I mounted a striped bass four days ago and have set it up to dry. The problem is that the mouth area smells terrible. Any ideas on what to do about this? Thanks.
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Are you sure that you cleaned all the meat from the cheek pockets and head? That is usually the reason for a mounted fish smelling bad. The skin also needs to be soaked in the preservative/degreasing solution of your choice. A search of the archives will reveal many different formulas that will work.
I cleaned it out as good as possible and let it soak for about 14 hours in a strong borax solution with a little lysol in it. Is there anything else I should do or should have done? Also, I have let it sit in front of a fan for 24 hours and it is beginning to lose its foul odor.
If you reall took everything out the fish could dry overnite.. Did you flesh the esophagus? Did you remove the ball joint up behind the nose? Did you remove the skull support bones? How about the tongue? Then the meat inside the lower jaw? How far up under the tongue did you go, did you fleshout the bottom side of the tongue and cut the gill support strucuters out? Along the flesh side on the roof of the mouth is a series of bones with flesh, did you remove these?
Seldom have I seen anyone completly flesh a fish. Part of this is your problem and the other part is the borax and lysol.
Stripers being a marine species, are a lot more oily than most fish from fresh water.
Use a 50/50 mix of denatured alcohol and water. The next day the meat you left behind will show up a slightly yellow/clear color. Then you can do some final fleshing.
Now that you have a better idea on cleaning ou the fish. Place the fish directly in front of a fan on high. So the air will enter the head and dry it other wise you will have a stinky fish forever and the bacteria that is growing and adding to the stink is never going to get any better.