what is the best way to skin a crappie without loosing scales.is there special paper or just use a wet towel.thanks for any help
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I like soaking them in it for about on half to an hour before skinning. It toughens the skin up and you wont lose as many scales.
Take your time! Go slow!
Mist your table surface down to allow the fish to slide instead of sticking. This too will help.
Take your time and go slow!
Good luck and take care
Go to www.learntaxidermy.com. On the left there will be a link for free articles and videos. Click and look in the middle of the page. You will see preventing scale loss with glue. It has pictures and written instructions. Have fun.
Is the best way to skin crappie. You can do the glue trick but you have to clean the glue off and I think it is messy. So you just go slow and be gentle. Do not stress the skin any more than you have too. Do not pull on the skin or twist it or bend it. I do quite a few and have not had a major scale loss. It just takes patience.
Todd B
This is my method, and it works great.
First, wash the fish in Aluminum Sulphate (available in gardening stores) to remove the slime.
Place an a piece of cardboard show side up .
Place in refrigerator overnight.
This will dry the show side, and enable skinning without disturbing the scales.
After skinning, place in pickle bath, and the dry side will rehydrate and can be easily mounted.
I used to do the glue thing but like Todd B . said messy and kind of a pain in the a$$. I started to do them Like Cecil has mentioned many times about doing them in sections. This a much better way to do crappie and also redears. I also put some Dawn dishsoap down on my skinning area , this helps to ease some of the stress on the skin.
I would just like to send a big thank you to everyone for their help for skinning crappies. without this sight alot of us beginners would be lost thanks again Mark