Post by cecil on Feb 4, 2008 9:05:41 GMT -5
How do you keep from loosing scales on crappies?
Crappies are a very fragile species to skin out and there have been many attempts to keep the scales from being dislodged in the skinning process. Some folks soak the fish in straight denatured alcohol before skinning which may be a good idea if you're new to skinning out crappies. I've heard of some folks using glue but to me that is unnecessay and messy.
The best advise I can give is first of all use the modified half cast method to mount the fish. (See Modified Half Cast Method in Fish and Reptile Category) Why? Because since there is no body to carve or manikin to test fit and alter, there will be no additonal stress on the skin after it is skinned and preserved.
Secondly when you skin the fish, not only take your time and stress the skin as little as possible, you want to take the carcass out in sections with your curved scissors vs. one piece.
After snipping the fin bones and skinning the two top wall side flaps free, I cut accross the carcass once at the tail and about three more times with the last cut where the carcass is freed at the head junction. Lay your free hand under the skin on the show side to give you a feel where your scissors are to prevent from cutting through. Don't worry about leaving flesh on the skin -- it can be scraped off mostly predendicular to the length of the fish later, and this is actually less stress on the skin than trying to remove the carcass in one piece.
If you are just starting out and you are apprehensive I would soak the crappie in denatured alcohol for about 15 minutes before skinning. Once you gain confidence you should be able to skin a crappie with no scale loss at all.
Crappies are a very fragile species to skin out and there have been many attempts to keep the scales from being dislodged in the skinning process. Some folks soak the fish in straight denatured alcohol before skinning which may be a good idea if you're new to skinning out crappies. I've heard of some folks using glue but to me that is unnecessay and messy.
The best advise I can give is first of all use the modified half cast method to mount the fish. (See Modified Half Cast Method in Fish and Reptile Category) Why? Because since there is no body to carve or manikin to test fit and alter, there will be no additonal stress on the skin after it is skinned and preserved.
Secondly when you skin the fish, not only take your time and stress the skin as little as possible, you want to take the carcass out in sections with your curved scissors vs. one piece.
After snipping the fin bones and skinning the two top wall side flaps free, I cut accross the carcass once at the tail and about three more times with the last cut where the carcass is freed at the head junction. Lay your free hand under the skin on the show side to give you a feel where your scissors are to prevent from cutting through. Don't worry about leaving flesh on the skin -- it can be scraped off mostly predendicular to the length of the fish later, and this is actually less stress on the skin than trying to remove the carcass in one piece.
If you are just starting out and you are apprehensive I would soak the crappie in denatured alcohol for about 15 minutes before skinning. Once you gain confidence you should be able to skin a crappie with no scale loss at all.