Replica Suggestions?

[timinmo]

I don't have an opinion of any of the above guys.  I do agree with Al that mounting a fish, real or replica, is totally different than mounting a deer or other animal that is covered by it's own fur.  Of course Al doesn't need my approval.  The reason I bring this up is we have had a couple deer mounted by a guy that I think does great work but I do not like the fish that I have seen at his shop.  As a matter of fact he does not like to do fish and has told me that.  So I would make sure I picked some one based on the fish they have mounted and not other work they have done.  Good luck you caught a beautiful fish and did everything in your power to keep it alive.  So saving a few dollars now is not a bargain if you have to look at a poor replica for the next twenty years. 

[Travis Swift]

I sent Don an email a couple of days ago but haven't heard back yet.   I'm getting quotes from 12 an inch to 25 an inch so far......upper range is $650 for the fish, that's 200 bucks more than I paid for my last deer.  Some are also saying 10 to 12 months to complete as well on the fish. 

[fshndoug]

I just talked to Don Frank and he said he did not get your email and he is sorry about that.You can call him at 816 532 3500.he does take awhile to get a mount done but that is because is work is outstanding.If Johnny Morris of Bass Pro  And Cabela's have had many things done by him you know he is good .He only does fish.How many of the others mentioned for doing your work has won as many best in World competitions,none I'll bet.

 

 

[Devan S.]

12 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Guys, how good a replica fish you will get from a taxidermist depends upon several things.  First, how close to YOUR fish the body shape of the replica is.  Second, whether the replica has translucent fins.  Third, how much of an airbrush artist the taxidermist is.  Fish are one the most difficult things to get a good product, because they always involve painting it, and most taxidermists are mediocre painters at best.  As an artist who actually paints a LOT of fish, I know exactly what to look for in a replica mount.  Just for fun, I went to all four websites mentioned so far and will critique them...

Don's Taxidermy--pretty darned good on fish, probably the best of all of them mentioned.  His largemouth bass are pretty close to spot on in color pattern.  I always look at the shape of the dark band running down the side on largemouth.  It's pretty easy to find good photos of largemouth showing the band and other markings, but it seems that a whole lot of taxidermists just don't get it right.  The band starts out being a series of barely connected blotches, up close to the head, but by the time you get to the last one third of the body toward the tail, the blotches have blended together to a solid band with only slightly irregular edges.  The blotches on the more blotchy area are only slightly wider than that more solid dark band.  Most taxidermists either miss the difference from front to back and make the whole thing blotchy, or they make the blotches a lot wider toward the front.  He's a little off on the dark stripes on the sides of the bass's head, though, and the darker blotches on the upper sides and back of his bass (they don't always show up on live bass) are a little more off. His trout aren't quite as good, but still pretty good.  

Timberland Taxidermy--I didn't see any trout on their website, so can't judge.  Trout are pretty difficult to paint, even more so than bass.  His bass are not quite as good as Don's in my opinion but still pretty good.

King Sailfish Mounts--their trout look darned good.  If the trout in the post is any indication, other than the lack of enough spots, they got the colors good.  Only question is how close a replica they can find to your trout, and whether the paint job is typical--some of their trout on their website weren't quite as good.

Koch Taxidermy--I hope he's not a good friend of you guys, because I felt he's the worst of the bunch.  His bass are pretty poor.  His striped bass are really bad.  Some of his trout, probably the replicas, are pretty good, but the skin mounts are a disaster.  Which isn't too surprising, though, because doing a skin mount of a trout is exceedingly difficult.  The adipose fin and head structures shrink and wrinkle as they dry, and the skin of a trout is thin, and any imperfection shows up more because the scales are so small.  Big scales really help to hold a skin in shape and keep it from bulging and wrinkling at inopportune places.  I think he'd do a decent replica trout for you, but no way I'd recommend him for bass.

Oh, the translucent fin thing...all fish have translucent fins.  A solid, opaque fin is very unnatural-looking.  If I was designing replicas, I'd make all the fins translucent AND make them bigger, as in the rays extending out farther, so they could be trimmed by the taxidermist to the size and shape of YOUR fish's fins.  Fin size and shape varies in individual fish.  I've seen a few replicas with translucent fins, and I'd really look for that in the ones your taxidermist uses.

Al has some excellent points here. I didn't look through all the websites but the ones I did just showed the replica itself. That's great for showing off a standard fish but it doesn't give you any idea of how much detail the person is going integrate into your replica. 

In all my dealings, I would be asking for pictures of the replica along with the pictures of the fish they were trying to duplicate. Pictures identical to what netboy has given you. Then you need to make a determination if your willing to pay $25/inch for a darn close match or is $12/inch will cut it an bring back the memories your looking to re-live every time you look at it. 

 

[Travis Swift]

Had a great conversation with Don Frank on the phone, based on the recommendations from Doug and also that Phil uses him that's about as good as you can get in my book.  The only sad thing is, if you kill this fish it saves you about $200 but it's money well spent to watch them swim away if you ask me.   Pretty sure at this point I'm going to go with him, he sent me pictures of his work and it looks amazing. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

You gotta change your profile picture, Travis. 

[Smalliebigs]

20 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Guys, how good a replica fish you will get from a taxidermist depends upon several things.  First, how close to YOUR fish the body shape of the replica is.  Second, whether the replica has translucent fins.  Third, how much of an airbrush artist the taxidermist is.  Fish are one the most difficult things to get a good product, because they always involve painting it, and most taxidermists are mediocre painters at best.  As an artist who actually paints a LOT of fish, I know exactly what to look for in a replica mount.  Just for fun, I went to all four websites mentioned so far and will critique them...

Don's Taxidermy--pretty darned good on fish, probably the best of all of them mentioned.  His largemouth bass are pretty close to spot on in color pattern.  I always look at the shape of the dark band running down the side on largemouth.  It's pretty easy to find good photos of largemouth showing the band and other markings, but it seems that a whole lot of taxidermists just don't get it right.  The band starts out being a series of barely connected blotches, up close to the head, but by the time you get to the last one third of the body toward the tail, the blotches have blended together to a solid band with only slightly irregular edges.  The blotches on the more blotchy area are only slightly wider than that more solid dark band.  Most taxidermists either miss the difference from front to back and make the whole thing blotchy, or they make the blotches a lot wider toward the front.  He's a little off on the dark stripes on the sides of the bass's head, though, and the darker blotches on the upper sides and back of his bass (they don't always show up on live bass) are a little more off. His trout aren't quite as good, but still pretty good.  

Timberland Taxidermy--I didn't see any trout on their website, so can't judge.  Trout are pretty difficult to paint, even more so than bass.  His bass are not quite as good as Don's in my opinion but still pretty good.

King Sailfish Mounts--their trout look darned good.  If the trout in the post is any indication, other than the lack of enough spots, they got the colors good.  Only question is how close a replica they can find to your trout, and whether the paint job is typical--some of their trout on their website weren't quite as good.

Koch Taxidermy--I hope he's not a good friend of you guys, because I felt he's the worst of the bunch.  His bass are pretty poor.  His striped bass are really bad.  Some of his trout, probably the replicas, are pretty good, but the skin mounts are a disaster.  Which isn't too surprising, though, because doing a skin mount of a trout is exceedingly difficult.  The adipose fin and head structures shrink and wrinkle as they dry, and the skin of a trout is thin, and any imperfection shows up more because the scales are so small.  Big scales really help to hold a skin in shape and keep it from bulging and wrinkling at inopportune places.  I think he'd do a decent replica trout for you, but no way I'd recommend him for bass.

Oh, the translucent fin thing...all fish have translucent fins.  A solid, opaque fin is very unnatural-looking.  If I was designing replicas, I'd make all the fins translucent AND make them bigger, as in the rays extending out farther, so they could be trimmed by the taxidermist to the size and shape of YOUR fish's fins.  Fin size and shape varies in individual fish.  I've seen a few replicas with translucent fins, and I'd really look for that in the ones your taxidermist uses.

I will say this Al.....none of these guys do a very good Smallie mount especially Don's and Coryell.

Not many do a good smallie......Don's had the vertical bars going the all the way up and down the fish???....some of these guys just haven't seen many Smallies I assume???

[Travis Swift]

4 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

You gotta change your profile picture, Travis. 

I gotta figure out how to small the picture down but I'll figure it out

[Gavin]

In another direction, not a fan of fish mounts or replicas. What would be cooler than a water color, pen & ink of your fish to scale? Underwater type pic maybe. Frame it with a picture of your catch, the lure & litte blurb with the details. It will look better than a fish on the wall. Will probably cost more if done right though.

[Al Agnew]

1 hour ago, Gavin said:

In another direction, not a fan of fish mounts or replicas. What would be cooler than a water color, pen & ink of your fish to scale? Underwater type pic maybe. Frame it with a picture of your catch, the lure & litte blurb with the details. It will look better than a fish on the wall. Will probably cost more if done right though.

Yeah, if the taxidermy work requires quite a bit of artistic ability, doing a good painting of the fish would really entail the same...if I was doing it, it would probably cost at least $1000.

However, you could make sure to take a good photo of the fish, lying flat, fins and tail spread, and put it in a photo editing program.  Edit the fish out of the background, blow it up to the exact length of the real fish, and print it out on quality printing paper.  Frame as is, or cut the fish out of the paper, cut the outline out of a wood plank and glue the fish print onto it.