Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Big Perch and Biggest Brook Trout mount pics

Looks just like ice and snow in person. Looks cotton candish in the pic but I can assure you it really doesn't look that way.

No, Cecil, it looks amazing in that first picture, too! At first glance, before reading, I thought you finally got enough ice to go ice fishing this year!

I thought it WAS ice and snow.
Those things just dont look human.

That's some of the best work I've ever seen! They both look, well, otherworldly.

Well I hate to break this to you but they aren't Homo sapiens

Perca Flavescens and Salvelinus fontinalis to be exact. :p

CB1 :

I like the LMB on the wall. Tell us about them. I see that they are hanging above the YP and trout. How about a good pic of them.

Good job Cecil!
VERY GOOD JOB!

Comin' from a rook' that knows next to diddle about fish, please pardon my awe...but...that is a pretty damn cool piece of art, Cecil! How many hours of labor and love are put into a display creation of that magnitude? And, where will it ultimately land on display?

Nice job, Cecil. Those are literally, actually, and honestly the two best looking mounted fish I have ever seen on-line.

You had me fooled with the "ice!"

Who's the poor guy who lost his toupee after you snagged it with the ice-fishing pole? :p

The real question is if the Skoal can is empty or full. Or was that for the bait?

Beautiful work, Cecil.

BTW, Cecil, check your PM about getting the SMB.

Cecil - That giant perch in the plexiglass enclosed ice fishing display is one of a kind!

I am very impressed!

Dwight

This is a one just an once under 10 lbs. Mount is a little overjacked but sometimes that's what the customer wants.

Actually these icefishing scenes are not that tough to do. Maybe an hour tops to put together total time. I cut a hole in the base the size of the ice fishing hole I want. Then the base is whited out with white latex paint and allowed to dry. I then place a piece of plexiglass under the hole, under that goes a piece of black felt and then a thin board under that to sandwich everything in place. The edges along the thin board are then sealed with silicone caulking.

After the artifical snow and ice is applied, and spread around and everything is set in place, a half a float is hot glued to the plexiglass. Something called environtex is mixed and poured over the plexiglass and allowed to level. It looks like water even when it hardens.

The ice and snow is silicon caulking (6 tubes) mixed with crushed white foam. The more foam you mix with the silicon the more it looks like snow and the less crushed foam you mix in the more it looks like ice. Some taxidermists use clear resin but I don't like the fumes and sometimes resin turns yellow over time.

I guess I'm kind of slow. I don't get it.

Sunil,

I'm going to do my very best to set up to electroshock setup asap. Not crazy about all the catch and release of the 300 lmbs in the pond that may have to be handled to catch as many smallmouth as possible on hook and line. Also alot of perch will have to be handled. I think the electroshocker will be much more effective also.

Found three more dead smallmouths and three dead bluegills today at ice out. We now have high winds (just had a hail storm), and we are supposed to drop close to 0 F. by Saturday with high winds as temps drop. So the pond will ice over again for the third or fourth time! I think there are going to be more morts. This has got to be the craziest winter I remember!

Since I don't chew I had to buy a new can and dump out the skoal to have one for the display. I believe it was $5.00. Around here they are used to hold the waxworms although some guys chew.

W O W !! Beautiful LMB and mount. I see why it is on the wall. Thanks for the pic. I really like the coloration.

The coloration is super. Actually, the perch scares me a little bit. I think if I saw something like that come out of an ice hole I might die on the spot.

Cecil, truly amazing work. Is the YP a skin mount? That bass is fiberglass, right? If so, it's bar none the best I've ever seen. The colors on the back and the detailed scales are amazing. Just curious, was this a special mount, or does all your work get this much attention to detail? I know where I'm sending my next mount

I can't stop staring at it

You know what's funny about that? I was fishing with two other guys when I pulled her up on the ice. I said, "You know she could be close to state record size." The two guys eyes were bugging out and one said," #$*#$ I would think so!" I finally took her in and weighed her on my certified scale and couldn't believe how much she weighed and measured at.

Both of those guys are normally great fisherman but that day they never got a perch and I caught several.

Bruce,

Hope to be posting a pic of your bluegills on here in the very near future. Hang in there. Can't wait to send them to you.

CB1,

Just curious, with your taxi. skills and the way you do the scenery...Do you have a model railroad?

Bruce :

What is that thing/graemlin(gremlin) ? It looks like some dude with shavers rash putting on after shave. Where did your post go ?

Cecil, never having ice fished, I'm struck by how much the gear looks like a Snoopy rod and reel. Do they really handle larger fish OK?

BTW, beautiful work.

I was trying a clapping graemlin to applaude Cecil's work and the fact that he's mounting some bluegill for me. Couldn't get the darn thing to clap! The graemlin just sat there like an idiot.