“I started carving fishing lures 2 1/2 years ago, and I have been doing decoys for about 1 1/2 years.
I started carving because I wanted to paint more of my Husband Phil’s lures and he refused. He told me that if I wanted to paint lures I had to carve them myself. He handed me a piece of wood and a carving knife and since that time I have been hooked on carving. After I started carving, a few decoy carvers that I had come in contact with, started urging me to do a decoy. I read info on a web site and had a few people send me information on how to carve and weight a decoy. I had a frustrating time at first with the weighting, but when I managed success I was hooked!!
All my first decoys were fair swimmers. However I think most everyone buys my decoys for display. I now mostly make decorative decoys in a variety of creatures. Fish of course but I also do turtles, frogs, and various insects. I use basswood, and diamond wood to create my decoys, and each one is hand painted with acrylic paints and finished with three layers of varnish.
Phil is the only other person to carve in my family and he hasn’t done any decoys to this date. I’m working on him though!!”
Sheila & Phil sell their decoys and lures on eBay under the ID phillipcates
Sheila & Phillip Cates
33 State Road H.
Buffalo, Mo
catesluckymanbaits@yahoo.com
Bio & Photos submitted by Sheila Cates 1/2006 & 8/16/06