These collections of fish decoys were obtained from “The Gathering” Sporting Collectibles Show, which is an annual event hosted in Perham, MN in mid-April. The first year of “The Gathering” show was in 1999.

A carving competition, as part of the show, was started in 2000. The competition was called the “John Jensen Nationals.” John Jensen was the premier carver in the area at that time and his carvings were in high demand. His decoys and lures sold for hundreds of dollars, and if you ordered one, you would have to wait months or longer to receive it as he had a long list of orders to fill. John’s decoys are quality made with great care in the carving process. He hand-painted mostly with oil paints and his ability to blend the colors was exceptional. John made many different species of fish along with some critters.

For the “John Jensen Nationals”, a “purchase award” was made for “first place” in each category of the competition. The winner got the prize money and we kept the winning piece. This was a way for the carvers to make some money at the show and get recognition for their work. It was also a way to put together a collection of first place winners from the show. In a few of the later years, there were purchase awards for the top five fish in each division.

The competition is also a way to take the carvers out of their comfort zones and help them to become better carvers and produce higher quality decoys. The contests had may species of fish that were not commonly made and also many sizes of decoys from mini decoys to very large decoys. The “show down” decoys were over thirty inches long, which is a huge decoy! These “show down” decoys make a centerpiece for any decoy collection.

The decoys and other items in these contests were judged by a panel of three judges for the overall quality of the piece. The decoys all have to swim, then they are judged for the quality of their work, which includes carving, detail work, painting, etc. Some of the contests were for “hand-painting” only and others for “open paint”, which means any way the carver chooses to paint the decoy. Ribbons and certificates were given out to the top five places in each contest. If you made the top five, you did well!!

This is an overview of how these collections were put together for the “first place” fish. I have the winners for the John Jensen Nationals since 2001, and photos of these fish can be seen on this website. There are many photos of amazing works of art for you to see.

There are also other groups of fish which I call “show fish”. These decoys were collected from carvers that wanted to be on a print. To be on a print, the carver donated a decoy to be on the original painting. Once the painting was finished, prints were made of the original painting and the carvers had the option to purchase a print with their decoy on it.

The “show” prints from 2001 through 2004 have a theme to them. On the 2001 print, the larger northern in the middle is going after the red/white decoy. On the 2002 print the northern has the decoy in its mouth and broke the line attached to it. On the 2003 print the northern dropped the decoy and is looking down at it. On the 2004 print eh red/white decoy is on the bottom and the northern is just a shadow in the background.

All of the decoys for the show prints are still in the collections along with the original artwork. There are also some original paintings along with prints made from some of the early years of the winning competition fish. These can be seen in the photos on the site.

These decoys will be for sale in the future either by auction or by private sales.