Taxidermy Gone Bad — Yikes!!

You guys know by now that I’m always on the lookout for “Taxidermy Gone Bad” and, I’m pleased to announce, we’ve got a couple nice new additions to the collection here. I especially like this lingcod head…a wonderful blend of creepy, strange and more than a dash of disturbing.

But wait, there’s more!
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Taxidermy Gone Bad!

As you guys know, I’m a huge fan of really bad fish mounts and this one, sent in by regular FishwithJD reader Rod Vin Steel, is a dandy! I’m not sure what the skunk has to do with anything, but it certainly adds to the appeal here…

Apparently, there’s a lot more where this came from:

“Just in case you’ve haven’t been in to Fosters Bighorn in Rio Vista, CA, you can have a lot of eye balls watching you eat lunch,” says Vin Steel. Click here to see more Taxidermy Gone Bad!

Double Duty Christmas Salmon

My ol pal T-Man, who despite the fact he lives in Florida, still has an excellent eye for sad-looking salmonid mounts, sent in this dandy to be added to our ever-growing collection of Taxidermy Gone Bad.

He says the fish is a rare Christmas King of the Northeast, known not necessarily for the time of year in which they run, but instead for their tendency to bite anything that looks remotely like a Christmas ornament (I hear white is a hot color!).

This actually could be a historical moment here at fishwithjd.com. This fish may just be the first-ever Taxidermy Gone Bad/Smoker of the Year Contest entry!

Deer in the Headlights

Here’s the latest entry to one of my very favorite portions of this site, Taxidermy Gone Bad. This beauty (you can almost see the reflections of the headlights in her eyes, can’t ya?) was sent in by reader Luke Veldt who ran across the mount in Romania.

Guess they have oakies who “truck hunt” at night there, too…

Tell me this fish didn’t really look like this…

Mad River Outfitters in Arcata, CA may just be one of the coolest tackle shops around, but even they have some skeletons in the closet…like this sorry excuse for a brown mount. To their credit, this nasty beast isn’t displayed on the wall (anymore) but is instead piled on a junk shelf in the back room. I have to assume that this fish actually looked better than this when it was pulled from the water…because now it’s so ugly that it kinda reminds me of a “brown trout” that I “released” into the porcelain pond earlier this morning…

Representatives from Mad River Outfitters declined to comment.

Hey Pal, order the chicken…

Cap’n Greg sent in this photo of this sweet sturgeon head which may just be my all-time favorite piece of “Taxidermy Gone Bad.” This lovely specimen looks down upon a table at a restaurant in Bodega Bay, CA. Uh-oh….I think I just lost my appetite.

Check out my bad fish mounts in my Taxidermy Gone Bad category.

“Rainbow” Trout??

Okay, so you know I’m always on the hunt for really, really bad fish mounts. I just get a kick out of ‘em for some bizarre reason. Anyway, I recently ran across this dandy…I think this one is so great because it looks like the bastard offspring of a rainbow trout-carp breeding session.

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Taxidermy gone Bad

Perhaps I was dropped on my head as a baby or maybe it was the intake of all those illicit substances in the college years, but I just have a huge affinity for really bad taxidermy. What can I say…I’m a big fan! The uglier the fish mount, the more I like it.

And let me tell you bother, there’s no shortage of truly God-awful fish mounts out there. Drop by your local tavern or tackle shop and you’ll see what I mean. The more rotten skin and broken fins, the better!

That’s not to say, however, that I want any of these things hanging in my house. Nope, I prefer to enjoy a bad mount in its own environment, maybe take a picture or two. From time to time, I share some of my favorites here in a new category that I’m calling:

Taxidermy gone Bad
Okay, so here’s the first installment…I ran across this lovely largemouth in a tackle shop recently. She’s a beaut, eh?

By the way, don’t hesitate to pass along some photos of bad fish mounts if you have ‘em…we’ll be happy to post them here.