A bluegill probably represents a fisherman’s first fish over other species of freshwater fish. They are fun to catch, great to eat, and make very attractive mounts. When I was building my taxidermy clientele back in the early 1960s and 1970s, I completed three stringer mounts of bluegills, with a few other members of the sunfish family added in. They were displayed with my name attached in the three largest sporting goods retailers in my area. Bluegills are easy to skin, mount and paint, and stringer mounts represent what most freshwater fishermen bring home from the rivers and bayous here in Louisiana. I cannot begin to calculate how much fish taxidermy these three displays brought to my growing business. Even though bass were number one on my volume list, bluegills were number two, followed by crappies. That’s because I would get 10 to 12 stringer mounts of bluegill to do every year, with 5 to 7 fish on each stringer.
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