28" Cutthroat Replica ?

Someone here will probably disagree but I wouldn't have any issues doing so. Cutts are actually closely related to rainbows, in fact, so close they easily hybridize in the wild. All of the west coast trout are closely related.

 

There is a 28" one in the old Arp line at McKenzie. I would order that and take a look before trying to alter a rbt. Some of those older Arps are really nice fish. It's completely returnable if you don't like it and you are no worse off.

 

Hi Jay, without knowing what your fish looks like exactly all I can say is yes, you can. You can also check out Envision 3D, they have some cutthrouts that size, but they are the Lohantan strain. the one I am thinking about is about 28 inches, but kind of thin, with a long head, but check it out. As you know, cutthroat heads vary a LOT, from vary distinctive to the same as a rainbow. Rich Benedict has some rainbow blanks with heads that could go either way. you could check them out as well. Many of the older Arp blanks did double duty as multiple trout species with only head and/or fin changes. If he can do it, why can't you?

~S

 

Can't go wrong with Envision 3D if that fits the profile of the fish you're trying to match. He is a super nice guy and his blanks are wonderful, i just ordered a cutthroat blank from him and couldn't be happier wit it.

 

I did a search under trout identification and really didn't find much. Most of the places I searched mentioned just color variations and nothing else. There are quite a few different strains of cutthroats across the country which usually vary by color. I found 1 interesting article that mentioned determining differences between different cutthroat strains by the number of scales. I'm not exactly sure how technical you want to be with the particular fish you are working on but would think you could likely get away with finding a rainbow blank that is close to the fish measurements and paint it the color of the cutthroat reference pictures you may have. Probably 99% of the people that look at the final product wouldn't know the difference...especially if you trim the fins to match and use a head that is similar to your reference photos. If you want to be super picky you would likely need to find a blank for the particular cutthroat strain of your fish.

 

I would disagree with this statement. I would argue it's closer to 100% of customers wouldn't notice! 99% would be closer to the number of fish taxidermists that also wouldn't notice!

 

Absolutely! Perhaps some ichthyologist might TRY, but who cares about that guy. The main thing would be to try to match the head shape. Cutthroat have so much variation in head shape it's crazy! I've seen Snake river cuts with heads so distinctive, with a straight top to the nose, eye more forward and a straight, thin maxilla. I've seen Rio Grande cuts with heads that looked almost the same as any rainbow! Many (but absolutely not all) have a straight maxilla, some have a straight (as opposed to down curved) top profile of the head, a few have eyes sightly more forward, kype can be straight or hooked, depending on the individual and age. Maxillae can also be more narrow than rainbows. But these are all generalizations that I have observed over the years (50) of doing cuts (tons) before I retired.

If you can, make molds of as many heads as you can and make silicone molds from the masters. That way you will have a bank to draw from if you need to. Shoot, make molds of the fish when you can, the paucity of cutthroat molds available is just plain sad.

~S

 

Some taxidermists can be 100X pickier than their clientele! Sometimes I wonder how much of it really matters to our customers??? Getting close on head shapes with trout and salmon is always the problem when the fish is released. So, all we can do is the best we can do. Personally, I don't spend a ton of time on bidding jobs like these because in the whole realm of things, losing one job with a customer THIS picky probably isn't a bad thing - lol! (Or is it the taxidermist that is this picky???) 95% of the time it's a lot of leg work trying to find their products and then you don't win the job after they find out the price. My answer usually starts with "well, why didn't you keep the fish if you are concerned with matching exactly all of it's dimensions and head shape"? If they didn't have a choice and it's C&R only, understandable to ask. But, again you can only do so much with what's available and you could end up with a ton of time into a job like this! JMO!

 

I don't think it's such a bad thing to strive for perfection in ones chosen art, so long as you realize that perfection (by definition) can not be obtained. Just do the best you can, and always strive to do better while learning from your mistakes. But for Gods sake, stop short of driving yourself nuts about it!!! Even a perfectionist has to learn to say, "that will do."

Clients need to be made to understand that if we are re-creating a released fish, it can be close, but NOT exact, which would require a mold of the fish released! With all the blanks available, you can get very close to a lot of things these days. There is just SO much variability in trout that it just isn't possible to match every trout every time. Keep on making molds guys! We need the variety.

~S

 

Very well stated...

 

I have a buddy that travels around the world and catch/releases monster fish. Just about every fish he gets mounted is around 5 to 10 lbs larger than the actual fish he catches. I like his mounts but am pretty perplexed and disappointed when they aren't even close to the size that he catches! Some guys get pretty caught up with size...more than having an exact replica!