IN FEBRUARY 2018, Kathy and I visited Salzburg, Austria, to attend the European Taxidermy Championships®, about which we had a feature in the last issue. We have previously produced two World Taxidermy Championships® in Salzburg, yet we still had not visited all there is to see in this beautiful area of Europe. This time we were traveling with our friends Joe and Peg Meder after the show and we planned for a week of travel through the high country of Switzerland and the beautiful mountains that surround it. The mountain city of Zermatt was our selected destination with the famous mountain peak the Matterhorn. In my communication with Matthias Fahrni, chairman of the ETC, I told him of our travel to Switzerland after the show and he quickly issued a invitation to visit with him and his wife Helen during our travels. Our return travel by train took us very close to where they live in Aegerten, near Bern, on our train route to Zurich, our departure city. We arranged for an overnight stay in Aegerten and we all had a fantastic meal and visit that evening at the Fahrnis’ home. Our friendship and my knowledge of Matthias’ abilities go back nearly twenty years. He has two World Titles for fish skin-mounts, and he was one of our fish judges at the 2012 World Championship in Europe. I was also a part of the judging team alongside him at two European Championships and his ability and work amazed me. I felt it was time to tell his story and the unique reputation he has established in Europe. I know you will enjoy and learn from this interview. Matthias is not only one of the best fish taxidermists in the world, he is very likely the highest paid specialist taxidermist in the world.

Editor’s note: In the previous two issue Mike Kirkhart and his son Buddy showed in detail how a reproduction for this striped bass was prepared for the final painting process. In this issue Mike will explain in detail his professional process for painting this striper reproduction. The striper is going to his friend and client Larry Jones who caught and released his trophy fish (45 inches, 40 pounds) below the Tennessee River Dam fishing with guide Todd Asher. The full story and photo reference is in Issue 129.

Do you steal from your business? Maybe I should not be so harsh and instead ask, “Do you draw money out of your business when you should not?” Nearly one out of three American business owners do. Even more alarming is that 1 in 3 business failures are linked to employee theft and fraud. It’s 15 times more likely that your business will be targeted by an employee than by anyone else, and 75 percent of these crimes will go unnoticed.

 Remember—you are an employee of your business.

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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