Has anyone used this Taxidermy method? Freeze drying.

plinker · #1 05-31-2010, 09:48 PM

I am interested in this method and the pictures I have seen have been pretty neat, but, and there's always a but! Has anyone on the board ever used this method for fish? If so, are there issue's or is it a better method than conventional taxidermy? The company is on the web and has sites in Calgary and Vancouver. Don't want to name them on the board in case thats a no-no.

ishootbambi · #2 05-31-2010, 10:31 PM

a friend of my family dabbled in taxidermy a few years ago. i wanted to mount my sons first fish and he offered to do it for basically the cost of supplies. it was 20 bucks 14 years ago and it still looks the same so i guess its ok. i never asked how he did it, but that had to be it. when i first got it back if you stuck your nose right up to it, it smelled fishy. i was afraid it was gonna rot off the wall, but here it is today. the color is a little coppery where it should be more pink....but whaddya want for 20 bucks?

bowfin · #3 06-01-2010, 09:07 AM

i had a 44 inch pike done about 15 yrs ago by anglers tax and it was freezed dried still looks good when i dust it off i think it costed 8 bucks a inch then would like to know what they would charge now. kind of funny now i remember when i kept that one i went fishing the following week and caught a 48 in pike but i let that one go lol i thought one pike over 40 inches would be good enought

hustler · #4 06-01-2010, 09:57 AM

Ive heard they also use tons of rock salt packed in and around the fish and left for weeks..... i guess it turns out alot the same. I had a giant pike head i wanted to preserve at one time..... something to look into now

maverick · #5 06-01-2010, 12:16 PM

I had a 44 1/2 " steelhead done by Don Petrician twenty years ago and it still looks a good as the day it was done. I highly recomend freeze dried mounts if you want to preserve the actual fish. Most live mounts done with the Borax solution begin to disintegrate over time. Since I had my fish done, fish reproductions have taken over. I would definitely look at this method if I was to get a fish done today. They last forever and you get to eat the fish or let it swim away to fight again. You don't get the meat from a freeze dried mount or at least you didn't twenty years ago.