Morality Questions

[otulp78]

1.) If I catch a trophy fish, all I need is a picture. I wouldn't keep it or make a replica. However, if it was the state record, I would keep it.

 

2.) If it had no chance of survival and was legal to keep, I would keep it. I love eating fish/bass. I also believe my state's DNR recommends you to keep the fish in this situation. If it was illegal, I would release it.

[dignan2121]

Depends where I catch them. In northeast Ohio besides lake Erie I'll catch and release. Lake Erie and my cottage in northern Ontario I will catch them and eat them.

[Scott F]

If you saw a replica that looked fake or did not look like the fish that was caught, blame the guy who made the mount, not the process. Just because a mount was made with the actual skin of the fish, does not mean it's going to look right. All mounts, skin or replicas have to be painted. If the taxidermist is not a good artist, no mount will look good. Plus if the guy who does your skin mount takes any shortcuts, in a few years, it's going to look bad. 

[Marty]

I wouldn't have a mount of any size, because I wouldn't know what to do with it. But I'd have a fit if I didn't get a decent picture. The mount thing is a personal preference and I have no problem if others want mounts.

 

As to the fish that likely won't survive but isn't a legal size to keep, it gets thrown back. The agency that made the regulations knows that some fish die in the hooking and catching process.

[Bluebasser86]

If you saw a replica that looked fake or did not look like the fish that was caught, blame the guy who made the mount, not the process. Just because a mount was made with the actual skin of the fish, does not mean it's going to look right. All mounts, skin or replicas have to be painted. If the taxidermist is not a good artist, no mount will look good. Plus if the guy who does your skin mount takes any shortcuts, in a few years, it's going to look bad. 

 

Skin mounts will start to deteriorate with time and need a lot more upkeep than a replica. Most replicas I've seen are works of art that look like they'd swim off if you put them in the water. The one skin mount I have was done by a very good taxidermist and it looks very good also, but I would have much rather been able to take a picture and turn that fish loose.

And give em' a chance to break your record!

 

I have no problem with that. If someone else catches the same fish I caught and broke my record that would be great, even better if it happened to be a young angler. My name on a piece of paper as the guy who caught the biggest fish of a certain species in the state means very little to me. Someone else getting to catch the fish of a lifetime because I turned it loose so they could have that experience would certainly bring a smile to my face though.

[WRB]

I'd say this has to do more-so with fishing in general but certainty applies to bass. 

 

1)The age old question, you catch that monster trophy fish/bass from your dreams... do you keep it/mount it?

 

2)What if you gut/gill hook it and it has absolutely no chance of survival.  Do you keep it/eat it?  what if it isn't within the slot limit, but at the same time have ZERO chance of being caught if you do?

 

 

1 - Personally if i could afford to mount a fish, i would go with a replica....  but really depends on the lake.  If im muskie fishing on a smallish lake (less than say... 25,000 acres.  like Cass lake) i would always release because i know how genetics play a role in a trophy fishery.

 

2- If i could afford it and its a monster fish i would certainty mount it.... But last summer i was walleye fishing up in LOTWs Canada and gill hooked about a 35.75 inch pike.  Slot limit says 1 over 36 inches... but it was bleeding out badly and I literally spent 15-20 minutes trying to revive it.  i was in very remote with very slim chance of being checked for fish, so i filleted it on an island and ate its delicious steaks.

 

So theoretically if you legally catch a big fish?  is there a certain size you would kill it to mount it???  or if you accidentally kill a fish, do you mount/eat it?  even if breaking the laws but with no chance of being caught?

Take a look at my avatar replica mount, this 19.3 lb bass was released alive and heathly. Absolutely no reason to skin mount any fish anymore!

Unless you have some device that measures live fish very accurately, your pike was a legal fish, slot limits are designed with a fudge factor built in.

Tom

[wademaster1]

I'll say picture on the trophy bass, but I'm not sure I'd stick to that if I ever catch one that large....

If a fish is already dead and it's something I want to eat then I'd keep it.....nothing goes to waste in nature, something would eat it anyway....

[KyakR]

I'd try to get a pic of a big bass (in a kayak it's hard to pan back enough). If dying, legal or not, I'd give it back to the lake. Bald eagles are common where I fish, and they'll often spot it and swoop down. What a sight!

[SirSnookalot]

Take a look at my avatar replica mount, this 19.3 lb bass was released alive and heathly. Absolutely no reason to skin mount any fish anymore!

Unless you have some device that measures live fish very accurately, your pike was a legal fish, slot limits are designed with a fudge factor built in.

Tom

Don't understand a fudge factor.  If a slot is say 28"-32" for an example, whether the allowable measurement is total length, pinched tail or to the fork in the tail, it's 28-32, not 27 1/2 or 27 7/8  I wonder how far one might get telling a game warden that if fish was less than the legal size, we can fudge it and make it legal.  Tape measures don't lie, it is what is.

[WRB]

Don't understand a fudge factor. If a slot is say 28"-32" for an example, whether the allowable measurement is total length, pinched tail or to the fork in the tail, it's 28-32, not 27 1/2 or 27 7/8 I wonder how far one might get telling a game warden that if fish was less than the legal size, we can fudge it and make it legal. Tape measures don't lie, it is what is.

To measure a long fish accurately you can't do it with a tape measure effectively unless it is laying on a flat board designed for the shape of groups of body shapes, mouth open vs mouth closed, mouth closed tightly, tail flattened etc, etc., as I am sure you well know. With pike for example, long body, little belly to create a chord (arch) witch can lengthens the fish measured with a tape, the tail is deep V, all you need to do to lengthen the live fish is push down on it, it will add about 1/2" with a 36" pike, pressure makes a big difference. With a deep V tail, you eye ball an line across the tail tips or measure the bottom of the V, difference about 1", depending on how each state draws their measurement method. Tournament fishing each organization has specific measure rules, measurement boards, sketches on how to achieve repeatable measurements, so anglers and judges measure using the same technique. There is a lot of variables; tape measures are not calibrated, steel vs cloth over 36" can vary. Slot limits are in inches, not fractions of inches.

[SirSnookalot]

Tom, with all due respect, pressing down on a fish to try and lengthen it is not the way to measure a fish, IMO that's not fudging that's cheating.  Whether the fish is on a board or other flat surface, the tape is put next to the fish measuring the length to the terms of that species the mouth can be open or closed depending on what the state says.  Putting the tape on top of the fish, the contour will measured and most likely add some length, again not the way to measure a fish.  There is no grey area, a measurement is exactly what it is, legal or not legal.

Tournament requirements probably are not pertinent to this thread, but if so would they supercede state law?  A question I have no answer for not being a tournament angler, don't most tourneys go by weight?

[Hyrule Bass]

If you saw a replica that looked fake or did not look like the fish that was caught, blame the guy who made the mount, not the process. Just because a mount was made with the actual skin of the fish, does not mean it's going to look right. All mounts, skin or replicas have to be painted. If the taxidermist is not a good artist, no mount will look good. Plus if the guy who does your skin mount takes any shortcuts, in a few years, it's going to look bad. 

 

skin mounts look like a real fish to me. replicas look like a shiny plastic fish thats mass produced and sold at walmarts and outdoorsman stores around the world. they just dont look real to me no matter who does them, every replica ive seen also has this thing with the colors appearing to be too bright, never seen that with a skin mount. even WRBs 19.3 replica, looks nice and all, just not real looking. at the end of the day, its up the individual who caught the fish to decide what to do with it, i wont fault anyone for choosing to keep any fish so long as its a legal catch. but im not paying anyone hundreds of dollars to put together a fish model kit for me and paint it when in the end it looks no better or worse than something i could get for 20 bucks at walmart...

[Scott F]

skin mounts look like a real fish to me. replicas look like a shiny plastic fish thats mass produced and sold at walmarts and outdoorsman stores around the world. they just dont look real to me no matter who does them, every replica ive seen also has this thing with the colors appearing to be too bright, never seen that with a skin mount. even WRBs 19.3 replica, looks nice and all, just not real looking. at the end of the day, its up the individual who caught the fish to decide what to do with it, i wont fault anyone for choosing to keep any fish so long as its a legal catch. but im not paying anyone hundreds of dollars to put together a fish model kit for me and paint it when in the end it looks no better or worse than something i could get for 20 bucks at walmart...

 

That's too bad. It's a shame you've never seen a replica done by a professional who knows what he's doing. I've got one. if you lived near me I could show it to you. You'd have a different opinion.

[WRB]

Maybe Broc will sign in and tell us how he measured his pike.

Chech It Stik is a common measuring device used by anglers everywhere. I mounted a aluminum yard stick onto a wooden plank with a nose stop back in the 60's to measure length and a tape measure to measure girth of a few hundred bass, not easy to do with only 2 hands and a live fish.

Tournaments always have minimum length, some have slot limits, so weight is the bench mark after it's a legal fish. I know TX anglers that stepped on bass to increase the length before weighing in.

Regarding fish mounts; skin vs replica, we have lots of posts on this topic, both are about the same cost and quality varies greatly depending on the artists doing the painting and both are painted. Fish replicas.com and lake Fork taxidermist are popular for bass mounts. My mount was by Robert Munos, one of the best in the business.

Tom

[wademaster1]

That's too bad. It's a shame you've never seen a replica done by a professional who knows what he's doing. I've got one. if you lived near me I could show it to you. You'd have a different opinion.

Can you post a pic? I'd like to see it....

[Scott F]

 I've tried to photograph it before but a picture cannot do justice to the mount. It just can't show the detail you can see when you look at the fish close up in the light. The paint the artist used has a light gold dust that looks exactly like the scales on a real fish. 

[loudcherokee]

I've tried to photograph it before but a picture cannot do justice to the mount. It just can't show the detail you can see when you look at the fish close up in the light. The paint the artist used has a light gold dust that looks exactly like the scales on a real fish.

Jumping off topic for a second - try an external light source, no flash, and the macro setting on your camera. One of my hobbies since i was a kid has always been model cars. This always works good for getting photos of metallic paints like the gold youre talking about.

Back on topic - legal sized gut hook - i would keep and eat it. Love fish, rolled in butter, little bit of lemon pepper...mmm mmmmm good.

As far as mounting, I would probably try for a replica for anything over 10 pounds. My PB is 5, so I may never have to worry about making that decision. The state record here is only 12 something. I just cant see killing any animal to just hang it on the wall. If the meat could also be eaten, thats a different story, like a deer. Keeping a head mount while eating the rest of the animal is perfectly acceptable to me. If the same were possible for a fish, then i would go with skin mount.

LC

[Hyrule Bass]

That's too bad. It's a shame you've never seen a replica done by a professional who knows what he's doing. I've got one. if you lived near me I could show it to you. You'd have a different opinion.

 

how do you know what i have and havent seen? i've seen plenty of mounts, replicas all look extremely fake to me. i think youre confusing my stance here to begin with. while replicas look nice, they dont look real at all. when i say replicas look fake, it doesnt mean its because of poor quality in the work. it means they just dont look real. its just my personal preference. last year i took a tour of a highly recommended taxidermists house on Smith Mountain Lake. His work was unreal, it was amazing. He had a replica on his wall of the perry bass that he did, it was nice work. Then he showed me a skin mount of another bass, and i liked the look of it so much better. It looked like it had just come out of the water, while the perry replica which was excellent work didnt have that same look though

[WRB]

how do you know what i have and havent seen? i've seen plenty of mounts, replicas all look extremely fake to me. i think youre confusing my stance here to begin with. while replicas look nice, they dont look real at all. when i say replicas look fake, it doesnt mean its because of poor quality in the work. it means they just dont look real. its just my personal preference. last year i took a tour of a highly recommended taxidermists house on Smith Mountain Lake. His work was unreal, it was amazing. He had a replica on his wall of the perry bass that he did, it was nice work. Then he showed me a skin mount of another bass, and i liked the look of it so much better. It looked like it had just come out of the water, while the perry replica which was excellent work didnt have that same look though

Getting off topic?... Taxidermy is an art form, the end result may appeal to some and not others, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The cost of a good mount, skin or replica, are equal, so cost isn't a factor. The average is around $15 per inch, higher if you want added features. I have 3 shin mounts by very talented taxidermist; trout, bass and musky and 1 replica bass mount. The replica is 19 years old and looks new, most anglers that see this mount like it. The shin mounts are older and started to deteriorate with a few years after being done, typical with shin mounts due to how the fish skin, head, tail, fins are cured and preserved, then painted. The cured skin is grey, no color. If replica mounts were available at the time my skin mounts were made, knowing what I know today, they would be replica's. if you want a skin mount because you believe this is your fish and looks more natural, that is a choice to make.

Tom

[Hyrule Bass]

really it is all about personal preference, and i will leave it at that. im just not one to cry or get mad every time someone removes and keeps a bass from a body of water. so long as its legally harvested, then its their right...