Just out of curiosity... if you ever caught a massive salmon, sea trout or anything else for that matter and you wanted to get it stuffed so you could stick it on the wall in your living room, lavatory or wherever... how much would it cost to get a fish stuffed and how exactly do they do it and keep it looking in its original state? If I was to open up the yellow pages, what would I be looking under for this type of service?

The finished product is only a cast of the origional fish which is then painted. Personally if I'm lucky enough to catch a trophy fish I know where it's going, straight back into the water, a photograph is the modern version of a stuffed fish.

I don't think it's sporting to kill a big fish, or a female fish, especially if its going to be on a toilet wall instead of the spawning redds. I don't mean to attack you, i do kill the odd salmon, but only cock grilse. But there is an alternative for you!

If i were you, and i caught a once-in-a-lifetime fish, i'd take a few photos and release it. If you take some good photos and some measurements, you can get really good replicas made.

A friend of mine has some great looking replicas of 25, 30, 35 pounders in his house. He caught them all in Russia, and they were all returned.

taxidermist ........and it costs plenty

---------- Post added at 10:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ----------

or a damn good meal

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

Im with you stu...although i came from the neanderthal man era were it was fitting to club the victim to death and bring home the prized catch to be stuffed by local cavemen and hung on the cave wall to rot, i was glad i never came in contact with my fish of a life time
Great to have the mobile phone and digi camera with us now to release our victims....so bring on my fish of a life time now as im running out of time

Hear, Hear..............................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton

They use the skin, which is placed over model. Etc.

The ones over here give you the meat of the fish. I never used one but know of people who did. It is not cheap.

As long as you get the meat i do not see anything contraversial in smacking a fish on the head. If meat is thrown away, it is a bit contraversial. If you kill a fish, you eat it.

As said, it si not cheap and you must get someone who is good at it. I have seen horrible examples of stuffed fish.

Setting aside the moral arguments which, imo arent required on this thread, I sent a fish to be mounted. I was 20 and caught a brown trout of 9lb 4oz from Rooksbury Mill in Hampshire. 16 years later and i remember that fish as though it was yesterday. i stalked him on and off all day, it was Sept 6th. he wouldn't look at the fly, then at about 6pm i started to see him follow, occasionally. the light was going so i couldnt really make him out, but saw him finally come at the fly from the right. he missed it, turned and attacked again. It was a small goldhead montana. Finally i saw his mouth flash open and i hooked him. after a hell of a fight and the fish weeding himself over and over, i was able to land him and he was the most beautiful brown i had ever seen. huge spots, red spots and shoulders like a bison. My parents offered to have him set up for my 21st and we sent him off. 4 months later i got a call from the taxidermist saying the fish had been stolen and i wouldnt be getting my dream. to this day i believe he mounted that fish and sold it to a collector.

To answer the question above, it was going to be very expensive. taxidermists charge by the inch, and you could easily be looking at over £750 for a good example of a big fish.

Incidentally, a few years back i caught a Lechlade 16lb brown. I sent the photos to my uncle who prepared a fibre glass replica, hand painted on a mahogany board. It's beautiful, and now has pride of place in my sitting room. (much to the chagrin of my wife)!

Cheers
Alex

Cost around £800 for an all rounder [view from both sides] that was for an 11-6 Grafham Rainbow. Google "Animal Artistry" or Chris Elliott Taxidermist.
Price is from 1993 so expect to pay more now!
Chris models his fish from foam blocks and then places the skin over the finished model.

Another great taxidermist is Richard Brigham from Norfolk who is also a well respected author [The Countryside Diary].
A wander around his workshop is like stepping back to another time.

I have two answers here.

If it was a wild fish I would take photographs, have a replica made and return the fish. If I ever catch a big Sheelin fish I would have to have a serious talk with myself as they are the most beautiful trout that swim and would look gorgeous in a glass case. I'd like to think I'd slip that one back as well but right now I'll be honest and say I don't know what I'd do.

If it was like BB's Rookesbury Mill fish I would have no hesitation in clonking it as it has been put there to catch and will not be breeding but then unless it had required an exceptional feat of angling I would not take much pride in it and probably would not justify the cost of setting it up.

I stalk deer and have a few sets of antlers on my wall that bring back the day in vivid detail but then they cost relatively little to do.

By the way Rookesbury Mill used to be my favourite small stillwater mainly because of the stunning browns that were there in decent numbers and the high typical weight of the rainbows rather than a few donkeys pushing up the averages.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary