HILBERT, Wis. (AP) -- To catch a sturgeon, you first have to get its attention.
The ugly, bewhiskered fish is naturally curious, so sturgeon anglers will dunk just about anything in the frigid waters of Lake Winnebago to beckon their prehistoric prey.
And underneath the thick ice under the boots of anglers in their shanties, decked out with sofas, beer-filled coolers and barbecues, thousands of sturgeon are searching for a snack.
Which is where Don Ecker and his woodworking tools come in.
Ecker owns Big Don's Decoys. He figures he's made at least 2,000 sturgeon decoys, which he sells from his lawn when the weather is warm and from his house when it's cold.
Ecker is old school -- he doesn't have a Web site, and if customers want to purchase his wares, they have to either call him or stop by his house.
Ecker makes sturgeon decoys out of red cedar, white cedar, black walnut, butternut and even deer and elk antlers. He drills holes in the decoys to insert lead weights and attaches metal fins to make them bob and dart.
Then he sells them from his home in this small Calumet County community not far from Lake Winnebago, where sturgeon fishing shanties sprout like mushrooms every February.
He makes different sizes 6 inches to 30 inches long -- and paints them in bright colors or shellacs them to keep the natural wood color before attaching the fins, all to attract Ecker's prey: customers.
"Everybody is different," he said about the preferences of sturgeon anglers. "You've got to make them in different sizes. It's no more different than buying a car. Some people like Chevys, some like Chryslers."
Last year, 1,347 sturgeon were fished out of Lake Winnebago and nearby lakes Poygan, Winneconne and Butte des Morts, with less than 13 percent of anglers on Winnebago getting lucky, Some go for years without seeing a sturgeon, spending hours and days peering into a coffin-sized hole cut in the ice. And when they do, their chance at success can be fleeting.
"It's like you're lying down looking up a chimney and waiting for a check to fly overhead and then trying to shoot it," said Ecker, 59, who has fished for sturgeon since he was a boy.
That's where decoys come in, Ecker's, which sell for $15 to $150, take him two hours to five hours to make, depending on the size. He sold 30 during Christmas, and always sells a lot in early February before the season starts. This year, the sturgeon season starts Feb. 9.
Some anglers want brightly painted decoys, figuring the sturgeon will be attracted by the colors. Others want ones that look like sturgeon, perhaps in the hope the fish will come for a closer look.
Often sturgeon will bump decoys with their large, pointed rostrums, which are filled with sensory pores, said Ron Bruce, Department of Natural Resources sturgeon biologist. To the angler standing above with a spear waiting to pounce, sturgeons' noses sometimes look like they have milk mustaches because of the creature's coloring.
In his many years monitoring sturgeon season for the DNR, Bruch has seen all manner of decoys.
"They use anything that your imagination can come up with. A white coffee cup is a favorite, a dried cob of corn, washing machine agitators, bowling balls. I've seen one fella (who) carved himself an anatomically correct mermaid, and he stared at that the whole day," said Bruch.
In his garage workshop, Ecker, who workers in his family's road building business, uses grinders, planers, bell and drill saws, and a router bit to make room for the eyes.
He figures he puts in about 20 hours per week making the decoys, some of which he donates to Sturgeon For Tomorrow for fundraising efforts.
