Here are a few tips on carving your fish. Once you have roughed out your carving using a bandsaw, establish the centreline, and maintain it throughout the carving process. Start rough shaping with knife, drawknife, chisels, rasps,or power carving. I prefer using a drawknife, rasps and files, since there is less dust. Ensure your tools are sharp. If your burrs are getting worn, replace them with new ones. Don't force any tools, as that's when you can get hurt.

Shape the entire body of the fish, moving all around, and don't do any detailed carving, until your happy with the shape of the body and head. I prefer to have the tail fin as part of the body and not have it as an insert, in most cases. Leave extra wood thickness in the tail fin , and reduce it slowly as you shape the rest of the body. Plan to do the most fragile areas last, so there is less chance of accidental breakage. One thing I have noticed with less experienced carvers, is that they tend to leave the body looking too square in areas, as if their afraid to remove wood. Always remember, that fish have curves everywhere, no straight lines. Use a template to check body shape. Also, some carvers leave their fins way too thick.

Now start to work on the head, establishing reference points, head width, eye location, etc. Work slowly, as this is one of the most important parts of the fish which will be viewed. If the centerline disappears in certain areas, re-establish it. One thing judges will look for is that the head and eyes are symetrical and in line. Don't cut out the eyes until the head detail is almost finished. I will usually just drill a 1/16" hole where the centre of the eye should be, but usually it will change as the carving progresses. I use a 6" plastic ruler at right angles to the centreline held on top of the head and horizontally across the head, viewed from the front, to establish correct eye alignment. Same with mouth details, keep checking with the ruler, viewing from the front.

I usually insert the dorsal, anal, pelvic, pectoral, and adipose(for trout) fins. To make scaling easier, scale the fish, then insert your detailed fins. If you insert the fins first, it will be impossible to scale properly. Now insert the fins and finish around fin bases. Go back and finish fine details on the head, insert the eyes, etc. Reduce the thickness of the tail fin and detail it. Your fish should now be ready for sealing, priming, painting, then clear top coat.