Livewell salmon?0

[Seahunt]

 

[taxid]

Do you do skin mounts?

Yes both skin mounts and replicas. We have a lot of large pike out this way. In fact they are under fished IMHO. Only a few people target them exclusively. Ruined my favorite trout lake where I used to catch rainbows to 7 lbs. Mounted the state record out of that lake at 48 inches and 30 pounds 2 oz. Another trout lake I mounted a northern for an angler at 45 inches and just under 26 pounds (summer fish).

Skin mounts ready for finish work.



A couple of finished ones:

[AquaAssassin]

Nice work!

[Dirt23]

 Taxid those are some nice mounts
In your honest  opinion is a replica or skin mount better and what is standard protocol for a replica?

[meatandmetal]

Very nice Taxid I can smell those Pike here. The guy I use stopped doing skin mounts he was getting backed up with them. Too bad they did great work. How long does it take you to do a skin mount? Is this a side job or your business?

[taxid]

Taxid those are some nice mounts
In your honest  opinion is a replica or skin mount better and what is standard protocol for a replica?

They both have their pros and cons. I do both.

Standard protocol for a replica is I get the length from the angler mostly, and if it was a stocky fish or not as in female full of eggs. If I'm lucky I get the girth from the angler too, but not usually.  A picture is helpful and I try and match the fish to the picture. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures I get aren't very good, but they get me in the ballpark.

Then find a blank from a vendor, order, assemble, and paint.

That said I'm not trying to drum up business here. I have plenty locally. And I absolutely hate shipping the completed big fish like pike and musky. The shippers are making a killing on shipping long boxes. And shipping for the blanks is outrageous too. I ordered two 40 inch pike awhile back and the blanks and the shipping was over $700.00!

I've also has a few replicas destroyed in shipping even when crated. UPS is the worst, and I almost think they are trying to destroy the box. 

[taxid]

Very nice Taxid I can smell those Pike here. The guy I use stopped doing skin mounts he was getting backed up with them. Too bad they did great work. How long does it take you to do a skin mount? Is this a side job or your business?

The really hard part of the skin mount part of a pike or musky is skinning out the head. Getting all the bone and cartilage out is nightmare even with the best tools. My hands ache while doing it. And doing this for 35 years I have the early signs of carpal syndrome. Numbness in my fingers sometimes. This year I have stipulated only cast heads on skin mounts or they can find someone else.

And the skins have to be degreased before the preserve soak as they do have oils in them that can bleed out later. When I did the real heads I would remove a large chunk of meat on each side of the lower jaw with a scalpel.

A pike can be skinned out one day, soaked in mineral spirts overnight, than another day using a borax solution. Them mounted the third day. Usually takes about a week for the skin and head to thoroughly dry. I help this along with a commercial upright fan on high.

Once dry its hours of building back up the shrinkage mostly on the head if the real head is used. Very tedious and involves an application of a two part epoxy, letting it set, sanding, and repeat. And of course the artificial eyes are set in place. The fins are usually backed with a silk span, or any flaws repaired, and coated with a silicone caulking.

Then sealing the fish and airbrush painting the color back.

I could get an actual fish done in a couple of weeks but the problem is there are usually up to a 100 other fish in line.

[taxid]

Replica northern in process:



O.K. that's enough. My apologies if it seems I hijacked this thread. It was not my intent.

[800stealth]

Very cool Taxid... Thanks for explaining some of what you do.

[meatandmetal]

Taxid that was great. With all the work involved I'm surprised Taxidermist can make much on doing them.

[filetandrelease]

Very interesting , great looking mounts

[taxid]

Taxid that was great. With all the work involved I'm surprised Taxidermist can make much on doing them.

We don't! Many of us wonder if we shouldn't go back to doing a day job! And the burnout rate is very high.

I'm on burnout number 29. 

[AquaAssassin]

Awesome intel Taxi! I don’t think there is a need for apology, it finally made the thread interesting