I had the idea of carving a hand holding a fish for release for several years. It seemed to be a good idea and as far as I know, no one has done this kind of carving before. It would be a first in the fish carving arena, although there have been molded and cast hands in taxidermy competition many times before. I was contemplating carving it for competition, then selling it as a second goal. I figured both options made it worth the effort to be good. At this time I was only stuck with selling it. Oh well, I decided to do it.

2019 World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Championships® Approach

Be there when we present $30,750 in cash prizes to winners at the 2019 World Taxidermy & Fish Carving Championships. April 30–May 4, 2019, Expo Center in Springfield, Missouri.

All Cash Awards

COMPETITORS’ AWARD: $14,250.00 CASH AWARDS

$7,500 from Head Quarters and Big Rock Sports

$2,250 from World Show Award Fund

$1,500 from Payer Eyes

$1,000 Mohr Taxidermy Specialties

$1,000 from Coppersmith Global Logistics

$1,000.00 Midwest Fur Dressing

• Master Division:

First $4,000   Second $3,000

Third $1,500  Fourth $750

Fifth $500

• Professional Division:

First $2,000   Second $1,500

Third $750     Fourth $500

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When I began my research on quail of North America, I really did not know there were so many species and subspecies in Central America, Mexico, and North America. The quail of the American continent are referred to as New World quail and those of the European and Asia continents are referred to as Old World quail. Of course, hunters and taxidermists consider them gamebirds and depending on what part of the country you live in, quail are quail, with a regional name for each of the species.

     In my search for reference it was easy to see that the most common species in the United States were the California quail, bobwhite quail, Gambel’s quail, and scaled quail (commonly called blue quail). I was able to find some good reference for these. The mountain quail, which is found in the mountains of the western USA, was a tough one to find reference where I could acquire copyrights.

There are many subspecies of all of these, so for the purpose of this photo reference, I will group the photos according to the species name that is common with the subspecies. I will give brief descriptions of the four species that are most common in the USA with range maps of their distribution.

Coyotes are native to North America. They are smaller than their close relatives, gray wolves, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolves and red wolves. As of 2005, 19 coyote subspecies are recognized. This issue I will focus on the head details and still body poses. The categories I grouped the poses in are:

1. Head details and attitude

2. Still body poses

3. Walking, running

4. Howling

5. Pouncing

6. Fighting

7. With prey

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For the last 30 years or so I’ve been getting it up. This is not some kind of sexual statement, it’s about my carvings of fish and birds. This same philosophy can be applied to taxidermy as well. I’ve been trying to make them higher and closer to eye level than all the other carvings or mounts on a 30-inch-high table. To renew or subscribe, telephone us at 800-783-7266 or visit our website.