My Shoal Bass Replica - Wow! Shipping This Week

[Dead River]

I had Bryan Russell of Anglers Choice Replicas do a Shoal Bass replica for me. I think it turned out great. Note this blank is a relaxed pose as well; when I get another one done it will be an action pose to compliment it. He really did well on the overall hue and the subtle nuances of a shoalie's color scheme that those of us who pursue them know and appreciate. Love the horizontal dotted stripes on the lower section of the fish, hint of blue and teal on the face, the dark spot at the beginning of the tailfan. This girl is still curing but will be here shortly. I'll share some olan mills photos of her on a rock river scene wall mount. These preview pics look good but I am certain they do not do the fish justice. When some incandescent light hits those scaletips the iridescence will be popping off!

Thanks Bryan!
 

[Dead River]

couple more photos of it in direct sunlight... we strived to get those olive green hues in there

fish looks radically different depending on the light

[Dead River]

N.B. these are low res cell phone photos. when it arrives I will post some really good ones..

[rbreedi1]

Very nice .. I like it

[Basswhippa]

Nice smallmouth!

[WIGuide]

Nice smallmouth!

It's not a smallie

[Shane J]

Very nice!! You have a beautiful collection.

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Very nice man!looks great!

[Lucky Craft Man]

Can you post an actual picture of the fish next to the replica picture?

 

To me the mark of a truly good replica is how close it looks like the fish it is meant to represent.  I had a Chinook Salmon done and even though the replica looks incredible, the coloration isn't close to the fish in the picture, which leads to my dissatisfaction with it. 

[dreamertino]

Beautiful bass

[Basswhippa]

It's not a smallie

 

Yes it is.  That is a perfect smallmouth replica.  We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals.  He said it was a "shoal bass".

[AK-Jax86]

Yea id like to see the original pic with a pic of the replica.

I found out about this guy a few months back and was curious about his work, I followed him on FB. His replicas are up and down seen some I really liked and also seen some I was questioning, mainly his largemouth replicas.

But I like this one a lot, just curious to see how accurately he portrayed the actual fish.

[flyfisher]

Yes it is.  That is a perfect smallmouth replica.  We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals.  He said it was a "shoal bass".

Shoal bass is a separate species and not a smallie.  One of the easier ways to tell is look at the jaw hinge.  On smallies it is in front of the eye and largemouth it is behind and shoalies it is right in the middle for the most part.  They are on my bucket list to catch for sure.

 

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/fish/freshwater/shoal-bass/

[WIGuide]

Yes it is.  That is a perfect smallmouth replica.  We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals.  He said it was a "shoal bass".

 

Smallmouth and Shoal bass are two distinctly different species.

http://www.bassmaster.com/sites/default/files/imce/slam_9species.pdf

[basshole8190]

Beautiful shoalie deadriver. what was the weight of that guy? My biggest to date was a 5lb 15oz she-zilla i caught on the hooch between bartletts ferry and west point thought i had a decent stripe untill i saw it the first time boat side. i saw it 5 more times until i finally lipped her. i fish the flint around thomaston some also but never seem to catch any true trophy size shoalies there. i hear good things about the flint above seminole but haven't gotten down there yet. Where are you fishing for them? Would love to talk further with another shoal bass fisherman.

N.B. these are low res cell phone photos. when it arrives I will post some really good ones..

[Dead River]

we started out operating off  a single reference and then used a bunch of different references, so this fish is more or less a composite. the fish looks fantastic, it will be here in a couple of days I will post more photos then.

 

shoal bass is obviously a totally different fish from a smallmouth, its closest relative is the spotted bass, they have the same jaw size - comes to the back of the eye but does not extend past it (largemouth) or end before it (smallmouth). Despite being a close relative of the spotted bass, the shoalie's body is shaped and colored very differently. They have markings which look somewhat similar to a smallmouth but often have a different body shape and different tail, the shoalie's tail looks more like a largemouth and less like a smallmouth (crescent shaped fan). they have a more uniformly thick body than a spotted bass. spotted bass often have large grotesquely distended bellies but are narrow and slender in the vicinity of the tail, anal fin, and soft dorsal. Shoal bass generally have a stockier build like a largemouth if you witll, but not quite as squatty and tank-like as a smallmouth. looking forward to catching some shoalies this year.

[AK-Jax86]

we started out operating off a single reference and then used a bunch of different references, so this fish is more or less a composite. the fish looks fantastic, it will be here in a couple of days I will post more photos then.

shoal bass is obviously a totally different fish from a smallmouth, its closest relative is the spotted bass, they have the same jaw size - comes to the back of the eye but does not extend past it (largemouth) or end before it (smallmouth). Despite being a close relative of the spotted bass, the shoalie's body is shaped and colored very differently. They have markings which look somewhat similar to a smallmouth but often have a different body shape and different tail, the shoalie's tail looks more like a largemouth and less like a smallmouth (crescent shaped fan). they have a more uniformly thick body than a spotted bass. spotted bass often have large grotesquely distended bellies but are narrow and slender in the vicinity of the tail, anal fin, and soft dorsal. Shoal bass generally have a stockier build like a largemouth if you witll, but not quite as squatty and tank-like as a smallmouth. looking forward to catching some shoalies this year.

 

Still never posted your original pics and we all know you are the pic man lol.

It's a composite fish, doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting a mount? I mean I don't have a mount but if I did I would want it to be an exact replica of my fish I caught not a composite of what I felt it should have looked like, idk I might be taking your comment wrong so don't take this the wrong way.

I wasn't saying he is bad at largemouth replicas I just saw some that looked like cartoon fish and saw others that look very good and realistic, who knows those cartoon looking fish could have been spot on and the fish just looked like that. I have seen his other species and they look amazing this guy definitely has a gift.

Can't wait to see the replicas he made you I'm sure they will look really good.

[Dead River]

Still never posted your original pics and we all know you are the pic man lol.

It's a composite fish, doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting a mount? I mean I don't have a mount but if I did I would want it to be an exact replica of my fish I caught not a composite of what I felt it should have looked like, idk I might be taking your comment wrong so don't take this the wrong way.

I wasn't saying he is bad at largemouth replicas I just saw some that looked like cartoon fish and saw others that look very good and realistic, who knows those cartoon looking fish could have been spot on and the fish just looked like that. I have seen his other species and they look amazing this guy definitely has a gift.

Can't wait to see the replicas he made you I'm sure they will look really good.

 

I just told you why I didn't post a photo, because as the process went on it became more of a composite or amalgam fish...unless you get a custom replica done, your fish is not going to be an exact duplicate of your fish, even if it is structurally identical the fish will have some paintjob nuances that's for sure. you don't have any replicas, I'm about to have my sixth one- I know something about this.

 

to refute your point further, on the f1 largemouth I had him paint, I had him go darker on the war paint on the fish's face than it appeared in the photos. because those are characteristics of a bass that I enjoy viewing- personal preference. I could've livewelled the fish and stressed it out and taken a photo, no way I'm gonna do that. also a fish can look radically different in different lighting situations just as this replica looks different under different lighting. if you caught a giant in a murkey stained pond are you really going to have it painted to look like a golden shiner, we've all seen bass pale out to the point that their lateral line is barely visible if not at all.

[Dead River]

when both fish arrive I'll post some more photos and perhaps some of the reference photos

[Dead River]

just a teaser taken by the taxidermist on a rainy day, more pics when it arrives

[Hyrule Bass]

uh so yeah, replicas still look really really fake to me compared to skin mounts. not that the artist didnt do a good job there its just not my cup of tea. replicas just look too fake to me like i could go pick one up at my local walmart and bring home to hang on the wall...

[AK-Jax86]

uh so yeah, replicas still look really really fake to me compared to skin mounts. not that the artist didnt do a good job there its just not my cup of tea. replicas just look too fake to me like i could go pick one up at my local walmart and bring home to hang on the wall...

Lmao at the Walmart lol

[Dead River]

uh so yeah, replicas still look really really fake to me compared to skin mounts. not that the artist didnt do a good job there its just not my cup of tea. replicas just look too fake to me like i could go pick one up at my local walmart and bring home to hang on the wall...

 

I don't think you're looking close enough, good replicas are casts of actual fish, you must've seen some of the archie Phillips junk.

 

how does this fish blank look fake?

[Dead River]

[Dead River]

if you skinmount a bass, it will never have the gaping bucketmouth it did when you hoisted it in your hand for the first time, and I'm not talking about jacking the jaw too far open - I'm talking about shrinkage and decomposition from soaking in denatured alcohol and other substances- this can occure elsewhere on the fish's body as well. I've seen some good skin mounts, but if you want a perfect specimen and money is no object, you kill your fish and have someone cast a custom replica of your fish which will have virtually the same dimensions and all the detail. if you insist on interior mouth and gill detail that can be done in a two step process. I for one opt to let the bass go and select an existing blank with comparable dimensions to my fish and have someone paint it. note the three fish above are all nice blanks, two of them are dennis arp 3ds which have excellent interior mouth and gill detail, these are two of the better specimens from that line. the fattest fish is a starfish blank, it lacks some of the interior mouth and gill detail and is cast in one piece with fins attached but it is still very lifelike and natural. in short the fish you see with the dd22 in the side of its mouth - that's what I looked like when it was cast. I wish I had a dollar for every tattered skinmount I've seen on a restaurant wall, grease bleeds and discolored.