Youth Decoy Contest

W

Worth Mathewson

Active member
This is an advanced notice for a Delta Waterfowl decoy contest that I am very happy about. As some of you know, I have the First Duck Pin program for Delta. I fund this program entirely as part of my Sand Lake Press. I can assure you that the highpoint of any week is when I get letters and photographs from young hunters about their first duck or goose. I recently suggested to Delta's board that I would like to set up a decoy carving contest for young hunters 14 and under. The board gave me the green light. Again, I will fund this contest myself. The contest will be announced in the Winter 2013 issue of Delta's magazine.
For this first (and I hope ongoing) contest I will ask for the decoy to be a working canvasback drake. It can be made either from cork or wood. All decoys will be mailed to me. I am going to put together four judges from decoy makers and waterfowlers I know. The deadline for decoys to reach me will be June 1, 2014. Winners will be announced either in late July or early August 2014. At this point I haven't decided if I will ask for return postage for the decoys entered.
I will have three winners. For first place I plan to give a 20 bore shotgun. Of course, since I am paying for it, the gun will have to have two barrels. I had wanted to have this gun be a Ruger Red Label, but found I am hopelessly out of date, as they are no longer made. So yesterday I looked at a couple of CZ doubles. They seem like a good gun to me. The second and third place winners will get a large trophy. All three winners will be featured in the Winter 2014 issue of the magazine.
Of course I would hope that someone connected with the young carver was a member of Delta. Better yet, the young carver is him or herself. But it will not be a requirement. And of course I hope that all decoys entered are done entirely by the young person, without adult aid.
I have hopes this contest will be popular, and serve to start young hunters down the road to what I feel is advanced waterfowling. My guess is that individuals on this page will have or know of some young hunter who will be interested. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
I think that is a great idea.

It would be nice to have a prize drawn at random for everyone that submits a working decoy. Decoy contests seem to focus on who can paint the most feathers, but I think just encouraging youth the make decoys that work on ducks has a lot of merit. Someone can get a lot of satisfaction from making decoys and shooting ducks over them without being an artist.

A prize drawn at random for everyone could encourage a lot more entries rather than just the child prodegies. I would simply judge on if it floats, doesn't fall apart and resembles a duck.

I actually value an honest working decoy more than a finely paint and carved shelf sitter. Although I have been crazy before.
 
Kudos to you for this. I applaud your choice of bird, as a drake can can be done simply, but still come off great.

I am hoping to recruit some youngsters to compete, as I ahve a dream of teaching youngsters as youg as 10 how to carve and paint decoys. For the younger carvers I will be starting them on carving foam so they can get results with few tools and move on to painting quickly.

I agree with the suggestion of giving one or more prizes, drawn randomly, just for entering.
 
I actually value an honest working decoy more than a finely paint and carved shelf sitter.
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Where do you stand on honest working decoys that have been finely carved and painted?
 
Andy, Thanks for your input and interest. You may have noticed that Delta is holding the contest for a WORKING DECOY. I have no idea if the judges will differentiate between a working decoy and a decorative one. I sure hope they do. For me, there is a big difference. I remember a few years back when I was hunting with a frequent contributor to this page, and he showed me a new rig of decoys he had carved. They were excellent! But they were so good that I muttered something to the effect that they really couldn't be considered anything to actually hunt with. That irritated him a little. However, in my eyes they weren't.

Your idea of giving something to all that enter the contest got me thinking. First, life isn't fair. One learns from a very early age his or her skills and talents. The better one understands these, the easier life is later on. For example: In the late 1940s and early 1950s when our family lived in Martinsville, Virginia, I loved baseball about as much as hunting and fishing. I played each year on a Little League team. And I wasn't all that bad of a third baseman. But several other guys were better, in case of one, much better. As a result I spent a vast amount of time on the bench. A disappointment? Of course, but also an early learning lesson. Along those lines, this contest will have three major winners.

But for those who enter the contest, and don't fall into the top three, I would like to suggest the following: Perhaps members of this page would like to step up and handle those? Especially those members of this page who carve their own decoys. A chairman could be elected, and I would send the names and addresses of young carvers who didn't win to that person. From that point members of this page could take over. Perhaps raise funds to give each non-winning youth a prize of some sort? Just one suggestion would be that I would gladly make available Dave Hagerbaumer prints at no charge. My guess is that you guys might have some fun with such a project.

I hope this idea will be considered. If you guys decide to do it, full credit will be given to www.duckboats.net in Delta's magazine. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
I actually value an honest working decoy more than a finely paint and carved shelf sitter.
Click to expand...
Where do you stand on honest working decoys that have been finely carved and painted?
Click to expand...

They sound good to me. But I don't want stir up the old debate of working decoys vs. decoys never meant to see water beyond the tank.
 
Worth

First I am not trying to critizing what you are doing, just giving feedback. I think the whole idea is great and extremely generous of you.

My idea is that a drawn prize might encourage more kids to send in an entry. Maybe even encourage them to carve their first decoy and send it in. Which may set them on the path of decoy carving, where ever it may lead for them.

Shipping costs seem to go up every day. Sending a decoy across the country will be some investment. Sure kids like the next Luke Costilow will send theirs and dominate the field. The shipping cost may discourage new young-carvers to send in their first creation, knowing they have no chance against a kid who already has a few years under their belt and enters contests.


If the goal is to acknowledge current youth carvers prizes for the 'best' decoy are the way to go. But if you want to encourage new kids to start carving, a random prize might help that.

I would be willing to put in a little money for such a prize, but admittly I am a man of little means and would need a lot of help to come up with anything worth while for a prize.
 
Andy-

Personally I think your idea is a great one.

Here in jacksonville there is a fishing rodeo that is structured similar to that. Fish for a day, weigh in fish from each species, and each fish you weigh in gets your name put in the hat for a grand prize (a Contender fishing boat, complete with motor and aluminum trailer). There is a first prize, second prize and third prize for the top fishes of each species, which is nice. But everyone gets a chance to put their name in the hat to get drawn. I think it does encourage joining the competition, especially for the folk who can't get out every day to find the bestest and most consistantly productive locations.

Last year, interestingly enough, an 8 year old girl won the package.

I think it's a great idea and one that would get more interest from more kids.

Dani
 
Worth - I appreciate what you're doing and wish you the best success. Thank you for passing it on and giving these young ones motivation to make their own decoys. A couple of suggestions if I may. One, if they aren't members of Delta, suggest that Delta gives all youth that enter a decoy their first year membership.

Second, it would be awesome if they had to submit a picture of them hunting with the decoy.

Just my thoughts Worth. Let us know if we can help in anyway.

Thanks for doing what you're doing, take care and God bless!
 
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