When this customer reached out to me wanting a 44" snook burned to scale...in my head I was thinking "that ain't so bad, I think I can manage that size". So I agreed, excited to try out some new form of wood taxidermy. He sent along the reference photos of the catch (his girlfriend caught her - on an artificial, even!), and I began to realize this snook is lookin' kiiiinda big.

I gathered all of the photos he'd sent, and pieced them all together, grabbing the best features from each one - I really wanted to make sure I could capture this catch, and make it look as close to the actual fish as I could.

As you can see, she's definitely been through a lot in those waters. There were quite a few notches and scars on the fins, as well as these 2 interesting dots along the lateral line...something I'd never seen in a snook before.

And then...I printed it out. I couldn't even FATHOM landing a snook this huge! It took me forever to even get into the 30" club...those big girls always find a way to evade me. This was DEFINITELY a much larger undertaking than I anticipated...but I was up for the challenge, and super stoked to get started.

I had absolutely NO idea how I was going to display it when I started, but I had an inkling of a thought that it would be so cool to find some driftwood that looked like mangroves, and have her kind of swimming through them. As luck would have it, a new wood supplier opened just down the road, and on my first visit I found the absolute perfect piece of driftwood. Actually mounting the snook to the driftwood took a little bit of MacGuyver-ing, as always, but I did figure it out (...as always).

I rarely say I'm completely satisfied with a piece I've done, but this one was an exception - it was so cool to make, and my commitment to capturing the details really showed!

If you'd like a snook of your own - this art is available as a wood print! Either with a modern frame, or classic silhouette.

Click the image below to shop!