Mounting a Whitefish

[Bigsmitty]

Has anyone ever seen a mounted whitefish? Been catching some real nice ones. 8 lbs or so. Any advice on who has experience mounting them or pictures would be appreciated.

[Bob Horn]

I would love to catch some white fish. What part of the country do you live in? Sorry I haven`t seen a white fish mounted but if you had one you would have something most don`t. I don`t see anything wrong with one on the wall.

[hanson]

I agree with Bob. I think you'd have a cool mount or mounts.

I'm not sure about the oils in a whitefish. The fish may be too oily to do a good skin mount. I was talking to my taxidermist the other day about that. There are some fish that he just won't do anymore (channel catfish, flathead catfish because of the oils). If that is the case with whitefish, you may want to check into a replica and get very good photos and dimensions of your whities before getting a replica done.

[Bobb-o]

There is a sheepshead mounted on the wall at a gasstation/bait store in blackduck. Never seen anyone mount a whitefish, Why not get some of the smoked? they are delicious smoked!

[harvey lee]

If you were to mount a whitefish,you would probably want to have it freeze dried.You can have it skin mounted but it will end up like a salmon or trout and the head will shrink and sooner or later the paint will run with all the oils in it. Freeze dry it and you will stop those problems.There is not a critter or fish that wont freeze dry including catfish.It takes a long time in the machine but you end up with a very good product.There are not alot of taxidermists that own a machine as they are rather spendy,but they are around.

[Bigsmitty]

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah I smoke them in my Bradley Smoker. They taste awsome. Ill look into the freeze dry thing and the replicas.

[Bob Horn]

Any time you want a fishing partner for whitefish please let me know. I just started fishing for them last year and I think there a blast to catch.

[MnRon]

I.ve never mounted a white fish befor. However I have an eel pout that I mounted on my wall. It was a real monster. It looks real cool with the camo paddern on its back. But when I got it back it was not as big as it was when I brought it in. Its still a real cool mount, but the skin was real oily, and I lost the fattness it showed. Just keep in mind it will probally come back smaller.

Ron

[Jim Hudson]

Big

Whitefish that size are definately NICE!!! I think MN record is like 12lbs or so and WI is like 9lbs!!! They definately get bigger, as I have seen them in commercial nets here on Lake Superior, up to 20lbs. Either way, your onto some nice whities...

For mounting them, I know of a few taxidermists that do them up my way here... If your interested, I can talk to them and see what their rates are and such...

[Walterwontfalter]

Ron, after working in a taxidermy shop for several years you can't imagine how many times a customer comes to pick up a fish or a head mount of a deer or elk and they say, "Gee, i remember it being bigger." With fish especially, they usually come out of the taxidermy shop a little bit bigger than they went in. My buddy and I call it the "shop shrinkage vs. Memory inflation" argument. A person builds their trophy up in their mind over the time it's in the shop being mounted in excitement and anticipation and then when they see the finished product they start second guessing it's original size. Ask a few taxidermists, they'll likely know what I'm talking about.

As for the whitfish, I've never seen a taxidermist mount either a whitefish or eelpout but I have seen them on the wall in stores and homes. There doesn't seem to be a problem with how they came out... one of the eelpout mounts is over 15 years old and still looks great.