question about preparing a bass skin

Well first you need to get all the flesh off of the skin. As much bones and flesh out of the head as possible. Fin butts cleaned off good and tail.Cheek meat out. Then you can preserve it. I use borax and water with a little Odo-Ban for odor elimination and disinfectant. Other people use Denatured Alcohol and water.

 

A largemouth bass should not need to be degreased. Check the old taxi.net archives for differant preservation methods.

 

Bull crap every fish needs to be degreased. That includes bass, degreasing is not hard a bucket of water and a squirt of Dawn abd about 15 minutes will do it.

Learn to do it right and you will never be sorry.

 

Never degreased a largemouth and don't know any one else personally who has , but if it makes you feel better go right ahead. If I were to do it I would use dawn like John C suggested not mineral spirits. On the truly greasy fish I use simple green with good results.
xhunter, enter the words " fish skin preservation " in the search box in the archives and see what you come up with.

 

I degrease all skin mounts. Including Bass and panfish.
All fish have fat content in the soft tissue of the skin and within bones. This can never be removed with just cleaning alone.
It isn't as crucial on bass and panfish, but on Pike, trout, salmon it is VERY much so.

 

Sportinglife - the real question here is "why not degrease"??? It certainly isn't going to hurt. And FYI, you certainly CAN degrease in Mineral Spirits - I use it for all of my fish. For a bass or panfish a few hours is plenty. For larger fish like Pike and salmon, overnight is what I do. DO NOT leave the fish in there for much longer than that as M.S. is NOT a preservative and your fish skin will start breaking down after a few days. After removing from the M.S., rinse in cold water and soak for 15 minutes in water/Dawn. Rinse and repeat as necessary until you no longer feel the residue from the M.S. As far as pulling oils out of fish, I don't believe there's anything that pulls as much oils out as M.S.'s. Just my opinion though - lol!

 

Why not ? Because it seems to me to be a waste of time and degreaser. I have never found even a little bit of grease in a largemouth skin , not even in the head and I have mounted A LOT of largemouth bass. I'm not saying don't do it , I just can't see a need so I don't. I will say I think there are better degreasers than mineral spirits. It is a petroleum based paint thinner. I don't think a hobby taxidermist should use it. There are plenty of safe alternatives.

 

IF you used Mineral Spirits as a degreaser, you'd notice globs of oily gunk in the bottom of your container that nothing else pulls out. To be honest, I'm not sure if it pulls anything extra out of bass or not. Probably minute amounts that most likely wouldn't matter anyway. Bass certainly do not have the high grease content as other species. As I said, I don't think there's anything BETTER than pulling out grease than M.S. But, you are correct, it certainly isn't the safest stuff out there. I justed wanted to clarify to the poster that you could indeed use it as a degreaser (in response to your post stating that you should not...)

 

Marty , I think you need to reread my first response to the question. I said a LM bass should not NEED to be degreased not that it should not . I wouldn't tell anyone not to do it , just that it is not necessary . Since xhunter is familiar with mineral spirits through his work he should know how to handle it safely.
xhunter, Did you find the other info you were looking for in the old taxi.net archives.

 

Put the bass in a solution of 1 cup borax per gallon of water and allow to soak for a couple of hours and you have preserved and sufficiently degreased. It is senseless to immerse a LMB in mineral spirits. I've mounted hundreds, Archie Phillips has mounted tens of thousands using that simple, non-toxic formula.

 

It was your second post Sportinglife...

Joey - "Senseless"??? That's why I do it - lol!

 

xhunter, I think the most important thing to do to prepare your bass skin is to get out as much flesh as you can. Until you have done it a few times it will be hard to know when you have removed it all from the head but just be patient and use common sense. It is best but not necessary to get every little bit. Take your time and try not to kink the skin or you will lose scales. Be sure to get all flesh off the fin butts . The cheeks were the biggest challenge for me, borax helps to get a hold on the small pieces after you get the big chunks out.
Don't be too disappointed if your first attempt isn't perfect. The more fish you mount the better you will get.
Personally I like WASCO fish tan. I wouldn't say it really tans the skin but it does deodorize it and causes it to dry without darkening so you can still see the markings when you paint. Nothing wrong with the borax method though and that's the simplest and least expensive preservative.