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Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2021 9:50 pm
by CrowT
My wife caught her biggest smallmouth ever back in September and she had no idea I had snuck around and found a taxidermist to do a replica mount for her. I am very picky about taxidermy work and this fellow looked like he did a great job in pictures of his other work. Well as luck would have it, he had it finished just in time for a Christmas gift. I was weary of opening the box (found the guy online) to see what it looked like but I am happy with the end result. She was shocked and cried lol Happy tears. I gave him the measurements and sent him a couple pictures of the fish. He got it decently close….first fish mount I’ve ever had done.
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Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2021 10:04 pm
by CrowT
Oh post script…in the picture, it looks like the replica is off on size. What the picture doesn’t show well is that its tail is slightly curved outward and makes it look shorter then it actually is in person. Measurement wise, it’s right on what her fish actually was; or as close of a replica blank that you could get. All it needs is a Chug Bug hanging out its mouth.
Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 6:36 am
by MUP
Whoa! That's a hog of a small mouth! Great looking mount!
Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 10:39 am
by WG Taxidermist
Man what a smallmouth! Congrats! Looks like the guy did do a good job. People don't understand how artistic a person has to be to mount or do a replica of a fish. There are so many colors and air brush techniques used to create the mount.
Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 11:41 pm
by CrowT
I got into custom painting crankbaits with an air brush several years ago and still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface in techniques, getting colors right, etc. YouTube has several channels that the painters are like wizards. Truly mind blowing work. I have stencils for my crankbait patterns that help a lot but there’s a lot that goes into nailing color blends and tones.
This fella was out of Cookeville, TN that I found online. His online studio pictures looked really good on bass, and his prices were par for the replica course. There was an AMAZING replica taxidermist on Facebook that I am blown away by his work. I contacted him and he was around $25 per inch and 18-20 months behind.
Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 8:50 am
by WG Taxidermist
CrowT wrote: ↑Sun Dec 26, 2021 11:41 pm
I got into custom painting crankbaits with an air brush several years ago and still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface in techniques, getting colors right, etc. YouTube has several channels that the painters are like wizards. Truly mind blowing work. I have stencils for my crankbait patterns that help a lot but there’s a lot that goes into nailing color blends and tones.
This fella was out of Cookeville, TN that I found online. His online studio pictures looked really good on bass, and his prices were par for the replica course. There was an AMAZING replica taxidermist on Facebook that I am blown away by his work. I contacted him and he was around $25 per inch and 18-20 months behind.
It's unreal how much prices have increased since I use to do it. The last one I did I charged $12 an inch.
Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:00 pm
by Tngrizzly_
Wow that's a nice fish
Re: Wife’s smallmouth replica!
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:05 am
by FLTENNHUNTER1
Nice!