It was a drizzling, blustery, and too cold mid-April day to be fishing,  and I decided to put on a ridiculous looking yellow lure I found in the bottom of my tackle box,  troll back to the truck and call it a day.  About halfway across the pond something solid hit the lure and I set the hook and wondered what was on the other end of the line, as it felt way to heavy to be a typical brookie.  After playing it enough to get it into the boat I was shocked and surprised to see the biggest brook trout I had ever caught, and it tipped the scale at over three pounds.   It was, in my opinion, a fish that deserved to be mounted.   Being a young working Mainer however, the cost of having that done was prohibitive and at the time there was no way I could swing it.  So, I used a little Maine ingenuity and some backwoods engineering and figured out a way to do it myself for next to nothing, and the picture above is the mount of the fish I caught that day.

Here’s how you do it;  get a container that is bigger, wider, and deeper than the fish – I used a tupperware container that my mom used for cookies, and fill it half full with beach sand ensuring everything is level and even.  Put your fish into the sand so that half of the fish is in the sand and half is out of the sand keeping everything level and even.  Arrange the fins and mouth to your satisfaction – you can use small pins for this to get the desired effect.  Next mix some plaster of paris per instructions on the box and pour over the fish ensuring you’ve got everything covered plus enough on the sides to have something to attach it to your wall with after.  Allow the plaster to harden and carefully remove it from the sand and fish.  You can take a break and clean your fish at this point and come back to the project whenever you’re ready. What you have now is a negative mold of your fish.  From any hobby store you can get a mold release spray and spray or brush your mold with it ensuring good coverage.    At any local hardware store pick up some fiberglass and resin/hardener.  Cut the fiberglass into small strips, the smaller the better, and (wearing gloves)  gently start filling your mold with the fiberglass strips/resin, ensuring coverage everywhere.  Allow plenty of time for everything  to dry/harden, and carefully remove the mold from the glass being careful of the fins and other delicate areas.  This part can be tricky but have patience and keep working at it, and it will come off.  You now have your fish.  From the picture above you can see the detail that the plaster/glass provides  – including seeing the fishes lateral line.  The glass of course will be resin colored, I’m not good at painting detail so my Dad painted the colors on the fish you see above to try to get it as the original  – but you could get artsy with it and spray or paint it any color you want.

So, the next time you have a fish you’re thinking is worthy of mounting give it a shot – all it takes is some time to do it yourself  fish taxidermy.