Opening Soon: Joe's Fish Prints and Tomo's Tackle

It's a dilemma that has faced many a Salem fisherman.

You've just reeled in the big one and you want to share your catch with family and friends but a photograph just won't do it justice and your prize fish isn't going to stay fresh for very long.

Beginning next month, you'd have the option of bringing your catch down to Joe's Fish Prints and Tomo's Tackle on Pickering Wharf to have it turned into a one-of-a-kind art piece that will forever preserve the true size of your catch.

Joe's Fish Prints originally opened on New Derby Street in 2011 and will reopen at its new location at 104 Wharf St. in the coming weeks - this time with tackle.

The store will be run by Tomo Shiraishi, of East Boston and co-owner Joe Higgins.

Shiraishi will sell the hard-to-find Japanese fishing gear you'll need to catch a monster and Higgins will gladly cover it in ink and hand-print an image of it onto a canvas for you.

The practice of fish-printing is called Gyotaku and is a process dating back more than 200 years.

The art form originated in Japan, where fishermen often had to quickly sell or consume the fish they caught and didn't have any other way of preserving the memory of the catch.

Click through the photo gallery attached to this post for a look at some of the fish prints that were on display Tuesday afternoon and to view recent progress inside the Wharf Street space.

What do you think of a business offering tackle and fish prints in Salem? Would you bring a big catch there to have it pressed onto a canvas?

Let us know in the comments section below.