Bleaching Dried Bluegills

[Ken 2]

I have two bluegills that dried very dark after mounting. I would like to lighten the skins by bleaching. I read in one of the Breakthrough manuals about brushing straight bleach on a dried trout mount and leaving it for five minutes then rinsing it off. Anyone ever tried this on a dried bluegill. I am mainly concerned about the possibility of destroying the membrane between the fin rays. Thanks.

[Monty Artrip]

  Hi Ken, Check out Coles largemouth painting tutorial in that section. He uses a white pencil and basically whites out the top of the scales, leaving you a starting point very similar to a repro. I have tried bleaching with some good and some not so good results. Hope this helps.

[John C]

Make a transparent white paint. 9 parts clear gloss and 1 part white. This will alloa the darker markings to show through.. Test it on the back you may wish to reduce the paint with 50% thinner.. You want it very transparent.

[3bears]

I used the bleach method on a smallmouth that dried almost black and it lightened it up pretty well, just be careful around the fins.

[Ken 2]

I appreciate the informative answers. Thanks for your time. I will try the bleach first and move toward the thinned paint if there is any thing left after the bleach. I will try and post the results. Ken