pike heads

[jayman64]

i was wondering if any one knos how to keep the pike heads? i cut them off my fish and do u burn the skin and stuff off or let it sit what do you do help me out please thx

[MrMarty51]

Put them in a ziplock and freeze them.in the summer after the ants come out put them in a cat,dog proof box and set them in the ant pile and give em a couple of weeks and they will be clean as a whistle.Also might try boiling them.  MMMMMMMMM Pike head soup,might be some kind of new afrodesiac You could market. 

[Buck762]

how do ppl mount the pike heads? does it require a taxidermist?

sorry to steal your post

[MrMarty51]

how do ppl mount the pike heads? does it require a taxidermist?
sorry to steal your post

I dont know how a person would mount one,maby add a set of deerhorns to it and claim it was some kind of a new species that evolved.  hang a series of em from the eves of the house and use em for windchimes.   

[spoxick]

what about a container of maggots or something to eat away at it ?

[Pajns]

I've seen em mounted just the heads and they were glossy. Wonder if ya just use varnish?? Just a guess......

[Buck762]

there are special beetles you can purchase that will eat all the flesh, but it's cheaper to just bury it for the summer.  They are special flesh eating beetles used by taxidermists. does a pike skull look cool? never seen just a skull

[exploder]

I think that they may be called European Beetles, hence the mounts with just the skull and antlers are called European mounts. This could be completely false but that was what I have been told.
-exploder

[bigchev98]

i might be dumb, but why would you only keep the heads?

[MrMarty51]

i might be dumb, but why would you only keep the heads?

Pike head soup. 

[jayman64]

i might be dumb, but why would you only keep the heads?

they look really cool. why do people keep deer heads lol

[AirManCam]

I'd rather just have the fish moutned?

[Skipper]

You can just nail them to a post and the sun will dry them out skin and all. You can fins "pike totems" around here on peoples barns and fence posts.

[Chris Raymond]

I think that they may be called European Beetles, hence the mounts with just the skull and antlers are called European mounts. This could be completely false but that was what I have been told.
-exploder

European mounts are called what they are because the practice of displaying the top half of the skull is more prominent there and we copied it.  Personally, I like that style of mounting much more than neck & shoulders. 

[ebrooks22]

ahah that would be one intresting mount and i agree put some deer horns on it

[MrMarty51]

Is that the soup base for Stewwy Stuff?

Could be,The rest of the ingredients are top secret and may possibly be dangerous through human consumption. 

[rileyross]

You can just nail them to a post and the sun will dry them out skin and all. You can fins "pike totems" around here on peoples barns and fence posts.

Skipper is right his way is also the easiest.

[Walltrout]

The beetles are called dermestid beetles.  You can buy them on ebay.  I dont think they will work very good for fish heads though.  There is a lot of cartilage in fish heads that would be eaten away leaving not much bone.

Don't boil the the pike heads.  I had a couple of them last year that I was going to do but they got rotten before I could get to them.  I was going to throw them but my dad thought he would give it a shot.  So he throws these 6 big rotten pike heads in a pot and boils away.  In the process they just kind of melted and he ended up with a pot full of stinky slimy sludge      He ended up just throwing them away.

So I think your best bet is eith the taxidermy shop route or just nailing to a post.  Another interesting idea would be to put one in a dehydrator.

[Sawyerjosh]

I collect skull for fun, dermestid beetles are ok- but the best way i have cleaned skulls, is a small wire cage(so the dogs dont haul it off).  Dig in the ground 8 inches or so, somewhere that is not real wet, but stays slightly damp, out of direct sun and put the cage in that, door facing up.  Put the dirt back in and set the head on top of it, and cover lightly with leaves, then let nature do the rest.  Works best may- july, b4 it really dries out.  I have not done many fish head though, and i think the previous post about all the cartilage is right, they may fall apart.  The few fish heads i have cleaned were in a fish tank with a few crayfish and a bunch of little minnows to pick at the flesh.  These were small heads though, and I dont know if you could keep a pike head in a tank without ruining the water and killing everything.  One last option, may be to put the heads in a bait trap in the water, so that crayfish and insects could clean them off.  I would go somewhere with no current, and be careful- again the small bones may fall off if held with cartilage.

Good luck!

[jimmyclaude]

I did one of these over a decade ago and still have it.
 I just put it in the freezer for a year with the mouth forced open with a wadded up plastic bag.(don't use news paper the ink comes off). I left it natural and set on an old pair of antlers for that
rustic "Spikehorn Pike"

[Skipper]

So you essentially freeze dried it?

That method should keep it indefinitely! Good idea.

[jimmyclaude]

It is ugly! I have been thinking of putting a coat of poly on it,but I like the looks I get from the church ladies when they come a callin