2,300 days on the hunt, but the days are getting shorter and
accommodations to age are in order.
Now his wife makes him take along a cell phone, just in case.
Resting
on his knees, Koch paddled his 40-year-old fiberglass-hulled skiff most
of the half-mile from home to claim this spot. Part of the way he used a
two-horsepower motor to help tow a visitor in a second skiff.
"When I was young," he said, "I hunted all day. Now, after three or four hours, I'm done."
The
old duck hunter grew up in this area and always has lived in one of the
towns on the outskirts of Oshkosh. His father took him duck hunting
when he was 13, and it was a treat. Then it became a passion. His wife
Connie, his children, the job as a rural letter carrier from which he
retired, the Green Bay Packers and duck hunting. Those are the things
that have defined his life.
Perhaps 1 million ducks have flown
overhead. Mallards, pintails, redheads, mergansers, gadwell,
canvasbacks, wigeon, teal, bluebills, buffleheads. It has been ducks
unlimited. How many thousand shots has he taken? How many dinners of
grilled or roast duck have been cooked, accompanied by mashed potatoes,
cranberry sauce and pie?
The skiffs were parked. One was disguised
in the water by trees and weeds. One was lifted onshore and became a
bench in the cattails.
"Be still if anything comes," Koch said. "Make like a stump."
It is not just the hunting time--the equivalent of more than six years in the field--fueling the old duck hunter's ardor.
