13-pound cutt at Strawberry

[fish_fear_me2]

Im not going to argue the catch and release or catch and keep. I will comment on taxidrmy as I is one[cool]. There are numerous companies that sell fish blanks or fiberglass forms of almost every size. and yes a fish was molded. that being said you can have a good taxidermist duplicate almost any fish using a fibergalss blank. The measurements and photos need to be pretty accurate. This is also more costly that a skin mount since you have to buy a commercial mold. Casting a fish is less expensive but requires a dead fish. Skin mounting is less money but again requires you keep the fish. Good fish taxidermy is not inexpensive. You can expect 10 - 20 dollars an inch. so yeah a 30 in fish at 600 bucks is out of reach for some people. Lastly even if the fins are damaged by freezer burn the can be replaced with a commercial fin and I would bet none could tell it was replaced. I have mounted fish that have been frozen for 2 years and know of guys mounting some older than that.
anyway thought I would throw a little light on the taxidermy subject, but goddess is right. a few good photos for color a good lenth and a couple girth measurements and we can find a blank to match the fish. Then you can decide . keep it or let it go.
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