Fish Field Care Information
(Skin Mounts & Reproductions)
Skin Mounts1. When you catch a fish make sure you avoid touching the body as much as possible.
2. Don’t let your fish flop around as they will loose a lot of their scales this way and possibly cause themselves damage. Making a skin mount harder to make look good.
3. If you can keep your fish alive on a stringer that is great. If it is Dead do not keep it in the water. Water will speed up the decomposition process.
4. Do not gut or scale the fish.
5. Take an old towel and get it wet. Lay the fish on the towel with all the fins laying up against the body and carefully roll it up in the towel. Lay the fish in a cooler full of ice. Until you can get it home and than freeze it immediately.
6. Once you get the fish home go ahead and remove the towel and lay the fish in the bottom of a plastic bag with the fins laying flat up against the body. Now roll the fish up in the bag squeezing out all the air to prevent freezer burn. Now put him in the freezer where it will not get bumped. Especially the tail and other fins because they will break.
7. Once a fish comes out of the water the color of the fish begins to fade and it can happen quickly. When you go fishing keep a camera handy and get lots of photo’s as soon as the fish is caught, from all angles. The taxidermist can recreate the colors a lot more accurately if they have pictures to go by.
8. Some species of fish are extremely oily and will require a fiberglass reproduction instead of an actuall skin mount. Why? Even though the skin is preserved some oil may in time ruin the airbrushing paint that is used to restore the color. Some species are Catfish, Salmon, Saltwater Fish, etc.
ReproductionsReproductions (Repro) are just that a fiberglass or resin reproduction of a once live fish. They are an alternative to skin mounts. Nothing of the original fish is used in the Repro. Thin skinned and oily fish that would otherwise have a limited life span after mounting are better suited as a reproduction.
Also if you are fishing a Tournament and it is mandatory catch and release there is no way of having a skin mount done. A reproduction also comes in handy if you are going on a remote or a week long fishing trip with no access to a freezer.
All you need are the measurements off of the fish and pictures. Their are only 2 measurements that are required to find a Repo for your fish.
*The Length Measurment (tip of nose to tip of tail)
*Girth Measurment (fattest circumfrence of the fish).
If you catch a new state record or a fish realy close than a reproduction is probably not going to be available. However one can be made from your fish. So if you release it than you may not have the opportunity to have one made.
If you plan on getting a reproduction done instead of a Skin Mount than make sure to get lots of pictures. Close ups and pictures of the entire fish. Also make sure to get pictures of any special marking on your fish. They can be reproduced on the reproduction. Pictures help us to get the colors as close as possible on your fish. It helps us with the color shades, etc, etc.
Their are some Plus's and some Negative's to using a Repo instead of a skin mount.
PLUS's
1. You don't have to worry about the fish attracting bugs after it was mounted.
2. Their is no fish smell.
3. Repos will last forever.
4. You can realease your fish so others can have an opertunity to catch it and also allow the fish to keep spawning.
5. You can eat your fish
NEGATIVE's
1. It's not "your" fish....it's a fiberglass repo
2. A reproduction maynot be the exact size as your fish (off by an inch or more depending on type of fish). Their are a dozen or more companies that sell repos so more often than not a repo can be found to fit your fish's measurments.
