Taxidermy - Mounting a Perch

A step by step guide also following up questions asked about previous films. This film leads into "Painting a mounted Perch"

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• taxidermy
• mounting
• stuffing
• fish
• perch
• angling
• specimen
• france

[aquariumaster]

would your methods work with a small fish, i have an aquarium fish that i really like. if he dies do you think i could apply these methods

[faith6651]

A small fish will be awkward, your best bet is to have it freeze dried! Saves all the hassle and is what many pros. use for bait fish in their mounts!

[john20pb]

I was curious as to what you would do if you wanted to leave the gills in the fish. Such as in a mount where the fish has his mouth open about to eat another fish. Can you help me out on that?

[faith6651]

Sorry too much detail for here, too many choices - partly covered it in answers, always better to see all my taxidermy film replies, please, see Zander? Simply as pos. gills will just dry with borax and can be painted. After that you are into making artificial ones. If you are concerned about the tongue or are leaving cheeks, you may inject with formaldahyde having removed all other excess flesh. The way I have shown is very basic & simple. Fillers will be used to model when all dry and shrink.

[faith6651]

Just be careful as you can with the fins? Otherwise it should be fine :-) Clean out cavity with cotton wool buds and cotton wool and tweezers then use plenty of borax.

[tkoutdoors1]

@faith6651 ok thanks. i got a bluefish about a month ago and skinned the body like you did. head cavity was the only thing i was unsure of. but fish taxidermy will have to wait for now here. we have a full freezer of animals and more on the way. anyway, thanks for the tips

[faith6651]

Perhaps see my film - mounting a Zander also? Thought I showed it all very clearly, cutting card or plastic, some even use a fine mesh, then spreading the fins and tail and attaching/sandwiching the card around them so they set in that position? This is the last thing to do before drying.

[mrnuttyfruitcake]

i have a simple question when you do the mount card and dry what dries?

[faith6651]

Thanks for your letter. A couple of comments that may help? Very few fish I do not eat the meat from before mounting the fish. So both work, just timing & effort. If you become expert enough with an airbrush another way is to cast the fish in plaster and then make a fibreglass mould replica. Good with sea fish especially plaice. Do not skin the head, merely empty it out. If the gills are closed you may remove all. It is easy to scoop it all out. You should be able to skin quickly, within an hour

[tkoutdoors1]

beautiful work. my family is into offshore fishing and ive been trying to talk my dad into doing a fish mount with me for a while. we catch tuna, mahi, bluefish, grouper, etc. but they want to eat more than they want to display. but when you were inside the head cavity, how did difficult was it to remove all the junk up there without damaging the skin. any tips on what to watch out for when skinning in the head? gill removal? etc also, how long did the skinning process take?