# I'm obsessed with frogs and mice



## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

and today a friend with a lathe said he would turn some mice bodies for me!!!!!

Back in the day there were some really cool mouse lures. They seemed to have stopped making them.

I figured I would document my mice making here since I had fun with the foiling tutorial. He had some mahogany so we used that. I gave him some drawing. I've used a lathe once before so I let him do all the work. First step is to cut out the pieces from the block and mark the centerlines on each end using a spring loaded punch that looks kind of like a pen. Then he turned off the edges so it was now a cylinder. Next he marked the differents segments on the sides of the cylinder that I indicated with dots on my drawing so that when he turned he could periodically use the calipers to check thickness. But basically he just turned and cranked them out pretty fast. They aren't exactly like I had drawn but they seem perfect to me. After they were done there were little stubs on the end where the lathe held them that I sawed off using a reverse tooth japanese pull saw. Then I took them to a belt sander to give them a flat belly. The next step will be to hand sand the edges of the belly so it blends better. I'll update as I progress.


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

I flat-sanded the bottom more and then curved the bottom up in the front and back also on the belt sander. One the largest one I didn't like the way the rear was to I took it to the belt sander. Then I hand sanded the sides of the bottom so the better blended into the body. I also sanded the rear of the biggest one as well as all three a little bit to get rid of the lathe marks. I'll probably sand a little more tomorrow. I went to Dick's and Gander today. It was my first time to Gander - good selection of everything. I was looking for tail stuff but ended up also finding some stick on eyes in the fly tying department which was great bc I am down to about 4. Plus they had larger sized eyes also. Also bought some preformed wire which will come in handy for other projects. The eyes and wire aren't for the mice just wanted to show them in case people didn't realize Gander has lure making stuff. Lots of stufff for spinnerbait making. I got some twist lock jigheads and just unclipped the spring as well as some robotworms. Those will be for the tail. THey had some smaller (shorter and smaller diameter)berkely worms that were more the size of an actually mouses tail but the diameter was so small that they wouldn't screw into the screw lock. They probably would have worked by just having a straight piece of wire coming out the back of the mouse then superglueing them to the wire but I didn't want to risk it. The robotworms will screw into the spring just fine and I can always add superglue if they don't stay. Can also cut them down if necessary. Next steps will be to sand a little more then add ballast (split shots), hook hanger(s), tie in, and tail holder. I looked for frog hooks today to help make it more weed resistant but couldn't find any. They are going to have a small waker/maybe subsurface lip though so they won't be weedless anyways. Just don't really like the idea of a treble on the bottom. I picked up some weedless worm hooks just in case. I got them for the frog I'm going to try next but maybe I'll try them on one of these. Hang em off the side.


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## bassinjody (Aug 25, 2005)

man jamest them looks cool cant wait to see the finish products .jody


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

thanks Jody. I thought of another idea for holding a small diameter worm for the tail. Just use the barbed part of a mr. twister keeper hook. Or cut the bottom part off one of those hooks with barbs on the back of the shaft(hooks have a name can't remember-worm hooks?). I'm going to use what I bought and think a big fat tail will be good.

Does anyone know how to make whiskers?


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## bassinjody (Aug 25, 2005)

i know on my catfish bait i used 25 pound fishing line u can make any lenghtu want, i just drilled some very small holes put the line in and epoxied that holes as for holding the worm on i have used screw lock or hitch hikers agian drill a little hole epoxie it in then screw the worm on . jody


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

Thanks Jody- my bro was down in Cinci at the bass pro shop and picked up their BPS frog and mice kit. The mice had whiskers that reminded me of the bristles in a snow scraper/brush. Looked pretty good other than it was a bundle and they didn't point in various directions. I think I prefer stiffer whiskers so I'm going to keep an eye out for some stiff brush bristles. I'll drill a hole, put in some epoxy and wait for it to get thick then put individual whiskers in at different angles. I'll probably use 5 min epoxy and do one side at a time. Thanks again, I remember that catfish and the whiskers- it was sweet!


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