Poetry in Motion… Endless waterfowl flight is Winnebago artwork
By Dick Ellis
Reader Note: Published in fond memory of decoy carver Charlie Brisky of Berlin Wisconsin, who passed away unexpectedly May 14, 2012. This story was published after a November 2011 duck hunt on Lake Winnebago with Brisky that featured his decoys. A beautiful bluebill carved and sent by Brisky in appreciation of the story will forever rest on the writer’s office book shelf.
On this November 5th morning, The Winnebago sunrise express apparently has no beginning and no end. Flock after flock of Redheads, Canvasback. Bluebills, Mallards, Canada geese, and loners that include puddle ducks and divers flirt with the small, rock island holding six hunters before continuing on erratic journeys north or south over Wisconsin’s largest inland lake.
Often, the temptation from the beckoning of wooden decoys meticulously hand-carved by Charlie Brisky of Berlin and rocking on a riled Winnebago prove too much, and cupped wings are met with gunfire. Almost without exception, the want for rest and food in front of these veteran guns proves a final mistake. Six “cans” and five redheads will be among the bag when the morning hunt ends.
 |
 |
| Roger Ludwig of Oshkosh watches another sunrise and the morning flight of puddle ducks and divers on Lake Winnebago. | Canvasback, known as the king of ducks, have made a comeback on Lake Winnebago while bluebill have declined over the years. |
A Winnebago duck hunt is the same as any other in one regard. You never know when hunting will be poor, but you hope for the extraordinary. On this morning, we are given the latter. “Normally, we wouldn’t take any canvasbacks,” says Nick Ludwig as talk passes in the blind with Jerry Stadtmueller of Oshkosh. “Roger is making an exception because you’re writing a story here and he would like you to have the whole experience.”
Roger Ludwig first hunted ducks on Winnebago in 1955 and he has never forgotten that conservation isn’t only necessary when times, or hunting opportunities, are in decline. Even when state regulations allow more, taking less than an allowable bag is part of the personal responsibility embraced by this group, as is firing on ducks only when the distance increases the odds of a clean kill. On this big water especially, Ludwig and his crew that also include Joe Gonyo of Berlin in the southern blind with Brisky, have no intention of taking a shot that might mean a cripple, and a lost duck.
In 1980, with friends and hunting partners Bob Albright, Bill Cuettle, and Don Siebold, Ludwig purchased an island owned by Milwaukee attorney F.Ryan Duffy III. In addition to several natural islands on Winnebago, perhaps ten rock islands were initially constructed as points by area farmers with horse and buggy predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The points were used for guided hunts to supplement farming incomes.
When the water level on Winnebago was later artificially raised via dam, rock points became islands, and grand-fathered from any prohibition of sale. This island was eventually christened Fish Duck Island by the owners due to the large numbers of mergansers and other fish eating waterfowl species frequenting the west shore.
 |
 |
| Canvasback, known as the king of ducks, have made a comeback on Lake Winnebago while bluebill have declined over the years. | At morning’s end, Joe Gonyo and Charlie Brisky of Berlin, and Nick Ludwig and Jerry Stadtmueller of Oshkosh backed by the canine team of Winnebago, Micah and Rex show the canvasback, redheads and a lone bluebill taken on Lake Winnebago. |
The main staple historically of Lake Winnebago pass shooting has been the bluebill, including the harvest from Fish Island. A decline in overall bluebill numbers due to over harvest and loss of Canadian nesting habitat coupled with the birds’ move to more western migration routes from flyways that include Wisconsin has seen bluebill hunting here decline.
“Fifty years ago, Winnebago had protected bays with wild rice, celery and cane,” said Ludwig, President of the Wisconsin Decoy Collectors Association. “Bluebills had food and protection. Today those bays have houses and the ducks have more boating pressure.”
Bluebill numbers on Winnebago, he said, have shown improvement the last two seasons. More canvasback and redheads are also using the big lake more, welcome increases Ludwig attributes to a cleaner Winnebago and partial return of wild celery as a food source.
Watching the countless flocks of canvasback and redheads working Winnebago Saturday is a one-of-kind experience. So is watching the birds decoy to the wooden blocks made by Brisky that turn with the waves and winds like a comforting friend to birds still on the wing. Brisky grandfather, Charlie Brisky and his first cousin Albert Ikeman of Berlin began the tradition of carving wooden decoys generations ago. The time-honored tradition means even better hunting decades later on Fish Island.”
Watching and learning is what brings these hunters back. And Roger Ludwig, they say universally, on this very island, has been the catalyst in passing the tradition of hunting from one generation to the next.
 |
 |
| Nick Ludwig and Winnebago; his young but fabulous retrieving yellow lab, with canvasback, redheads and a lone bluebill taken November 5th on Lake Winnebago. | Charlie Brisky, a third generation decoy carver from Berlin who kept the ducks coming in during a hunt on Lake Winnebago November 5, passed away unexpectedly May 14, 2012. |
“Roger handed me a book when I was about 10 years old and said when I could identify all the ducks in the book I could come out and hunt,” Nick Ludwig said of his uncle. “He enjoys teaching as much as hunting. If this was about hunting, we’d all go hungry and we’d all be skinny. He taught us how wind affects the ducks flight and how to set the decoys. Decoys are placed more for setting up a shot than they are for attracting birds. How do you leave a pocket so the birds will set there? What decoys should be set at what time of year? We don’t put out a goldeneye decoy until after the first snow. And he taught us patience. We don’t move to touch the gun until we’re ready to take the shot. Movement is one of the worst things you can have in your blind.”
At the end of this morning, the students have once again passed the test. Those who want duck as table fare will all be obliged. This reporter gratefully accepts canvasback and redhead and leaves like everyone else, with warm Winnebago memories.
“This is where my own sons learned to hunt,” Jerry Stadtmueller says. “One of my sons came back from Washington State for the Wisconsin duck opener this year. Roger has always been very good to young hunters. There was a Halloween hunt out here when my sons were 12 and 14 that we’ll never forget. We ended the morning with 36 ducks. We still talk about it. I’m sure we’ll talk about it for the rest of our lives.”