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.