STAFF BROTHERS CLAYTON, left, AND JASON PIERCE have spent the last 25 years making trophies for fishermen using nothing but pictures and a few measurements at Lake Fork Taxidermy.

STEVE KNIGHT

outdoor@tylerpaper.com

ALBA – It did not take long for Jason Pierce to figure there had to be a better way to make a living than skinning bass and putting them on foam blanks to create mounts for fishermen.

It may have donned on his younger brother, Clayton, even quicker that dealing with the slimy remains was not a glamorous job.

“I have been doing this for 25 years,” said Jason, who along with his brother own Lake Fork Taxidermy. “I started when I was in college as a part-time job. And Clayton has been working with me and we have been partners for 23 years now.”

Although the sign says Lake Fork Taxidermy the two are not your typical taxidermist in that they only do fish and even then that their customers send them pictures and measurements for a replica instead of the actual catch.

Lake Fork Taxidermy, which also operates under the name FishReplicas.com, has built a reputation the last three decades in replica mounts, a longer-lasting product that allows fishermen to practice catch and release, or in the case of some species sought for their meat, catch and eat.

Having opened a shop alongside Lake Fork during the early 1990s when it was unarguably the trophy bass capital of the world, the Pierces found themselves in the right place at the right time for a fledgling business with a then-relatively unknown product.

“We have skinned plenty of fish. There is nothing fun about skinning a dead fish,” Clayton Pierce said of their opportune start. “As time went on more people became aware of the replicas and it is an exact cast of a fish that size. We always did the best job we could on the skin mounts, but I personally never liked them anyway.”

The early demand for traditional skin mounts was beneficial though because it provided them an opportunity to start building an inventory of forms that are still in use today.

The Pierces’ family moved to Lake Fork from the Dallas area after Jason had graduated high school. The purpose of the move was so the family could fish the lake more often.

“That is why we still use Lake Fork Taxidermy because of Lake Fork’s name in the largemouth bass world,” Jason explained. FishReplicas.com was a later addition when they started to do other species.

Although they were not the first in the replica business, the brothers opted to create their own molds because it gave them control over cost, quality and delivery. But while they had an easy source for largemouth bass, getting molds for other species has taken them throughout North America and into South America.

“We have been everywhere to make those molds, Alaska, Brazil, Mexico. We need to do more, I know that, but it takes a couple of people a whole day to mold a fish of any size. It is hard to take the time to break away from the constant deadlines to mold it,” Clayton said.

Plus, fishermen everywhere are not as open-minded about giving up their catch for two Texans to make molds. The brothers learned that lesson the hard way when they went to Alaska.

“It is a weird twist to the whole replica thing. We discovered this in Alaska when molding salmon. We thought it would be easy to go up there and have all the specimens to mold. Then we go up there and discovered every angler wanted that fish cut into steaks and packaged up and sent home. We never considered that when we went up there,” Clayton said.

They eventually cleared that hurdle by offering the fishermen a free mount or buying a crate of salmon packaged and sent to the anglers’ homes.

The brothers say it is actually easier for them to produce a skin mount than a replica. Doing a replica using a fiberglass and cellulose foam mold means every step is done from scratch.

“I think most people, the first thing they see when they look at them is the paint job, but there is a lot more to it than just that. It is having the quality of the blank, having it basically not look like a cartoon fish that you painted really well,” Jason explained.

“I think the replicas are harder to paint. At the end day they are a little more difficult to paint especially the bass. You have a little guide there with a skin mount even after it has dried out. I think it does take a little more talent to paint a realistic looking replica,” Clayton added.

To create an accurate reproduction for a client the brothers said getting a good picture of the fish from the fisherman is the most important thing.

Weight is second, followed by length and girth. While most taxidermist charge by the inch, the Pierces price for bass is based on weight with fish less than 10 pounds currently costing $375 and $400 those over.

Much of the Pierces’ expansion into other species probably started with their bass.

Out-of-state or international fishermen who had seen their bass work called back wanting other fish done.

“We have shipped to Australia, Japan, Italy, Germany, Scotland and all over the United States. It is really worldwide,” Jason said.

“There are fish we have never heard of that people have ordered and we did those too. We didn’t know what those were, but we found out after a little research,” Clayton said.

The one area they haven’t conquered yet is speckled trout and redfish fishermen along the Gulf Coast.

“We have a lot of awesome redfish molds. I think the reason we haven’t done more is people haven’t figured out they can eat that fish and still have one hanging on the wall,” Jason said.

It is not just fishermen buying their mounts either. For years they have done replicas for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s ShareLunker program and the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. They also do the fish mounts found in Bass Pro Shops stores and the sockeye salmon that is in every Raising Cane’s, an homage to the founders year spent commercially fishing in Alaska to construct the first restaurant.

Working with a three-man backshop they have also done replicas for state fisheries agencies in Georgia and Louisiana, the National Forest Service and a special swimming replica that NOAA used in a lionfish research project. And they have been asked to do props for movies and television shows.