Restored Mounts.

[taxidermist]

This brown trout was caught in 1971, had a lot of grease bleed, plus fins were damaged beyond repair, head was terribly out of shape. and paint was poor to say tyhe lest.

Raised the head off the fish so there is a bit of gap between the body and the gill covers, removed most of the top and sides of the head, replaced all the fins with reproductions I have molded. Did some body body work to give the fish a better shape and smoothout the bumps. This old mount was filled with sawdust so lots of work softening the skin and removing the bumps. Repaint and repair the panel, now customer has the fish his Dad caught in 1971 and its better than when first mounted.

This bass mount went through a fire and its the only thing the man was able to salvage, caught in Florida some 20 yearss ago, replaced eyes, fins, cleaned sealed and finsihed panel, striped the fish and repaired a lot of areas that has shrinkage, repainted and better than new.

This is also a repair, head was missing, fins were crushed and needed a bunch of help on paint. So with the repairs done and a good bit of painting, it too is better than new.

Here is Mongo. I mounted this bison in 1978 for a well known couple in Harrison,, well Mongo had not been touched since then when I placed him under the skylight, I recommended aganst it but the customer wanted it there. Wow lots of dust and lots of fade!!!!!!!!!! So a good shampooing and lots of dye work with three different color dyes and a hot oil treatment and furriers glaze mongo is good as new!!!

[Zack Hoyt]

Being a Harrison native.....I think I have seen the mount in person. Impressive.

I always wondered what happened to old mounts. See alot of them that look like they have mange. You do some killer work.

[taxidermist]

Thanks zoyt.

Many older fish mounts get into problems with fins and grease bleed on fish, when the fin get broken many people just toss the fish and its a shame when that can be fixed.

The haired mounts, sometime get a carpet beetle that eats the air off at the base, this is the mange look you are possibly seeing. Carpet beetles are called that because in years past the carpet in homes was made of wool and unless air out and treat with a moth ball type of substance the beetles ate the carpet.

If carpet beetles are caught early in yhe infestation they can be treated killed and no problems will occur.

I use a chemical that is suppose to lock into the mount during the tanning that is said to repel beetles and even moths, has no odor. But still a good yearly cleaning does not hurt.

John