# Question for taxidermists?



## rlf (Jun 1, 2005)

I had a guy do my whitetail and a brown trout for me a couple months back. I went to get my buck and my fish was done although i didnt have the money for it yet because it was done early so i just looked and to my suprise it doesnt resemble a brown at all.:yikes: So my question is i have been trying to figure out a way to tell this guy in a nice way that the mount is horrible. He is an extremely nice guy goes above and beyond with a cheap price and does an excellent job on every mount i have seen except for the color of this. I have been waiting for about 10 years to finally mount a beautiful 22" brown and i finally got one above a dam while targeting them and then this happens. I have no idea how this guy came up with the colors but it is straight white about half way up with a greyish back with black spots all over it. So what would be the best way you guys would like to recieve info like this although it would probably never happen to anyone.


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## Liv4Trappin (Feb 22, 2006)

Boy, thats too bad about your trophy Brown trout. About the only thing you can do is tell him how you feel about the mount. If he is an understanding guy, he should do right by you as a return customer. He might offer to repaint it for you and use better reference material next time. Do you have any pictures of the fish after you caught it? This would help him out alot. If not, find a picture of a Brown trout that closely resembles your fish and provide him with it for reference. If he cannot duplicate it the way you wish, then you should look for another fish Taxidermist. By not informing him of his lack of airbrush skills, you will indeed end up with a badly painted trout as well as others who choose to have him mount their fish. I noticed that you wrote how cheap he is? That should always send up a red flag. Did you see any of his fish work before you dropped off your trophy? Everyone should do a little bit of research on any Taxidermist and see if they like what they are going to recieve before any transaction is made. Hope this helps.

Mike


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## Paul Thompson (Jul 16, 2007)

Ask him to repaint it. Then again, you may have picked someone that doesn't know how to paint a fish,,, or he would have done it right the first time. Correct? Why would he paint it wrong on purpose? You have to work with him now, dig through your fish & stream mags and find a Brown you like, and take it to him. See if he can match it. However, please don't tell him that you posted your question here, and then print our responces for him to read. :lol:


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## unregistered55 (Mar 12, 2000)

Not to defend his work in any way since I haven't seen it, but it _is_ an issue for a customer to expect a fish to be painted as it looked without providing the taxidermist _a color photo_ of what it DID look like(fresh after caught). In this case it would have been pretty obvious that the fish was not painted to look like the real fish. And a faded fish foto(LOL) is as bad as nothing. In your situation, you paind him the balance and took the fish home....right? To return now and ask for a re-paint would be awkward at best. If a customer pays the balance and takes the mount, the implied message is *"I'm satisfied."* If the paint job is as inaccurate as you say, having him try again would be futile. If I were you I'd take the trout to a different taxidermist *whose brown trout work you can examine*, and it they meet your requirements, have it redone there. Good luck.


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## Mitchell Ulrich (Sep 10, 2007)

The majority of people who are not satisfied with a product or service *never* voice their disapproval to the proprietor! Instead they share their complaints to friends and family. "I know that I'll never go there again" or similar such epitaphs are the common reply.
*Dont do that!*
Its not fair to yourself or the person that your doing business with. It could be that he is working off the addage...Well, I haven't gotten any complaints so it must not have been that bad! Tell him so that it can be made right. You will both be better off for it!

Mitch


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## rlf (Jun 1, 2005)

I havent paid and/or taken the fish yet. I am not very picky and its not about certain characteristics of my perticular fish but it does not in any way resemble a stream brown or any other trout i have ever seen. That is what i have been trying to figure out is where he could have come up with the colors he used. It is so far off that i wouldnt of been any more shocked if he would have had a walleye there and said it was my brown. I am not up to speed on how a fish is mounted but isnt the original skin used and then the original colors are painted to brighten them up? I just love how natural stream browns look and every mount i have ever seen looked good to me so i was just expecting a normal looking brown.


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## Liv4Trappin (Feb 22, 2006)

Rlf, you are right when you asked " isn't the original skin used for the mount", but the colors fade almost to no color at all. It is totally up to the Taxidermist to bring that fish back to life with his painting skills. In this case, it sounds like he didn't use accurate reference or any reference at all for that matter. I would hope by the way you've described the finished fish that he didn't use reference pictures or he must just not be able to do fish very well. I hope for your sake that this issue gets resolved, it's not everyday that you catch a 22" stream brown.

Mike


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