Tips For Mounting Your Fish

Suppose you catch a terrific fish as long as you are tall and proudly pose for photos. Photos that will give you pleasure for many years as you show them to your children and grandchildren. What could be better? Maybe mounting your fish on a wooden plaque? It's not as hard as it sounds and you can still have the benefit of eating it afterwards!

You don't mount the actual fish, of course. What you do is take a plaster cast of it, before you gut or scale it, so that the cast will look as normal as possible. Get the plaster in bulk from a plasterworks if possible, otherwise it will be too expensive, as you'll need about 6 pounds in weight of the stuff. That should be enough to cover a fish of about 10 pounds and make the cast as well as the mould.

First, wipe any slime off the fish so that the plaster will take well and each feature such as scales and fins will be clearly defined. Then scoop a small hole in the sand and settle the fish into it, to half its depth. Cover the surrounding sand with strips of damp newspaper. Make a wall around the fish with something like a wide strip of leather build up the sand to prevent the plaster running away.

Mix up the plaster to good running consistency with fresh water. If you use salt water it will make the plaster go hard before you have time to use it. Pour it over the fish and let it set for about an hour. After this time you can take it off and attend to the job of cleaning and gutting the fish. While the plaster is still green, that is, before it has set to its full strength, examine it to remove with a sharp knife any little ledges that have formed around the gills and fins. If left, these will prevent the cast separating from the mould. Trim the outside edge nice and smooth, and remove the paper. Once this is done, you can leave it for any amount of time - a year if you want - before you pour the cast.

To prepare for the cast, you need to paint the inside of the mould with a special solution to prevent the two plasters sticking to each other. You can buy this special solution from the plasterworks factory, or use egg white or thick French polish. Pour the plaster into the mould and insert two L-shaped pieces of wire to attach it to the mount, which is usually a piece of polished wood. When the cast has set hard, you can remove it from the mould by tapping it gently. It should break away without too much trouble.

Once it is mounted on the wood, you can paint it in the colors of the fish. This might sound hard and may take a bit of practice, but today's wonderful range of hobby paints makes it easier - and if you mess it up you can always take another cast. You'll usually need more than one color, so make sure you merge them while still wet for a more realistic effect, then when it's dry, coat it with varnish for that wet look. You'll have a fish trophy that may become a family heirloom.

Don't Let This One Get Away!

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