Mo. Trout Stamp Archive

[fishinwrench]

That's cool, I'm glad that one of them I have is one of yours, Al. It is definately my favorite, because the image actually tells a story. I'm assuming that the truck is a 1937 hatchery truck ?

Did they really used to use milk cans to transport the fish, or is that just a carryover from the old stalled-train legend that's been told for ages ?

Phil, can you post pics of those stamps sometime ?

[ollie]

They were like early childhood toys for me. I got rid of them as soon as they wore out. And just like the toys I wish I still had them. I don't remember the earlier stamps from the 70's having a cool picture on them though.

[Phil Lilley]

I'll post them next week when I get home.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Yeah, I miss the stamps. Good work on the '87 one Al, thats a nice one. Too bad they don't offer at least the option to mail-order for a stamp with artwork. And the contests seem like a good publicity idea. Wonder what their reasoning for getting away from that was? Money I'm sure, but how much would it cost to produce a half million stamps

[Gavin]

That brings back some memories...wish I would have saved some of them.

[Al Agnew]

Yes, I got the idea for the old truck and the milk cans from photos in old Conservationist magazines. That was the 50th anniversary of the modern day Department of Conservation, and the contest that year had a theme of depicting something about the history of the trout program.

After I won that year, I didn't enter the contest again, nor pay much attention to it. In the years from 1983 to 1987, the limited edition prints were produced in editions of around 350 plus artist proofs. As I remember, a signed and numbered print with accompanying signed stamp sold unframed for around $75. I don't think the print program ever got much better. I finally sold out my prints, but it took a while and I had to sell a lot of them at wholesale.

I made quite a bit more money from the California stamps and especially the first of state Nevada stamp. But trout stamps never were as lucrative as duck stamps, and I didn't much care for doing ducks. As the years went by the print market for all stamp images declined considerably. That may have been a major reason why the various conservation stamps gradually disappeared. At this point I don't know of any stamps that still have significant print programs other than the Federal Waterfowl Stamp, and it's print program is just a shadow of what it once was. I know several of the artists who won it, and they told me that back in the 1980s a win would net the artist several million dollars, but Jim Hautman just won it this year for the third or fourth time, and I was talking to him the other day about it and he said he figured he'd make about 10% of what he made the first time he won.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I have a lot of trout art but only this stamp. I thought I saved all of them over the years but I can't find them.

[eric1978]

I have a lot of trout art but only this stamp. I thought I saved all of them over the years but I can't find them.

Whoever tied that fly let the tail fibers spin.