Getting a fish stuffed

[MCTFisher9120]

One day in the future i am going to catch a fish and hey i may even have the money to get it stuffed up on the wall. If i were to catch a big fish how would i get it stuffed. A friend said throw it in the freezer and find a place to get it done. Has anybody had a fish stuffed and how did you manage to get it done.

[Musky or Specks]

Mike get good measurements and pictures. Let the fish go and get a graphite replica made at http://www.advancedtaxidermy.com/. Their work is fantastic and last forever unlike a skin mount which fades with time and needs to be redone. My 21 inch Brooky was done by them and it proudly hangs on my wall.

[jediangler]

Just take length and girth measurements and a few good pics and you can have a replica mount made and let the fish go. They last longer and look like they just came out of the water. Plus you can brag about the fact that it's still swimming, spawning and growing larger for the next time you catch it. Who knows, 10yrs from now you may catch a big bass that is alive because you let it's mother go.

[Greencoachdog]

Mike get good measurements and pictures. Let the fish go and get a graphite replica made at http://www.advancedtaxidermy.com/. Their work is fantastic and last forever unlike a skin mount which fades with time and needs to be redone. My 21 inch Brooky was done by them and it proudly hangs on my wall.

 

 

jediangler Posted Today, 08:31 PM

Just take length and girth measurements and a few good pics and you can have a replica mount made and let the fish go. They last longer and look like they just came out of the water. Plus you can brag about the fact that it's still swimming, spawning and growing larger for the next time you catch it. Who knows, 10yrs from now you may catch a big bass that is alive because you let it's mother go.

 

 

Ditto... no need to kill a fish for your own vanity!

[BillM]

Yup, replica mounts are the way to go. Let the big ones go to make more baby big ones

[MCTFisher9120]

Replica mounts sound good. I'll have a look.

[Greencoachdog]

If you've just gotta have a fish stuffed... do it this way:

 

BAKED ROCK FISH STUFFED WITH CRAB

IMPERIAL

 

1 to 3 lbs. rockfish

2 slices bacon

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. lemon juice

 

STUFFING:

 

1/2 lb. crab meat

1 egg

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 slices bread (crumbs)

 

Mix all ingredients together. Place in fish cavity. Put bacon strips on top of fish. Sprinkle lemon juice over fish. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour uncovered, bake until brown

[OhioFisherman]

I had 4 done, a largemouth, a smallmouth, a northern and a walleye when I was a lot younger.

 

A couple of local taxidermists here in Ohio did them, good jobs on all of them but over the years I lost all interest in stuffed fish. When I had the northern done, like 1979 it cost me a couple bucks short of what the cabin rental was for a week in Pointe Au Baril in September. I would have enjoyed another week up there much more than the fish on the wall.

 

Just depends on where your heads at, rather have the chance of catching the rascal again myself. To each his own.

[Rich]

Minimum cost is $10 per inch at most places, a little much for what could easily be caught in a picture. What I do is simply take several thousand pics of the big fish, get it printed off as best possible on photo paper and frame the picture. If you wish, write the measurements and weight right on the picture somewhere. There ya go, everyone gets to see your fish the best way possible, when it's fresh caught and ready to go back. And a framed pic is a lot cheaper than a mounted fish or a replica mount, that's for sure.

[ccmtcanada]

I agree....take pictures from lots of angles, take measurements and release....

 

BUT

 

If for some reason you catch a trophy fish that cannot be released, then I was told to wrap the fish tightly in newspaper, then a towel and then put in a freezer. Preferably a chest freezer...not the one on your fridge.

 

Not being able to release the fish happened to Bly two falls ago. The walleye took the lure too deeply, cut her gills, so after trying to release it for 1/2 hour it was apparent she wasn't going to make it. It came home, was frozen and then donated to Carra Outdoor Sports so they could mount it in their store. It was too expensive for us to have it mounted.

[jwl]

I've got a mixed opinion on this...

 

personally I have gotten one skin mount done..a 52 incher musky..now before ya'll go breathin down my neck about it, it is my one and only trophy I will ever keep, it was my choice and also 100% perfectly legal to do so. And beleive me, it took a lot of tossing around at the time wether or not I was going to keep it. On a side note...funny thing is, after deciding to keep that one for a mount, I have caught 2 bigger...go figure

 

I am tossed up on the whole idea of a replica mount...to me it is all just a generic copy of a fish, and not your fish at all, sure they may be able to paint up a few marking on it and such, but do you think that the place doing themount is actually copying your fish???or they just have a few mould blanks done up around the same size and they just wait for a call from someone to come in and do one up????

 

I like the whole concept of replica mounts as I am a conservationist at heart and also a trustee on the executive commity for a conservation club, but don't really consider that a true trophy, I coulds take a good pic of any fish..exagerate the measurements ect and get them to make me a plastic one no prob

Edited August 31, 2008 by jwl

[gdelongchamp]

Thank you Mike the bass fisherman and Musky and specks. I read the thread, went to the site suggested (Advanced) visited the gallery and zeroed in on a picture. I love the cabinet fishing rod holders and terrarium and will add it to my list of winter projects along with my oak built salmon smoker from an idea in Outdoor Canada or Ontario Out of Doors. You see, I also build things in addition to fish.

[Beats]

I'm getting a replica made right now from Advanced. Having been to their shop I can say that their replicas look better and much more realistic than most ppl's skin mounts and actual taxidermy pieces. I know that sounds odd, but it's true. Just check out their website and see for your self. http://www.advancedwildlifedesign.com

 

To me, I'd rather get a replica made and eat the fish than kill something to just put it on my wall. Especially since real mounts tend to crack and start falling apart over the decades.

 

 

I'll be sure to post pics when I get my replica. Should be in the next few months.

 

Here are a few pics of just a small portion of the work I saw at Advanced when I was there. Tonnes more in the shop, couldn't take pictures of it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should add : The middle fish in the last pic is a brown trout! Not an Atlantic salmon.. :)

Edited August 31, 2008 by Beats

[bassjnkie]

Skin mount? Why kill the fish? Graphite is the way to go. This is my bass mount:

 

 

If you are going to skin mount it, these are the steps I was told:

 

1 Catch the fish

2 wrap it in a wet towel

3 Put fish in towel in the freeze, when it defrosts is doesn't loose it's weight, it re absorbs the water it lost from freezing .

4 mount it

[addict]

if its fishy i dont advise stuffing it.

[jwl]

I agree that there is some nice sculpture work there in the pics, but most look too fake to me

[Chris]

Hi, have to agree with jwl. Most of those replicas look like replicas (ie fake) especially the fins. I have a 22lb. pike that was mounted in 1988 and there has been absolutely no "fading" or "bleeding" as some have suggested. Just this year I gave it to a friend for his cottage where it still hangs to this day, in perfect shape. Too many exagerated fish sizes in this day and age and like it has been pointed out...pretty easy to turn a 48" photo into a 50" or 52" replica.

 

Having said that, I would consider whether or not you really need a fish on your wall at all. I could never hang mine in the house as my wife hated the thing. A cottage or a rec room, maybe there...mine hung on a wall out in the garage beside my boat. To me pictures are all I need, but if I was going to have a fish on the wall, it would be a real fish, not an exagerated chunk of plastic. Don't know about today's prices but as little as 3 years ago, replicas were considerably more expensive than skin mounts.

[Rich]

Agreed JWL.. might as well just have a painting done of your catch.