by chris oak » September 21st, 2015, 7:11 pm
I'll move this to a different section in a week or so but it worked out really well and since we're having such an epic so cal year it might be of interest to you guys.
I've done this at work with big great white shark tails, threshers etc and figured I'd try it on fish. Here's some of the key tips:
1. Dry it slowly
2. Inject it with rubbing alcohol frequently, you want something that is toxic to vermin and also helps dry things out. I've also used salt before but it gets messy.
3. Nail it down and you have to flip it over midway through the process.
4. Don't mix the resin too hot.
This was from a big wsb from this season. I threw it in my chest freezer and forgot about it and then saw it a few months ago. I took a board and used finishing nails to nail the tail down spread out, otherwise it tends to curl up and close up as well.
Once the tail is nailed down I use a big syringe to inject it with rubbing alcohol. If you don't have access to one you can probably use one of those worm inflators from the fishing shops. The key is to inject it all over the place and also inject it over the next few days. You want that meat super saturated with it so the bugs can't lay eggs in it. An even better way is to make a screen box and put that over the tail as well.
Dry it slow. Put it in the garage or somewhere where it's hot and dry, but not too hot like in direct sun. You want it to cure like jerky. As soon as it's semi dry, flip it over and dry the other side too. I'll usually do this over a month or so until the meat is completely dry. On big large tails like the shark I cut thin strips of sintra plastic and used them to hold the tail down in sections so it wouldn't curl.
It will always have oil in it as fish bones are heavy in oil, the skin and meat will also be slighly oily. The last step is to coat it with some sort of epoxy. I use fiberglassing finishing resin, I'll do it when I'm working on a project and have left over west systems epoxy but you can use the finishing fiberglassing resin from home depot too. When you do it make sure you follow the directions because if you use too much catalyst you can smoke it and burn the thing up. Hang the tail if you can and coat it all over, especially the meat portion. When you are done you'll have a sealed product that shouldn't smell and you can display where ever you want to. I'm going to do a big halibut tail next.
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