Some of the information in this story was related to me via a third party. Therefore the accuracy may be in question.
"Orca" is a sturgeon coaxer which is 39” long, 18” wide with fins, 7” wide without fins, 6 ˝” high and a weight of over 30 pounds.
The birth of "Orca": Orca was created do to a request from a collector to a Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin carver by the name of Vern Stone. The collector asked Vern to build him a large sturgeon coaxer. Apparently Vern brought the finished coaxer to the collector several times. Each time the collector rejected the work because it was to light and he said it would float instead of sinking. Vern returned to his work shop and decided to put a large quantity of lead into the belly of the coaxer. Vern then returned to the collector with a very heavy coaxer. Sometime later a comment was made that several cars may be out of balance because they were missing the balancing weights on there tires, meaning that someone had stolen the lead balance weights and melted them down for lead to put into a certain sturgeon coaxer.
The re-discovery of “Orca”: After Orca was built the collector put her out on his screen porch. Months and years went by and Orca stayed on the porch. After about ten years Orca was re-discovered by the collector and his wife during an early summer cleaning of the house and porch. But Orca was not it good shape. Time and the expose to the weather had taken there toll on her. Mushrooms had taken root in the back, the belly was rotting out, and the side fins were also falling out of the slots because of wood rot. Orca was almost a lost cause but with the help of a store owner in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. Orca was saved from the wood pile. Several hours and wood glue was put in to Orca’s belly to repair the damage of time and weather. The biggest problem they faced was drying Orca out. Orca was moved from the collector’s house to the store keeper’s store. It was at this time that Orca was given the name Orca because of her weight and overall size. Several months went by and Orca was drying out.
“Orca” saved and put in a place of importance: I first saw Orca in August of 1997 and was drawn to it. I liked the coaxer from the first minute I saw it and decided to purchase it. The store keeper then told me the re-discovery story above and indicated that Orca still needed to dry out before I could take it home to Illinois. This was no problem I was planning another trip to Wisconsin in October. Later in the week she told me the story about the lead balance weights. I of course returned to Wisconsin in October and purchased Orca. Orca now lives in Illinois on a small but large enough for her table in my bed room with some other large Lac du Flambeau decoys made my John V. Snow and John Cross.
This story was published in the "American Fish Decoy Association Forum No. 52" September 2002.