Mattlures

I fish in possably the most preasured lakes in the country. there is always sombody else close by. even on week days. Its over rated I would love to have a nice private pond or lake I could go to, to do some fun fishing. I do agree with FC though. These public lakes do hold some monsters so I keep going back. Its up to you to decide if you want to mount the bass. I would get a replica though so I could catch that bass again when its bigger. Its is not the same accomplishment but most of us would love having those private places to fish without having to deal with a ton of other fisherman.

How healthy are the bass your catching? are they long and skinny or chunky and fat? if they are skinny you may be catching the bigger class of fish in the lake. If so you need to keep a bunch of smaller ones to improve the prey to predator ratio and allow the big ones to get bigger. If the fish are healthy then you need to target the big bass. One of the easiest paterns is to fish for them at night durring summer months.. Bass like to move up shallow and hunt at night. Fish by areas know to hold prey that has deeper water close by. The biggest bass in your lake will own the best spots to live. Use swimbaits, live bait, topwaters, wakebaits, jigs and big worms. and be stealth as WRB said. of course you should always be stealthy but more so when targeting the biggest smartest bass in a specific lake

I do the oposite. I use a reel set with big thick hooks and I set the hook with the rod when I use light hooks.For me a reel set works best when I have alot of line out and a rod set works best close.

Thanks to all of you guys who recomended my bait. I apreciate it!

post #1 and #2 are dead on. Use Mend-it for repairs. It chemicaly welds the plastic back together. It is better then glue. Also use a lube (slippery scent) and the bait will be much harder to tare in the first place.

J Francho that is a perfect example of how circumstances outweigh the weight of the fish I bet Randal was just as excited as you were!

It depends on when, where, and on what. If I am at a known dink lake then a 5 makes me happy. If I get a 5 while trophy hunting then its a minor let down. But in general anything over 12 gets me pretty exited and over 15 makes me shake. If that ever goes away, I am done.

It looks like its making the bait hunt. If that is what its doing then crank bait guys should be all over these things

A heavy flipping stick will handle those baits. I think the heaviest is only 2 oz. If you want to get a swimbait rod I would recomend the Okuma Med hvy guide select swimbait rod. As far as good inexpencive swimbaits go....Well I am obviously byass so besides mine, I would recomend a Hudd 68 over the bass pro bait.

I had that happen probably about 6 years ago. I had huge bass pinned in a big tree branch. I would guess the fish to be between 13-15lbs and I could see it clearly. It was about 8ft deep and I had my buddy pull on the branch as hard as he could wich tilted the boat a little and I stucck my arm in the water with my net all the way up to my neck and I could just touch the bass but couldnt get the net under her. I actualy considerd jumping in and getting her but she kept shaking her head and eventualy got away leaving me snagged. At the time I think that would have been my PB. IF THIS EVER HAPPENES TO YOU, you have to make up your mind fast and just jump in. If you wait like I did, chances are the fish will get away.

Craw I lost one I believe was 20+ about 5 years ago and it still haunts me. However I do realize what I did wrong and I dont plan on making the same mistake again.

It is much better to loose on then to never have it. You can learn alot from your mistakes. If you can figure out why you lost that fish you will be better prepaired the next time a similar situation ocures. You said you lost it on a crankbait? Maybe you were putting too much preasure on it and pulled the hooks? maybe your drag was a little to tight. There are many little things we do when we fight fish.We make alot of mistakes and we probably still land most of the fish. Try and figure out why the fish got off and adjust.

You obviosly have that photo finishing down. Those baits look VERY good. i think the only improvent would be if you made some custom eyes for them. You can hand paint eyes on a piece of paper using metalic super fine paint pens and sharpies and then carefuly cut them out. Then put a drop of epoxy on the cut out eye and it will be a custome domed eye. I am not saying your baits need this as those are some of the nicest I have seen. Just something else to play around with.

You are correct sir.

You guys that say the colors are wrong are not getting it. BOTH REPLICAS AND SKIN MOUNTS ARE PAINTED. The realism of the paint job is determined by the taxidermist, not the type of mount. Realy the only argumant for a skin mount is the "ITS MY FISH" arguement or possibly it may be cheaper to do a skin mount but the cost is usualy about the same. When comparring the actual finished product the replica is superior hands down. Of course the QUALITY of ALL taxidermy is determined by the taxidermist who did the work. When your talking about specific coloring or unusual markings etc, that all comes down to the guy doing the work. Taxidermy is one thing that you realy do get what you pay for. Before you decide on a taxidermist go into his shop and look at his work. Before you decide that the lowest priced taxidermist work looks great, go look at an award winning taxidermist work. Pay close attention and the work you first though looked good wont look so good anymore. I am talking about all types of taxidermy.The best high end replicas make skin mounts look bad and the average guy couldnt tell if it was a replica. On realy good replica mounts one of the ways to tell if it is a replica is that it is soo correct and doent have any mounting flaws.

I dont think it would matter either way. You seem to have made up your mind and I have alot of experiance with both types of mounts so I have made up my mind. Just so you know, I dont dislike skin mounts and If replicas were not an option I am sure I wouldnt have a problem with a skin mount. I just feel that replicas are superior. As for private message I am not sure why its not accepting?

I have never heard of an animal going by the inch and I dont believe any taxidermist charge grizzlies by the inch. I suposse its possible but unlikley. Fish go by the inch. if you fell like your skin mounts are more "real", then more power to you. If your satisfied with the quality of your skin mounts then good. I preffer a higher quality product that will last. If you feel that a replica is fake and doesnt count because anybody can just buy one then thats why we have pictures, videos, and scales. Get a replica and have your framed picture of you holding the fish next to it. Best of both worlds.

Very nice mounts Glen Yes Tony, depreciates! Do you know how much those mounts cost to get mounted? If you look on ebay you will see many deer shouldermounts that are listed at between $200 and $500. That is about the going price for what they sell for. In my area the starting price to have a deer shoulder mount is about $600 and goes up to $1000. Look at most of the fish mounts for sale on ebay. The ones that actualy sell almost always sell for less the $200. There is no taxidermist in my area who would do a fish for that cheap so YES they depreciate. A Grizzly ?? first off that a rare anaimal and yes it would proabaly sell for more the the price of mounting but not gauranteed. Do you know how much it costs to get one mounted? Like I said earlier most mounts are not worth what they cost to get mounted. The mount or animal has to be exceptional and even then they usualy arent worth that much more. You might see a high price tag but that doesnt mean sombody is actualy goint to pay that much for it. If you go onto most taxidermist shops they will have a mount or 2 that a customer never picked up or paid them for. They will usualy sell them for less then their regular cost of mounting. WHY? because like I said the mount is worth the most to person the caught or killed it. Tony if you disagree then why dont you go out and start catching and killing trophies and sell the mounts for a proffit. Easy money right? Yes you can look on ebay and show me a couple mounts that might sell for a little more then the cost to mount them but I can show you the whole taxidermy catagory where 90% of the mounts are going to sell for less then the cost to mount them.

Resale value is a non issue as Taxidermy depreciates. Its only worth top dollar to the guy that caught the fish or killed the trophy animal. Unless the mount is extremly rare or a world class trophy the resale value will not be worth what it cost to get the mount done. As far as fish, a replica would be worth a little more because it is at least not decomposing. Yes todays meathods are much better then the past but it is still the skin of a fish. The biggest problem with skin mounts in general is that it takes a world class taxidermist to mount one correctly without any obvious flaws. A replica starts out in the correct state. No shrinkage, no warpage and NO incorrect mounting. As long as the fins are properly mounted and the seams are finished good and the eye is set correctly then the taxidermist starts with a natural correct mount that only needs to be painted correctly. A skin mount has so many areas that can and does start out incorectly and only gets wors with age. Tony I feel your thinking is backwards. Instead of being bothered by replicas you should look at the benefits. First you have the option of releasing the fish. Some guys dont care, some do. I like to release my big bass. I have released MANY bass over 10lbs and I am sure I have caught some of them when they grew bigger as a result of me releasing them before. 2nd a replica mount from a good taxidermist will look better then a skin mount from a good taxidermist and it will still look great 20 years later where a skin mount (even with todays improvements) will show signs of aging. You seem to be hung up mounting the skin of the actual fish you caught. I cant help you with that. If that makes you feel more like its "your" fish, then so be it. I preffer a mount that looks natural and correct and it will stay that way. I also like knowing that the next time I catch that 15lber I released it might be 20lbs. I also have many shoulder mounts of animals I have hunted so I aint no tree huggin peta person. as for not being a real trophy? In this day and age you can buy just about any trophy you want. Be it a big gold trophy to put on your mantle or a giant elk mount or any fish. The trophy is for you to enjoy. If you preffer a skin mount then thats your choice. I have seen 1000s of botched skin mounts that will always look botched. I have seen a ton more aged skin mounts that look aged. If your taxidermist does a bad paint job on your replica you can have it repainted. Your pretty much stuck with all the flaws on a skin mount.

You want to keep the fish from getting damaged. wrap in a wet rag and then news paper and then trash bag and freeze it. Get it to your taxidermist as soon as possible. You do have some time but the longer you have it in your freezer the more chance there is for freezer burn. Here is one more link to some of the best replicas. Their top of the line replicas dont even have seams. Very nice to work with although they are not cheap. http://www.lakecountryreplicas.com/products.php?cat=19

Tony I dont mean to be disrespect you but you are very wrong. Not just a little either . First that old skin mount is skinned, fleshed, preserved, and then mounted. Realy old mounts were filled with something like paper mache or even sand. Modern skin mounts are fitted around a foam manaikin.The "clay" is applied in ares that are known to shrink, and its used to make smooth transitions. The areas that I pointed out look verry unnatural and do not represent how an alive fish looks. Most shrinkage areas ocore in the head which is the focal point. This happenes because there are very small pockets of meat that are left in the head that shrink and suck in over time. Trout heads are the worst. No old skin mount has the guts and meat in it, NONE. Also the scales are not too small or too big on a replica. They are exactly correct. They mold a real fish. The fins can be a little thick but on skin mounts they are usualy a little thin. Why because they are dried out. However depending upon the replica you choose you can get fins that are the correct thickness. So you know I used to do taxidermy as a buisiness and I did many replicas. I made my own replicas and I used some commercialy bough replicas.

Tony those skin mounts are good examples of how superior a replica is. Firt look how old and faded that bass looks before its restored. Then after its restored the paint looks good but there are several very common mounting flaws on that fish. Notic the transition fwere the top of the head meets the boddy. There was not enough clay put there and now the fish looks like it it has a huge hump. as the skin dries and shrinks this flaw gets exaggerated like you see in the mount. Also notice how the bottom of the jaw is pushed in creating an unnatural pose. The transition where the tail meets the manikin is also too pronounced and not as smooth as it should be. You taxidermist did a good job restoring the mount be he had to work with a flawed skin mount. A replica starts correct in a natural pose. That mount before restoration is how most older skin mount look. Even the ones that are well kept will show some yellowing and other discoloration. Ones that are exposed to heat or sunlight will show alot more discolorations and cracks and warping etc. The most important thing is how good your taxidermist is. An average taxidermist can make both replicas and skin mounts look bad. Here are some more sites with replicas http://www.fishcreations.com/north.htm http://www.fishtaxidermytaxidermist.com/LargemouthBassReplicasReproductions.html http://www.blackwaterfishreplicas.com/site/gallery.html

A "FAKE" mount is a better representation of your fish then a skin mount. A "FAKE" mount is more accurate and correct. Look at it this way. Say you were to mout a human. Lets say Elvis. You would skin him, preserve the skin and then stretch accross a manikin. How close do you think the "real" mount would look like Elvis ? Probably wouldnt. Now lets say you make a casting of him and make an Elvis repplica. It the hair and make up was done right it would look just like him. Ever see those wax museum people? they look real. Now back to a fish. A replica is a casting of an actual fish and they have all the detail you could see with out a magnifying glass. A perplica is superior in EVERY possible way. with a skin mount, the taxidermist has to cure the skin properly. He has to mont the skin correctly(which almost never happens). I can pick out mounting flaws in just about every skin mount done except for world class taxidermy.with a replica you automatical start with a correct mount. After a small amount of prep and eye setting ( you have do just as much with a skin mount) it all comes down to how good the taxidermist can paint. The best a skin mount can ever look is equal to how a replica looks if the painting is equal. Given time a skin mount will never look as good as the replica. A skin mount is a rotting decompsing fish skin over a foam manikin. I have done both skin mounts and replicas and its not even close. I have accidentaly killed a couple big bass and I didnt even skin mount those. I made molds and made replicas.Do I have anything against mounting a bass doing a skin mount? Not realy against the mount itself. I just know how superior a "fake" replica is. It is a more accurate representation of the fish you caugh if you take good pics, measurements, and choose a good taxidermist. The argument shouldnt be whats more real, it should be, whats the better product. The added benift is the fish can also be released.

For me it is these in this order. #1 swimbaits #2 Jigs #3 Plastic worms and creatures #4 Buzzbaits #5 live bait

Way to stick with it North Ga Hillbilly I like the big Rage worm. I think its the Anaconda. I knew if I threw it at night it would get bit and It did and I was not suprissed.