I'm entering my first competion this august. I mounted a large mouth bass, and was wondering if the judges want the fins to look natural or should I screen the backs and cut them round like you see in the magazines. Also if anyone has any input on things that they will look for please let me know. Thanks Fritz
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To answer this in a nut shell, the judge wants the fish to be in a natural state. You are to try and mount this bass to best of your ability trying your best to hide all seams, fins should be either casted and kept thin but meaty as a real fin or if the real fin is used it will need to be built out so that it looks like the real fin. When you see fins cut in the manner as you may see in the magazines there done totally wrong. I always make my fins look as natural as possible. The clients do notice and rather have a real looking fin than one that looks like it had major surgery.
I now leave all of my fish fins naturual. When I first started 6 years ago or so I would add backing and trim them. No more do i do that. I just use that stuff from WASCO that comes in a cauking tube.
There are several methods of backing fins. Find the one that suites you best.
Thats what I prefer and thats what Dan Rhinehart said he liked when I talked to him at our convention. Both can be acquired at wal-mart in the crafts department. The material is not called silk span but if you look around the fabrics you'll know when you see the right one. Good Luck. Peace- Jeff F.
I guess I'll just leave the fins the way they are instead of trimming them. Any other helpful hints for a comp. mount.. Thanks again Fritz
I back my fins and dont leave any tears in them.Most of the time those tears were caused by the fish fighting when being caught.
If you dont believe me on that,take a fish out of a aquarium and make a couple cuts in their fins.They will grow back.
To be natural though you need to take a dremel tool with a cutting disc and go back and just hit each fin a few times.Its hard for me to explain that procedure but you might be able to find a article in a taxidermy magazine.
If you leave big tears in your fins,most judges will take off points.Also if you dont use silkspan on your fins and just leave the tears in them.They are no where near as strong.Even when you put a couple coats of glue on them.
Since your fish is already mounted There may not be a bunch of advise left to give. Use very good detailed references and rebuild ALL shrinkage that has occured. Most judges I know are more concerned with anatomy and shrinkage concerns than painting details. Paint the fish with good close up reference photos of live specimans pay particular attention to details. Lastly composition has become very important in the display of todays quality taxidermy. My compositions are pre-planned and the base work is generally well under way before anything is even started on the actual speciman to be displayed. Good Luck with your fish--competitions are a great learning tool for focusing in all the lil details that make a mount truly spectacular. I know Frank K.would agree.