Anybody ever have a replica made of their catch? How did it turn out? Would you recommend it?

I had a replica made of a Tiger Muskie I caught in June 2020.  LAX Reproductions out of Conover, WI did it for me.  His specialty are replicas of pure strain muskies but he also does pike, lake trout, walleye, bass, and tiger muskies too.

 

https://www.laxreproductions.com/

My avatar bass is replica that represents my top 5 LMB, over 40 years and still looks new.

I would look around the nearby states so your bass looks like bass in your regional area.

You should have a good color photo, length and girth measurements. Take your time looking around, good mounts are expensive and only as good as the artist painting them.

Tom

I'll have my smallmouth replica on Friday after picking it up from Joe Fittante in Antigo, WI. Search that name on this site and you'll see the example that convinced me to go there. My other choice would have been LAX which does great walleye and muskies.

12 minutes ago, Vilas15 said:

I'll have my smallmouth replica on Friday after picking it up from Joe Fittante in Antigo, WI.

 

That was in fact the other one I was considering when I looked at LAX for the tiger muskie.

 

Looking at LAX's website, it appears he's raised his prices since I was a customer in 2020.  It was $15.95/inch then, its now $17.95.  Gets pricey when you start talking about a 40 or 50 inch fish.

 

There will be a day when I catch a 50+ inch pure strain muskie and the bill for that replica will be 4 figures.  Yikes

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

That was in fact the other one I was considering when I looked at LAX for the tiger muskie.

 

Looking at LAX's website, it appears he's raised his prices since I was a customer in 2020.  It was $15.95/inch then, its now $17.95.  Gets pricey when you start talking about a 40 or 50 inch fish.

 

There will be a day when I catch a 50+ inch pure strain muskie and the bill for that replica will be 4 figures.  Yikes

 

Yea but you know it will be worth it. 

I had a replica made of a smallmouth about 15 years ago. I unfortunately can’t remember the name of the guy who made it. He’d won several awards for his work. It still looks as if it could swim right off the stand it’s on. Do some research before you choose the artist to do yours. DO NOT pick a guy based on internet photos. Photos can’t show all the details of a well made mount. 

Research the artist. While I have all skin mounts, the artist is the defining factor on how realistic it looks. 

I have a skin mount of my PB largemouth bass and it looks mediocre compared to the skin mounts of my PB walleye and PB bluegill. The guy who did my bluegill collage was an apprentice of the guy that did my walleye. Neither are doing skin mounts anymore, only replicas.

Here's an article from 40 years ago of the guy that did my PB walleye. Took 2 years to get my mount back and last I heard he has a 3 year waiting list.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-10-25-9204060346-story.html

Im very happy with how it turned out. Had to wait a tiny bit over a year for it. My fish was pretty dark but theres still nice visible stripes. My photo has bad lighting and a close up would show the scales. My only complaint would be the mounting piece between fish and driftwood is a little thicker than I'd like. But its above the bar and nobody will see it.