This might be one for Cecil but all are welcome to chime in. I just came home from fishing at a "by the pound" trout farm with some gorgeous Brook Trout specimens I'll be mounting for a client. They were put in plastic bags on ice. Now they have faded with a large light colored patch here and dark patches elsewhere. Now we all know that fish lose their color after death and it's our job to restore it. However, the fish painting methods I use require that the colors fade evenly. I have cured this problem on other spiecies like Bass, Pike, Walleyes, etc. by massaging the skin (before skinning) under a stream of cold water with a soft bristled toothbrush. It works like a charm on those fish and results in an even colored background. It doesn't seem to work on these trout. Any suggestions out there. Thanks to all.
Little Al
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I've had the same problem with customer fish. The only thing you can do now is put some borax on it, and hope for the best.
Proper field care dictates that we keep the fish skin away from the water and ice in a cooler, lest we get the splotchy fade marks.
You could try and bleach the dried skin after mounting to even the skin tones, or fade some dark paint on the light areas to match them up. We would all like to have "perfect" specimens every time, but that just don't happen.
...and a soft bristled scrub brush on the wet, un-skinned fish. Gently scrub head to tail making sure you don't catch any scales. This may help some and it'll sometimes bring back some color in the overall fish as well. Just a personal preference, but I don't like to bleach anything. Bleach is extremely tough on your clothes, it can't be good for your fish skins. Certainly go easy if you attempt it. Otherwise, I just mount the fish up and see where I'm at once dried. Blending with a number 2 pencil and/or thinned black paint in the air brush sometimes does the trick. But usually each blotchy mark is a unique challenge and takes different techniques to hide adequately. Another trick is depending on where the mark is at, you can attempt to trick people's eyes by hiding that area as best you can. Positioning the pectoral fin tight to the body (for instance) over the blemmish can help hide things. Or simply flipping the fish over and positioning it the other direction (duh!). Or using paint to help hide it - add in more markings in the area if it can be pulled off well even if there aren't markings there. Or if you're adding habitat, you can help hide things via a branch of the driftwood or whatever subtly placed in front of that area. Another trick that helps is to draw the viewers eyes away from that area. Example: Having a baitfish in front of the fish creates a focal point that pushes one's eyes past the flaw quickly.
You can only do so much to replicate the damaged area. With practice, you can pull things off pretty good most of the time. When it doesn't look 100% or acceptable. Try one (or several) of these other tricks to help move people's eyes away from the blemmish...
I've used Cecil's borax and denatured alcohol and I've use the denatured alcohol by itself. The skins naturally correct the coloration problem there. If they dry too dark, I mist them with Clorox.
Brook trout...scales? you must grow them brookies differant down there than my neck of the woods.
...can be used on any fish. Just wanted to point out that IF there's scales to be careful and not to catch them. Pretty obvious for most. But you never know who's going to read this stuff, so you can't be too careful...
and some great suggestions above!
Many times after the degreaser and borax solution the color homogenizes itself. However if not, don't panic until the skin dries. If you end up with light blothes simply shade them in the same color as the surrounding skin tone before applying my colors. Many of the brookies I do have a light brown skin tone before I apply colors. Therefore if I have a light area I use light brown to blend in the light areas with the rest of the skin. Some places where the paint is quite bold you might not even have to worry about it. But go easy when you try and blend skin tones!
If it's really bad as in a large hook jawed brown I did once, I brush or dobb on 50/50 water/bleach (as someone above eluded to) on the dried skin and rinse quickly with fresh water and blot dries ASAP. The trick is not to let it stay wet any longer than needed to prevent warping of the skin. But you so want to be sure you rinse the bleach solutions well as bleach residue causes problems with some clear coats.
I have no doubt the rubbing, toothbrush, borax etc works too but I haven't done much of that.
Rub the fish under running water with a toothbrush before you skin it.
DaveT
Cecil said "homo". Hee-hee-hee.
Cecil, you've been using some big words lately. "Salmon-Proscuto" and "Homogenized". Between you and George I'm going to have to pull the old thesaurus and dictionary out again - lol!
Has business picked up for you? I took in 15 fish yesterday! A new record for me. Also Fyi, all 15 said they USE to go to you - lol! (Just kidding of course). But, I did actually take in 15 yesterday and another two today. 20 in July and so far 20 on the books in August. I think I took in maybe 20 all of January thru June this year. What a funky business eh?
I want to thank all of you for responding to my question. I'll wait and see how the skins come out of the borax/denatured alcohol like George suggested.
When I go trout fishing which is rare nowadays and I catch a trophy to be mounted(even more rare,LOL) I hang the fresh caught fish from a branch of a tree by threading the cleaned off branch through the eyes and letting it hang there till I am through fishing. This way the skin oxidizes at the same rate and what you end up with is a perfect skin worthy of a competition mount. Did I just say"competition mount? LOL Must have been a freudian slip or something! Anyway, the skin will be free of these light to dark variances and come out perfect. The head will be replaced with a repro. so I don't have to worry about any damage there and it's quick, easy and lets me get back to the more important matter at hand, Spankin them there fish!
...an eel or lamprey attached to the bad spot - lol!
Do you mount a coon next to it complete with the orginal bite marks?
Just kidding! Makes sense.
Maybe a few wasps but they don't eat much, LOL!