Redfish tail project

[Chasing_Tails 0]

As most of you can tell from my username, one of my favorite things to see on the water is a redfish tail in the distance waiving at me just asking for a well placed fly to be delivered. For several months I have been working on a project to preserve a redfish tail (the rest of the fish became dinner). Upon cleaning a 22" redfish back in October, I decided to start the project to make something from the tail.

The first step was cutting the tail and preparing it for drying. I removed as much of the meat and bone from the tail base, covered the tail in borax, and sandwiched in between two pieces of plastic sign board to maintain the shape. I then left it alone in a well-ventilated area, only disturbing it once a week to change the borax. The tail was fully dried after a month, but due to work I wasn't able to get around to finishing the project until this weekend.

The tail was well dried and had no fish smell to it. There was no deterioration of the scales, and there was no curling of the tail fin. The color though had obviously faded and needed to be brought back to make it look realistic. My plan was to mount the tail on a board as if it was sticking out the water with some spartina grass coming up from the surface, recreating the scene when I first spotted the fish in the marsh back in October.

I started by spraying the dried tail with clear gloss enamel to seal it and then pilfered my wife's acrylic paints. I used some dry brush techniques to paint the tail back to the live look of it. I highlighted with some metallic copper and gold, gave it a blue tinge, then resprayed with clear gloss enamel to finish it and give the appearance of being wet.

The base is a wooden log section picked up from Michael's. I liked the rustic look with the bark. I painted the top surface of the base to mimic the muddy brown water I am used to fishing in and then added some blades of grass from some artificial plants, again from Michael's. I cut the tail to the proper angle and glued the tail onto the board. Thick UV resin worked well to provide the look of glassy water. Once the surface was dry, I decided to finish it off by tying the same type of fly that the fish was caught on but adding a short wire stand to the fly. A hole was drilled into the base for the wire stand and the fly positioned in front of the tail, just above the surface of the "water".

This was a fun project, very low cost, and provides an end product that really brings the memory back of this fish with the tail, grass, and fly. The best part is that you still get to eat the fish!

[cphubert 0]

Nice! great desktop display

[niveker 0]

I'm not one to be impressed by mounted animals or fish, but that is awesome!

  

[Chasing_Tails 0]

15 minutes ago, niveker said:

I'm not one to be impressed by mounted animals or fish, but that is awesome!

  

I am not either, especially one that is just a fish on a wall. I want to feel a connect to it, and using the real tail from the fish brings the memory back of stalking this fish from 50 yards out and trying to get it to eat. It also made a great dinner while providing this as an additional bonus. 

 

[gillage 0]

Wow,

Artistic, creative, a great memory to go along with it.

Well done!

[Mark Knapp 0]

2 hours ago, Chasing_Tails said:

As most of you can tell from my username, one of my favorite things to see on the water is a redfish tail in the distance waiving at me just asking for a well placed fly to be delivered. For several months I have been working on a project to preserve a redfish tail (the rest of the fish became dinner). Upon cleaning a 22" redfish back in October, I decided to start the project to make something from the tail.

The first step was cutting the tail and preparing it for drying. I removed as much of the meat and bone from the tail base, covered the tail in borax, and sandwiched in between two pieces of plastic sign board to maintain the shape. I then left it alone in a well-ventilated area, only disturbing it once a week to change the borax. The tail was fully dried after a month, but due to work I wasn't able to get around to finishing the project until this weekend.

The tail was well dried and had no fish smell to it. There was no deterioration of the scales, and there was no curling of the tail fin. The color though had obviously faded and needed to be brought back to make it look realistic. My plan was to mount the tail on a board as if it was sticking out the water with some spartina grass coming up from the surface, recreating the scene when I first spotted the fish in the marsh back in October.

I started by spraying the dried tail with clear gloss enamel to seal it and then pilfered my wife's acrylic paints. I used some dry brush techniques to paint the tail back to the live look of it. I highlighted with some metallic copper and gold, gave it a blue tinge, then resprayed with clear gloss enamel to finish it and give the appearance of being wet.

The base is a wooden log section picked up from Michael's. I liked the rustic look with the bark. I painted the top surface of the base to mimic the muddy brown water I am used to fishing in and then added some blades of grass from some artificial plants, again from Michael's. I cut the tail to the proper angle and glued the tail onto the board. Thick UV resin worked well to provide the look of glassy water. Once the surface was dry, I decided to finish it off by tying the same type of fly that the fish was caught on but adding a short wire stand to the fly. A hole was drilled into the base for the wire stand and the fly positioned in front of the tail, just above the surface of the "water".

This was a fun project, very low cost, and provides an end product that really brings the memory back of this fish with the tail, grass, and fly. The best part is that you still get to eat the fish!

 

That's the coolest thing. And, you get to look at it every day.

[caloosa bug 0]

Awesome! Great idea 

[jcozzz 0]

Really cool.I just liked looking at the pic for a few minutes.

[LisaLou 0]

Beautiful work.  Really nicely done.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Outstanding display... Where I am most days in the interior of the Everglades - the reds rarely tail at all - we usually spot them cruising, mudding, or feeding along very shallow shorelines with no grass at all... All our tailers are down in Florida Bay just south of the areas we fish most days...

[chugbug27 0]

Terrific