Fish are where this shop began — and where it still defines itself.
Skin mounts are $30 per inch and replica (reproduction) mounts $35 per inch, measured by the fish’s length. Driftwood, habitat and water scenes are quoted per project.
Stehling's Taxidermy creates fish mounts in Wisconsin, offering both skin mounts and lifelike replica (reproduction) mounts for warmwater and coldwater species like musky, walleye, bass, trout, and salmon. With studios in Jefferson and New Franken (Green Bay area), we hand-paint every fish and build custom habitat scenes.
Since Greg Stehling first set up his bench in 1978, fish have been the heartbeat of the studio. Nearly five decades later, they still are.
Greg Stehling founded the studio in 1978 after years of training through the early 1970s. He came to taxidermy with a different toolkit than most — as a trained industrial engineer, he saw the same problem-solving discipline he'd built a career on: precision, efficiency, repeatable process.
He worked every area of the craft in those first years, but his hands kept returning to one thing — fish. Color, fin tension, the gill plate, the way light moves across a flank. He pushed past what most studios were willing to attempt, and word traveled the way it does in outdoor circles: one angler tells another, and another, and another.
"His skill and speed on the bench quickly made him one of the most sought-after fish taxidermists in the country."
Greg's Taxidermy was one of the earliest studios in the country to standardize the process of carving fish forms — a workflow refinement that came straight out of his engineering background and reshaped how the studio handled volume without losing detail.
Through the 1980s and 90s, thousands of specimens passed through the shop each year — mounted for sportsmen, museums, nature centers, universities, biological supply companies, and other taxidermists who couldn't keep up with their own demand. Partnerships with Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, and Texas Roadhouse became part of the rhythm of the work.
The standard set in those decades is the same standard the bench runs on today.
The traditional approach, and still the right call for many warmwater and coldwater species. We carefully preserve the actual skin of your fish, sculpt a custom form to its exact measurements, and rebuild the color, fin tension, and detail that fades the moment a fish leaves the water.
A properly built skin mount is the closest thing to bringing the catch back into the room with you — same fish, same proportions, same story.
For catch-and-release fish, saltwater and exotic species, or any specimen that simply can't be preserved as a skin mount, we build a fully custom reproduction. You give us length, girth, species, and a few photos — we hand-paint the rest from there.
The result is a piece engineered to last decades without fading, color-matched to the fish you actually caught rather than a generic blank off the wall.
A fish on a panel is one thing. A fish caught mid-strike, breaking through the surface of a sculpted lake, fins flared and water beading off the flank — that's a different kind of piece entirely. We've spent decades building custom water sculptures, habitat scenes, and full underwater dioramas for clients, museums, and sporting-goods retailers.
"A mount isn't something you produce, it's something you build."
We're putting together a dedicated showcase of our water sculpture work soon. In the meantime, if you're picturing something more than a wall mount — bring us the idea. Almost everything you've seen on a Bass Pro or Cabela's wall came off a bench like ours.
Greg's sons Aaron and Austin grew up inside the business. Mornings before school were spent in the shop. Summers were spent on the bench. By the time they were teenagers, they were contributing to thousands of fish mounts a year alongside their father — learning the craft the way it's supposed to be learned.
Today they run both Wisconsin studios and still do the work themselves. On any given day you'll find one of them airbrushing a walleye, blending a brown trout's flank, or walking a client through species options in the showroom. Aaron's son Roderick is the third generation now stepping onto the same bench.
Drop a fish at one of our Wisconsin studios, ship it in, or start a reproduction with measurements and photos. Either way, the same family handles it from intake to install.
Stehling's Taxidermy offers both traditional skin mounts and lifelike fiberglass replica (reproduction) mounts. Replicas are ideal for catch-and-release and for warmwater and coldwater species alike.
We mount musky, walleye, bass, trout, salmon, and many other Wisconsin and Great Lakes species. Each fish is hand-painted to match your catch.
Freeze your fish whole as soon as possible, wrapped to prevent freezer burn. Avoid gutting it. Bring it to either of our locations and we will take it from there.
We have two Wisconsin locations: our flagship at 913 North Parkway Street in Jefferson, and a second location in New Franken in the Green Bay area.
Stehling’s Taxidermy builds every fish mount in our Jefferson studio. Drop off at our Jefferson studio in south-central Wisconsin, or our New Franken (Green Bay area) showroom in the northeast. We proudly serve hunters across the state — see all the areas we serve.
Stehling’s has mounted fish for Wisconsin anglers since 1978, from two locations. Our Jefferson flagship at 913 North Parkway Street covers Jefferson, Dodge, Waukesha, Dane, Rock and Walworth counties — Watertown, Fort Atkinson, Whitewater, Johnson Creek, Madison and the Milwaukee suburbs. Our New Franken showroom at 3861 Algoma Road sits just east of Green Bay and covers Brown, Kewaunee, Door, Oconto and Outagamie counties.
We do both skin mounts and fish reproductions — the replica route lets you release the fish and still put it on the wall, which matters on musky, sturgeon and any water with a slot limit. Whichever you choose, how the fish is handled in the first hour decides how the mount looks in ten years; our fish field care guide walks through it.
both locations take walk-ins during business hours, no appointment needed, and out-of-state clients ship to us regularly — read the shipping instructions first. Not sure what your project will cost? Ask us for a free quote.
Fish mounts are priced by the inch, measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. That keeps it simple whether you bring us a 14-inch crappie or a 50-inch musky.
| Mount type | Price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Skin mount (your fish) | $30 per inch | 28″ walleye = $840 |
| Replica / reproduction mount | $35 per inch | 48″ musky = $1,680 |
| Driftwood, habitat, or water base | Quote on request | Priced with your mount |
| Custom water scenes and multi-fish displays | Quote on request | Send us a photo of the space |
Pay in full, 50/50, three installments, or monthly through our Easy 8 Payment Plan. No banks, no credit checks. Standard delivery is 12 to 14 months; rush service is available at 180 days (+25%), 90 days (+50%), or 30 days (+100%) on select orders. See the full price list.
Wisconsin’s favorite fish and one of the most common mounts on our bench. Walleye skin mounts hold their color well when the fish is frozen properly, and replicas are the right call for a slot-limit or catch-and-release fish. A 26 to 30 inch walleye on driftwood is a classic piece. See our walleye mounts page for pricing by length.
Most musky mounts are reproductions today, since serious musky anglers release their fish. Bring us the length, girth, and a few photos from the net and we will hand-paint a replica that matches your fish’s bars and spots, not a generic blank. We also do skin mounts for a kept fish. See our musky taxidermy page.
Largemouth and smallmouth bass, skin or replica. The open-mouth strike pose on a water base is the one everyone asks for, and we have built hundreds of them. See our bass mounts page.
Long, lean, and dramatic on the wall. Pike skin mounts need careful fin work, which is where a studio that has mounted fish since 1978 earns its keep. See our northern pike mounts page.
Brown trout, rainbow, brook trout, lake trout, chinook, and coho from the Great Lakes and the Driftless. Trout are the hardest fish to paint honestly, and they are the fish Greg Stehling built this studio on.
A trophy crappie or a 10-inch bluegill deserves a mount as much as a musky does. Panfish are priced by the inch like everything else, so a big bluegill is one of the most affordable mounts we make. See our bluegill and panfish mounts.
Redfish, snook, tarpon, mahi, sailfish, and anything else you caught on vacation. These are almost always reproductions built from your measurements and photos.
The full walkthrough is in our fish field care guide.