Up for auction is a decorative Paddlefish hand carved and painted by me, Phillip A. Cates. I was sitting here at my computer watching video's of men on the Mississippi river snagging Paddlefish. This led to me trying to carve one of these prehistoric creatures for the first time.
My Paddlefish was carved out of poplar wood and measures ten inches long from the end of his tail to the tip of his nose. Each of the six fins were hand cut from heavy copper sheet metal. After a bit of work with the files and sandpaper, these fins were epoxied deep into the body. I used both acrylic and vinyl paint on this decoy and there are several layers. After filling the belly with lead and adding a pair of glass eyes, I signed and dated my Paddlefish as a No.1 before finishing it with three coats of varnish.