Does anyone get fish mounts right?

[Tundra Tiger]

To all: thank you for the kind words. Yes those were fish I did, back when I was still doing fish. I had a side business in the summers when I was an elementary teacher. Those were all fiberglass reproductions, though I did the occasional skin mount too. I wasn't actually seeking adulation in posting. The author of the thread expressed frustration so photos seemed like an OK response. Would still like to know what prompted the post.

@Sarg ... Some guys run from restoration. If you were closer I would offer to have a crack just to try a tiger. I think a little sculpting epoxy, possibly a couple new fins, and new paint and it could be a lot closer to original.

@Hunt anything ... 17" That was actually a gift to my dad; it was a first ever attempt at a crappie.

@buck wild is right. There a lot of good guys out there - far better than me. You just have to know what to look for. A few favorites of mine are Dave Campbell of WA, Steve Silseth of SD, and Shawn Kronenwetter (not sure where from - I have only seen his stuff on a FB group I am on). Their fish typically take my breath away.

@thi9elsp ... Glad you got it right eventually. Great reference photos are never wrong, which any good fish guy - nay, taxidermist - should have droves of.

@Ontario Hunter ... Those look super.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

I would add, to the author of the post, I get what you're saying. Different fish have varying amounts of iridescence; some have very little. But what does need to be there is depth. Good fish folks create depth through layers. My own pet peeves with fish include things like fins that look like the fish was electrocuted - the fins are at unnatural angles. Ditto the positioning of the head and mouth. There should absolutely be depth; a fish shouldn't look 'flat'. Oh, and spots that look like they were applied with a Sharpie, for fish that have spots - spots like that look bad. If they have spots, the spots should be correct too; for example, kings have oval spots on the upper and lower parts of the tail, oval spots on the dorsal, squiggly 'spots' on the body, and round spots on the adipose fin and head - at least for those up here. Reference photos show the way. One last thing: for most species, scale tipping is critical to creating some of that depth. An untipped fish just doesn't look very good.

Example: almost all of my AK work was replicas, because lodges are catch and release. When I paint a rainbow (or any fish) those scales have to be tipped by hand. On a rainbow that's a lot of scales. However, if you DON'T tip them... it really shows, IMHO.

Again, there's a whole lot of guys and gals out there way better than me. You just have to know what you're looking for and then find the guy or gal that's going to give you that.

 

[Hunt anything]

TT you hit the nail on the head, biggest problem I have with replicas is that only a few of them have any “action“ to the forms and many are just flat or curved parallel to the wall like an upside down horseshoe.

 

[Hunt anything]

A look at my fish mounts, all are skin mounts and at least 30 years old. Done by my local Alabama taxidermist. 3 pound sauger, 5 1/2pound spotted bass, 3 pound white crappie, 2 3/4 pound black crappie, 10 1/4 pound hybrid striped bass and a 42 pound striped bass.

 

[Safari Dave]

Good fish taxidermist are hard to find.

All of my saltwater fish were reproductions, and unfortunately all done via paint-by numbers and none are very impressive.



I've had one freshwater fish done, very well, by a local taxidermist who did a skin mount, and really knew how to paint a locally caught brown trout. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us.

I later had my 5-year old son's largemouth bass mounted by another local taxidermist. He had the unique ability to make an 8-pound fish look like a 3 -pound fish.

Look at the taxidermist's work prior to taking them a fish!

 

[Hunt anything]

Even living on the gulf coast it’s hard to find a good saltwater fish taxidermist. I’ve caught some really good saltwater fish I would love to have replicas of. To name a few are 167# yellowfin tuna, a 90# wahoo and 72# amberjack. But I can’t justify the money that may turn out like it was painted by my 7 year old grandson.

 

[Safari Dave]

Even living on the gulf coast it’s hard to find a good saltwater fish taxidermist. I’ve caught some really good saltwater fish I would love to have replicas of. To name a few are 167# yellowfin tuna, a 90# wahoo and 72# amberjack. But I can’t justify the money that may turn out like it was painted by my 7 year old grandson.

When my son was 5 (20 years ago), he would have loved to have a 4 foot shark mounted that he caught from the surf. (It was longer than he was!)

A reproduction was going to cost over $700 in 2005.

I, eventually, threw it away from my deep-freezer.

I cut out the jaws, dried them and gave them to him.

 

[steve white]

Good fish taxidermist are hard to find.

All of my saltwater fish were reproductions, and unfortunately all done via paint-by numbers and none are very impressive.



I've had one freshwater fish done, very well, by a local taxidermist who did a skin mount, and really knew how to paint a locally caught brown trout. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us.

View attachment 532017


I later had my 5-year old son's largemouth bass mounted by another local taxidermist. He had the unique ability to make an 8-pound fish look like a 3 -pound fish.

View attachment 532018

Look at the taxidermist's work prior to taking them a fish!

I don't know if I've ever seen a saltwater mount that really impressed me--and some are totally paint-by-numbers.

Even living on the gulf coast it’s hard to find a good saltwater fish taxidermist. I’ve caught some really good saltwater fish I would love to have replicas of. To name a few are 167# yellowfin tuna, a 90# wahoo and 72# amberjack. But I can’t justify the money that may turn out like it was painted by my 7 year old grandson.

YEAH, WHAT HE SAID!

 

[Hunt anything]

I’ve seen some really well done cold water fish, trout and salmon, including Tundra Tigers rainbow trout. The only salmon I ever caught was a 26” pink that I thought about mounting but didn’t. Some of the best saltwater fish I’ve seen are hanging in the Bass Pro Shop in Spanish Fort Alabama. Don’t know what outfit did them but I bet they were EXPENSIVE.

 

[steve white]

I can see that with scale "tipping" etc, the job cannot be too much a bargain budget or the taxidermist would starve. I'm sure many of them think they are underpaid for what they are delivering to us. It is also a pet peeve that they may not consider something a REAL trophy and thereafter disrespect it. Example: I would probably sooner mount a 3 lb shell cracker bream from lake Havasu than a 9lb bass.The shell cracker would probably require much more refined coloration, but would it be given the respect it deserved? Not if the work I have seen on bream is any indication! I suspect I would end up with paint by numbers. Hunt Anything mounted a 5 lb spotted bass--in my book a wonderful trophy and probably memory. I wonder how many individuals would just classify it as "a lil' ole 5 pounder." That would be like saying a Coues deer is too small to bother with....

 

[Hunt anything]

The story behind the spotted bass is I caught it in October of 1992, at the time the world record spot was in the neighborhood of 8 pounds. Soon after that the Alabama state DNR traded/ sold spotted bass fingerlings to California. The spots started gorging themselves on liberated trout and now I think the world record is around 13 pounds give or take a bit, so my 5.5 pounder may not be impressive to many younger anglers.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

@steve white ... Rest assured there is one taxidermist (me!) that would never disrespect any animal. The animal deserves better, and if it's a trophy to whoever decided it was worth preserving, that's trophy enough for me. Trophy is a very fluid term to this hunter and angler.

 

[buck wild]

@Safari Dave Agreed your two examples are bad

 

[Tundra Tiger]

A photo that shows trophies can be large or small. I did this trout for a guy's wife; they were from WI. He thought it was so cool they were catching fish in Alaska, and it was his wife's first fish here. They did catch larger - I did a very nice salmon for him as well. But I also got to do this trout for his wife.

 

[Hunt anything]

TT , you should give up your day job and go back to fish taxidermy! That’s beautiful and you show a lot of passion in your work.