Saturday, I caught the largest rainbow trout of my life - 22 1/2" 5 3/4 pounds. I took a couple pics and released him.

Now, I want to get a fiberglass repro. made.

I found the really nice fiberglass blanks in the right size, but I can't paint it.

My taxi wants $12/inch for a repro. That seems high to me, due to the little amount of work involved.

Anybody here have any suggestions???

Reproductions take a lot more work than you'd think. Not to mention the cost of a good reproduction blank. Someone who can actually do a convincing paint job is worth the money compared to some yahoo who doesn't know a rainbow from a brown from a cutthroat and couldn't blend crayolas let alone airbrush paints on a fish blank. If the quote came from someone who's work sucks then I'd go elsewhere. High price doesn't always mean good work, but a bargain price is normally not a bargain price at all. Do your homework before you commit.

Hobbes is right. Not to mention, few repros come ready to paint. They still need work. Those that are ready to paint are quite a bit more expensive. If his work is good, it's well worth the $12/inch. I'm really not sure what other options your looking for. You can either find someone cheap to do it, and very likely not get the greatest results, or pay someone to do it right.

IMHO 12 an inch is a good price if the work will also look good. As mentioned blanks are really not cheap. IIRC my wifes 50+ King Salmon blank was over 300 bucks to start with. And then there are quite a few hours trimming, grinding, gluing fins in, setting eyes etc...

Finally some folks can paint and some can't. But I've always found it much easier to paint a skin mount as there is a bit of a background to work with. You can see things there. With a blank its like trying to paint a sheet of white paper and make it come alive. Its not easy and takes more work than normal.

Jeff

Hmmm, and I thought $12 per inch was too INexpensive! Good cold water fish guys around here charge that for skin mounts. Like these guys said, its all in the paint work. Well, and the prep, on repros.

I'm going with the repro-will post pics when she's done.