There’s certainly nothing wrong with asking a friend, guide, outfitter or tackle shop for a taxidermist referral. Sometimes the referral might even get you a discount. Just make sure that you know what you’re getting and don’t be rushed into any decisions or expenditures.

A fiberglass replica from a reputable taxidermist is a great way to celebrate a memorable catch, but if you’re not careful you may end up disappointed. Do your due dilligence and you can celebrate that trophy forever.

The stated purpose of our April 2021 trip to Panama is to catch big yellowfin tuna on topwaters, but I’m told that the beauty of the Gulf of Chiriqui is its multispecies bounty, including inshore beasts. Now that I’ve watched 8,342 videos about the place, I’m intrigued by Cubera Snapper, a gamefish that I previously was unaware even existed.

My 30-pound payara was the fishing highlight of a very good year in 2019, and when my friend Leroy Boss got his replica before I got mine I was more than a little jealous. Two weeks later mine arrived from the great white north and it was truly worth the wait.

Romney Dodd used to paint clogs for Nordstrom and other retailers, but her latest passion has been to take old skin mounts of fish and repaint them in distinctive and decorative manners.

Kelly Reark of Florida has created fiberglass fish replicas since 2009, but she does it with a stamp all her own at the “Home of the Tattooed Tarpon.” She decorates her mounts with tattoo-style paintings of iconic scenes or scenery related to the fish in question – so, for example, a tarpon might share scenes from Boca Grande, Florida, or the boat on which it was caught, or both.

A little over a decade ago, Hanna and I were driving to her cousin’s wedding just outside of Bar Harbour, Maine when we saw a big striped bass and a tarpon staring at us from the side of a barn. We pulled over to a small crafts and souvenir shop to investigate and fell in love with the big colorful metal striper. We were still more or less newlyweds, still more or less trying to get our financial footing in the world, and the high three-figure price scared the hell out of us, so we left without buying it.