Crappie mount

[dockfishin]

Great looking fish. I hope to have one on my wall some day.

[Downwind]

Nice Fish. What did it weigh?

[BROWNING7WSM]

Nice ..

[Greg Holt]

It wighted 2lbs 12oz caught in April it was full of eggs. It is a repilca I was told they last longer I guess I`ll find out. I send the taxiderist 5 pictures of different angles and got girth size and weight. It`s my first mount of a crappie.

[RIVERRATT]

looks good

[TapOut64]

It wighted 2lbs 12oz caught in April it was full of eggs. It is a repilca I was told they last longer I guess I`ll find out. I send the taxiderist 5 pictures of different angles and got girth size and weight. It`s my first mount of a crappie.

Nice crappie. What are your other options besides replica? I don't quite understand what all is involved in taxidermy with fish.

[Greg Holt]

The other way to mount it is to use the fish itself. The way I went is a repilia.

[TapOut64]

I thought that I had read that they only use certain parts of the original fish. I guess I'm just confused about which parts they use and why.

[Darryl Morris]

Nice crappie. What are your other options besides replica? I don't quite understand what all is involved in taxidermy with fish.

When mounting you have two choices - skin mounts and replicas. A replica is exactly what it implies, made of foam and fiberglass from a mold and then painted accordingly. For a skin mount they cut down the lateral line on the non-display side from the collar bone to the tail. The carcass is removed and the cheek meat and eyes are extracted from the head. The skin and head is cleaned and soaked in borax and water for preservation, which mostly bleaches out the skin. The skin is then stretched around and attached to a body mold, puddy and glass eyes are added, the fins and tail are positioned with plastic sheets and paper clips and then hung up to dry. Once dry, it's painted with an airbrush and mounted on a nice plaque or piece of drift wood. I did a search looking for picture examples but only found companies selling their services, how-to videos and youtube making fun of it. I once thought I wanted to do some taxidermy on the side and bought a video. It really doesn't look that difficult but the really good taxidermists have an enourmous amount of artistic skill with an airbrush.