• Bluegill Sunfish – Competition Piece 1992 This male Bluegill Sunfish was created specifically for competition purposes. In national wood carving competitions every piece of the entry must be hand carved or hand crafted. The only exception is the glass eyes. For this piece, the driftwood was hand carved to fit the unique base I had created out of a piece of Black Walnut. There is much more attention to detail and anatomic accuracy when it comes to carving a competition piece. I only got a chance to enter this in one competition, the Northern Nationals, a national woodcarving competition held in Minneapolis, MN. It was entered in the “open-class”, the highest level available to fish carvers, were it took First Place in the fresh water gamefish category and Best of Show out of all the fish categories in the “open-class”, which was a real honor. This piece remains in my private collection and is not for sale.