Our first spear house build

[northerndave]

ok, now all my skill saws are MIA, gotta go borrow one from a friend so we can start cutting sheeting for the house.

Stove looks pretty good with the flat black paint.

[northerndave]

Well I have the boys working on the floor. This is how we're doing it.

Here's where the wood stove will go.

[northerndave]

We ended up with a 24x40 hole. The floor is a 1/2" CDX sandwich with 1.5" foam inserts and 2 by lumber laid flat. Unconventional as heck but it actually gets really strong being sheeted both sides and it puts us closer to the ice. This will all sit in a steel sled/cradle made out of 2"x4" rectangular 14 gauge tubing.

I better get back out to the garage.

more later.

[mrklean]

Nice i like the insulated floor

[BOUNCED]

I'm a huge fan of the wood stove I run one myself in my perm.

I really like that stove, great work.

[northerndave]

Thanks, there's some detail in the stove, little things that dont show in the pictures. like the door hinges, the bushing portions have a tiny chunk of rod plug welded into the bottoms of the bushings so the L shaped hinge rods bottom out in the bushings. This way the hinges wont settle downwards over time. The door fit is perfect and it will stay that way.

That hinged draft plate below the door allows you to fine tune the draft too. We're excited to get the house together so we can light that stove inside and see how it does.

We've got a river about 6 miles from home that we might set it up on for it's test run.

[merkman]

Dude.... that is far from ugly.......

Wow!!!!!

Top notch!!!

[northerndave]

Thanks, continuing on the house tonight.

I guess that's all for tonight.

[northerndave]

so I send my dad pictures of this stove and the spear house project for my boy. He txt me back and says he has some decoys for Nate. I said cool! He sends a picture:

I'm like, holy smokes! Those are cool! Where did you get them and when did you get them?

He replies "bought them in 1978, never used them."

Lol!

These are cool huh?

[Archerysniper]

Looks like 3 bear creeks and a Lakco. I really like the color of that sucker 2nd from right. Looks like you have a gret start on the decoys.

[northerndave]

Hey thanks for the info on the decoys. It's like a little treasure for us. My boy is really excited now, says he's afraid to use decoys that grandpa has had since 78 and never used.

[Early Riser]

ND,

There are three bear creek decoys there. The top red/white one is a Bruell decoy made by Bruce and Hellen Wakefield or one their children.

The older Bear Creeks are a lot nicer than the ones made within the last 5 years or so.

[shortfatguy]

One of my favorite spear houses I had was 10'x5' with a door in the center and a spearhole on each end. You could have 4 people in it. 2 at each spear hole. Was plenty of room for a heater and chairs. holes were 4'x2'. Have you thought about this type of lay out?

[northerndave]

Hey thanks, yeah I stumbled across bruell decoys in a search too and felt like they matched the red/white one on the right.

It looks to me from the photo my dad sent that they all have metal fins, (bottom fins on the bear creek and all 5 on the bruell)

that's cool.

[northerndave]

One of my favorite spear houses I had was 10'x5' with a door in the center and a spearhole on each end. You could have 4 people in it. 2 at each spear hole. Was plenty of room for a heater and chairs. holes were 4'x2'. Have you thought about this type of lay out?

I have a feeling the simple 4x8 we are building right now wont be our last one.

[Gordie]

I have a feeling the simple 4x8 we are building right now wont be our last one.

Darkhouses are like decoys and spears you can never have enough.

[Early Riser]

If they were bought in 1978 it would be a Bruell by the senior Wakefields. One or two of the children started making them again about 4 or 5 years ago.

They used to sign a few decoys. The one I am looking at right now is signed

H.Wakefield.

[Early Riser]

"Darkhouses are like decoys and spears you can never have enough."

Gordie, that is true. I have reached my limit for space here at home for darkhouses unfortunately. Decoys and spears on the other hand are still in play, although I am pretty selective now in what I am looking for.

[LunkerCity]

That red and white on the end(right side) is my go-to decoy. I've been staring at that decoy for 20 years and speared two fish over 40" off it in the last two winters!! I have 4 decoys and rarely will I pull that off my line.

[northerndave]

Very cool, thanks guys, We looked up the history on the Bru-ell decoys and the MN family that started producing them in 1943. Very interesting stuff.

[MJ1657]

I have a Bear Creek natural northern like you have there. It was my very first decoy and the most productive for me over the years.

I find myself using it less all the time as my collection grows but it will never be put up.

[Huey]

That red and white on the end(right side) is my go-to decoy. I've been staring at that decoy for 20 years and speared two fish over 40" off it in the last two winters!! I have 4 decoys and rarely will I pull that off my line.

How can you limit yourself to just 4 decoys in 20 yrs?

I've been spearing for about 4 yrs and have over 20 decoys.

My go to is Bruell too. Red and white candy stripe.

NorthernDave - Sorry for getting off the subject. Thanks for posting. It's fun to watch your project.

[merkman]

My advice for the bru-ell. Is to keep that one on the shelf and buy a new bru-ell to use.

The bear creeks are workers though!!!

.

[LunkerCity]

Huey, I only have four at the moment. Most of my life I was in my dads house and had access to his collection. Now I'm starting my own... At 20$ a pop its going to grow slowly, maybe i'll start carving sometime.

Northerndave, I dig the insulated floor as my toes often need wiggling to keep them warm!!

[BOUNCED]

I've been spearing for about 4 yrs and have over 20 decoys.

If I only bring out 20 decoys I call that packing light