My Shoal Bass Replica - Wow! Shipping This Week 2024

Dead River reply :

I had Bryan Russell of Anglers Choice Replicas do a Shoal Bass replica for me. I think it turned out great. Note this blank is a relaxed pose as well; when I get another one done it will be an action pose to compliment it. He really did well on the overall hue and the subtle nuances of a shoalie's color scheme that those of us who pursue them know and appreciate. Love the horizontal dotted stripes on the lower section of the fish, hint of blue and teal on the face, the dark spot at the beginning of the tailfan. This girl is still curing but will be here shortly. I'll share some olan mills photos of her on a rock river scene wall mount. These preview pics look good but I am certain they do not do the fish justice. When some incandescent light hits those scaletips the iridescence will be popping off!

Thanks Bryan! 1902918_10152051803372804_1696204192_n.j 1899950_10152051803377804_1072437919_n.j 1959711_10152054899742804_914405338_n.jp

Dead River reply :

couple more photos of it in direct sunlight... we strived to get those olive green hues in there

fish looks radically different depending on the light

Dead River reply :

N.B. these are low res cell phone photos. when it arrives I will post some really good ones..

rbreedi1 reply :

Very nice .. I like it

Basswhippa reply :

Nice smallmouth!

WIGuide reply :

On 3/3/2014 at 9:41 PM, Basswhippa said:
Nice smallmouth!

It's not a smallie

Shane J reply :

Very nice!! You have a beautiful collection.

Grizzn N Bassin reply :

Very nice man!looks great!

Lucky Craft Man reply :

Can you post an actual picture of the fish next to the replica picture?

To me the mark of a truly good replica is how close it looks like the fish it is meant to represent. I had a Chinook Salmon done and even though the replica looks incredible, the coloration isn't close to the fish in the picture, which leads to my dissatisfaction with it.

dreamertino reply :

Beautiful bass

Basswhippa reply :

On 3/3/2014 at 10:03 PM, WIGuide said:
It's not a smallie

Yes it is. That is a perfect smallmouth replica. We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals. He said it was a "shoal bass".

AK-Jax86 reply :

Yea id like to see the original pic with a pic of the replica.

I found out about this guy a few months back and was curious about his work, I followed him on FB. His replicas are up and down seen some I really liked and also seen some I was questioning, mainly his largemouth replicas.

But I like this one a lot, just curious to see how accurately he portrayed the actual fish.

flyfisher reply :

On 3/4/2014 at 10:52 AM, Basswhippa said:
Yes it is. That is a perfect smallmouth replica. We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals. He said it was a "shoal bass".

Shoal bass is a separate species and not a smallie. One of the easier ways to tell is look at the jaw hinge. On smallies it is in front of the eye and largemouth it is behind and shoalies it is right in the middle for the most part. They are on my bucket list to catch for sure.

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/fish/freshwater/shoal-bass/

WIGuide reply :

On 3/4/2014 at 10:52 AM, Basswhippa said:
Yes it is. That is a perfect smallmouth replica. We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals. He said it was a "shoal bass".

Smallmouth and Shoal bass are two distinctly different species.

http://www.bassmaster.com/sites/default/files/imce/slam_9species.pdf

basshole8190 reply :

Beautiful shoalie deadriver. what was the weight of that guy? My biggest to date was a 5lb 15oz she-zilla i caught on the hooch between bartletts ferry and west point thought i had a decent stripe untill i saw it the first time boat side. i saw it 5 more times until i finally lipped her. i fish the flint around thomaston some also but never seem to catch any true trophy size shoalies there. i hear good things about the flint above seminole but haven't gotten down there yet. Where are you fishing for them? Would love to talk further with another shoal bass fisherman.

On 3/3/2014 at 2:13 PM, Dead River said:
N.B. these are low res cell phone photos. when it arrives I will post some really good ones..

Dead River reply :

we started out operating off a single reference and then used a bunch of different references, so this fish is more or less a composite. the fish looks fantastic, it will be here in a couple of days I will post more photos then.

shoal bass is obviously a totally different fish from a smallmouth, its closest relative is the spotted bass, they have the same jaw size - comes to the back of the eye but does not extend past it (largemouth) or end before it (smallmouth). Despite being a close relative of the spotted bass, the shoalie's body is shaped and colored very differently. They have markings which look somewhat similar to a smallmouth but often have a different body shape and different tail, the shoalie's tail looks more like a largemouth and less like a smallmouth (crescent shaped fan). they have a more uniformly thick body than a spotted bass. spotted bass often have large grotesquely distended bellies but are narrow and slender in the vicinity of the tail, anal fin, and soft dorsal. Shoal bass generally have a stockier build like a largemouth if you witll, but not quite as squatty and tank-like as a smallmouth. looking forward to catching some shoalies this year.

AK-Jax86 reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 2:23 AM, Dead River said:

we started out operating off a single reference and then used a bunch of different references, so this fish is more or less a composite. the fish looks fantastic, it will be here in a couple of days I will post more photos then.

shoal bass is obviously a totally different fish from a smallmouth, its closest relative is the spotted bass, they have the same jaw size - comes to the back of the eye but does not extend past it (largemouth) or end before it (smallmouth). Despite being a close relative of the spotted bass, the shoalie's body is shaped and colored very differently. They have markings which look somewhat similar to a smallmouth but often have a different body shape and different tail, the shoalie's tail looks more like a largemouth and less like a smallmouth (crescent shaped fan). they have a more uniformly thick body than a spotted bass. spotted bass often have large grotesquely distended bellies but are narrow and slender in the vicinity of the tail, anal fin, and soft dorsal. Shoal bass generally have a stockier build like a largemouth if you witll, but not quite as squatty and tank-like as a smallmouth. looking forward to catching some shoalies this year.

Still never posted your original pics and we all know you are the pic man lol.

It's a composite fish, doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting a mount? I mean I don't have a mount but if I did I would want it to be an exact replica of my fish I caught not a composite of what I felt it should have looked like, idk I might be taking your comment wrong so don't take this the wrong way.

I wasn't saying he is bad at largemouth replicas I just saw some that looked like cartoon fish and saw others that look very good and realistic, who knows those cartoon looking fish could have been spot on and the fish just looked like that. I have seen his other species and they look amazing this guy definitely has a gift.

Can't wait to see the replicas he made you I'm sure they will look really good.

Dead River reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 3:18 AM, AK-Jax86 said:

Still never posted your original pics and we all know you are the pic man lol.

It's a composite fish, doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting a mount? I mean I don't have a mount but if I did I would want it to be an exact replica of my fish I caught not a composite of what I felt it should have looked like, idk I might be taking your comment wrong so don't take this the wrong way.

I wasn't saying he is bad at largemouth replicas I just saw some that looked like cartoon fish and saw others that look very good and realistic, who knows those cartoon looking fish could have been spot on and the fish just looked like that. I have seen his other species and they look amazing this guy definitely has a gift.

Can't wait to see the replicas he made you I'm sure they will look really good.

I just told you why I didn't post a photo, because as the process went on it became more of a composite or amalgam fish...unless you get a custom replica done, your fish is not going to be an exact duplicate of your fish, even if it is structurally identical the fish will have some paintjob nuances that's for sure. you don't have any replicas, I'm about to have my sixth one- I know something about this.

to refute your point further, on the f1 largemouth I had him paint, I had him go darker on the war paint on the fish's face than it appeared in the photos. because those are characteristics of a bass that I enjoy viewing- personal preference. I could've livewelled the fish and stressed it out and taken a photo, no way I'm gonna do that. also a fish can look radically different in different lighting situations just as this replica looks different under different lighting. if you caught a giant in a murkey stained pond are you really going to have it painted to look like a golden shiner, we've all seen bass pale out to the point that their lateral line is barely visible if not at all.

Dead River reply :

when both fish arrive I'll post some more photos and perhaps some of the reference photos

Dead River reply :

just a teaser taken by the taxidermist on a rainy day, more pics when it arrives

Hyrule Bass reply :

uh so yeah, replicas still look really really fake to me compared to skin mounts. not that the artist didnt do a good job there its just not my cup of tea. replicas just look too fake to me like i could go pick one up at my local walmart and bring home to hang on the wall...

AK-Jax86 reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 5:10 AM, Red Earth said:
uh so yeah, replicas still look really really fake to me compared to skin mounts. not that the artist didnt do a good job there its just not my cup of tea. replicas just look too fake to me like i could go pick one up at my local walmart and bring home to hang on the wall...

Lmao at the Walmart lol

Dead River reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 5:10 AM, Red Earth said:
uh so yeah, replicas still look really really fake to me compared to skin mounts. not that the artist didnt do a good job there its just not my cup of tea. replicas just look too fake to me like i could go pick one up at my local walmart and bring home to hang on the wall...

I don't think you're looking close enough, good replicas are casts of actual fish, you must've seen some of the archie Phillips junk.

how does this fish blank look fake?

Dead River reply :

if you skinmount a bass, it will never have the gaping bucketmouth it did when you hoisted it in your hand for the first time, and I'm not talking about jacking the jaw too far open - I'm talking about shrinkage and decomposition from soaking in denatured alcohol and other substances- this can occure elsewhere on the fish's body as well. I've seen some good skin mounts, but if you want a perfect specimen and money is no object, you kill your fish and have someone cast a custom replica of your fish which will have virtually the same dimensions and all the detail. if you insist on interior mouth and gill detail that can be done in a two step process. I for one opt to let the bass go and select an existing blank with comparable dimensions to my fish and have someone paint it. note the three fish above are all nice blanks, two of them are dennis arp 3ds which have excellent interior mouth and gill detail, these are two of the better specimens from that line. the fattest fish is a starfish blank, it lacks some of the interior mouth and gill detail and is cast in one piece with fins attached but it is still very lifelike and natural. in short the fish you see with the dd22 in the side of its mouth - that's what I looked like when it was cast. I wish I had a dollar for every tattered skinmount I've seen on a restaurant wall, grease bleeds and discolored.

Dead River reply :

meant to include, the three fish above are commercial blanks that are marketed by companies that specialize in this with lines so to speak. imho, the best blanks are the ones which are cast by individual taxidermists around the country. Also, while the three fish pictured above look good, none of them have competition grade paintjobs, the fish laying in the grass has a quasi competition grade paint job, like I said where every scale is individually painted. it's all according to how much coin you want to spend, there are people that do museum quality work for a price

AK-Jax86 reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 4:30 AM, Dead River said:
I just told you why I didn't post a photo, because as the process went on it became more of a composite or amalgam fish...unless you get a custom replica done, your fish is not going to be an exact duplicate of your fish, even if it is structurally identical the fish will have some paintjob nuances that's for sure. you don't have any replicas, I'm about to have my sixth one- I know something about this.

You have 6 I have none (when I read that I literally laughed sounds like something I use to hear when I was a child kinda like the line you are not invited to my birthday party lol) but when I get my one I would want an accurate representation, either skin (if fish died) or replica, of the fish I caught.

Not saying you did this But if someone was like I like this color from google image 1305, and these fins from google image 1402, and this jaw structure from google image 478. That's what the fish I caught should have looked like that's not a replica of the fish caught just a replica of the ultimate representation of that species according to that person creating it.

But I think, could be reading this wrong again lol, you were going for a replica of a Shoal Bass probably with the same size & measurements oppose to the actual fish you caught itself.

Dead River reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 5:53 AM, AK-Jax86 said:

You have 6 I have none (when I read that I literally laughed sounds like something I use to hear when I was a child kinda like the line you are not invited to my birthday party lol) but when I get my one I would want an accurate representation, either skin (if fish died) or replica, of the fish I caught.

Not saying you did this But if someone was like I like this color from google image 1305, and these fins from google image 1402, and this jaw structure from google image 478. That's what the fish I caught should have looked like that's not a replica of the fish caught just a replica of the ultimate representation of that species according to that person creating it.

But I think, could be reading this wrong again lol, you were going for a replica of a Shoal Bass probably with the same size & measurements oppose to the actual fish you caught itself.

there are not very many shoal bass blanks available, not very many spotted bass blanks available. we had to make due with what was out there. we did use multiple references for markings and such, so it did not turn out exactly like my first reference photos, but the blank is also a bit different due to the limitations of what we are talking about. I've caught a lot of shoal bass, I've caught fish that look like that. I'm very happy with it.

my point in saying that comment earlier is that through my experience and acquisition of these replicas I've learned a lot about the process and what to expect and so forth. I think your expectations for your replica to be pristine an contain every nuance on your reference photo might be a bit too high. if you're that particular, maybe wait it out until the 3d printing catches up. no offense.

AK-Jax86 reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 6:02 AM, Dead River said:

there are not very many shoal bass blanks available, not very many spotted bass blanks available. we had to make due with what was out there. we did use multiple references for markings and such, so it did not turn out exactly like my first reference photos, but the blank is also a bit different due to the limitations of what we are talking about. I've caught a lot of shoal bass, I've caught fish that look like that. I'm very happy with it.

my point in saying that comment earlier is that through my experience and acquisition of these replicas I've learned a lot about the process and what to expect and so forth. I think your expectations for your replica to be pristine an contain every nuance on your reference photo might be a bit too high. if you're that particular, maybe wait it out until the 3d printing catches up. no offense.

I think replicas are the best way to go like I said earlier unless you catch that big one and it dies on you. Butile you said and I did a replica will never be the exact representation of your fish only exact thing will be the length and girth. Those pics you posted all look good was that the Jacksonville guy or you just having him do the Shoal and your 10+ largemouth?

Check these ones out, to me they could pass as skin. He has a 16lb 7oz and 10lb 8oz largemouth and a 11.5" bluegill

Dead River reply :

well that big fish is a arp3d blank, the paintjob looks good on it but it doesn't have any shiny scale tipping. when you look inside the mouth the taxidermist did not epoxy the area where the gills/rakers attach to the tongue. That fish has nice color on it but it needs to have more scale tipping and powders put on it to make it look more like a competition grade work of art.

the other fish I showed are all very nice and lifelike but don't have the scale tipping which takes time and costs money.

On 3/5/2014 at 6:41 AM, AK-Jax86 said:
I think replicas are the best way to go like I said earlier unless you catch that big one and it dies on you. Butile you said and I did a replica will never be the exact representation of your fish only exact thing will be the length and girth. Those pics you posted all look good was that the Jacksonville guy or you just having him do the Shoal and your 10+ largemouth?

Check these ones out, to me they could pass as skin. He has a 16lb 7oz and 10lb 8oz largemouth and a 11.5" bluegill

Basswhippa reply :

Dead River, you have some spectacular mounts and seem to have an aptitude for taxidermy yourself.. You know what looks good. Ever thought about taking it up? I know it is a difficult skill to master, and not everyone has the fine motor skills to do it.

Maico1 reply :

Very very sweet........

Grizzn N Bassin reply :

i love that pics duuuuude! can't wait to see the new one coming in!

Hyrule Bass reply :

On 3/5/2014 at 5:34 AM, Dead River said:

I don't think you're looking close enough, good replicas are casts of actual fish, you must've seen some of the archie Phillips junk.

how does this fish blank look fake?

looks pretty fake to me. the skin mounts look much more natural. replicas often look way too bright and shiny as well. lots of people can put together a model and paint it. and they can make it look like anything they want. from reading your posts, youre not even getting actual replicas of your fish, just models of what you want a fish to look like. as for skin mounts, thats what i call real taxidermy, not replicas. i have an excellent taxidermist who does all types of REAL animal mounts and they look great. i wouldnt call putting together a model and painting it taxidermy at all. youre just customizing a fish to your likings is what i get from your posts. well hell, i can do that without having never caught a fish. and dont mistake me, im not singling your replicas out, i feel the same way about every replica i have ever seen. now that ive elaborated on my thoughts about replicas i wont hijack the thread any further. all im saying is they look fake and factory produced, you have every right to be proud of the fish youve caught, but i cant get down with a fake looking replica, much less one that was altered and designed to not look like the actual fish its supposed to be based upon...

basshole8190 reply :

Fishbeef

Dead River reply :

Not interested in a melee here but I did want to share these better photos of my shoalie replica. the fish is a lot darker than the original pics let on, which is very much to my liking. we worked off of my personal best reference and then another better photo for detail. but I have to confess this fish favors a giant I lost on the Ocmulgee last year the most. This year I will have my revenge.