Lure recreation Heddon Meadow Mouse

[aulrich]

So on a local forum a topic of "Best Pike Lure" came up and in that thread a person mentioned loving the old Heddon Meadow Mouse.  Since I want to add some top water lures to my inventory I looked it up. the first thing that struck me was, hey I did not know that wake baits were invented in the thirties :).  So I decided to try my hand at reproducing this lure.

 

Since this has all external hangers I would bet there is no formal ballast or would hooks be good enough. My initial though is to add a bit either just in front or in back of the front hook hanger.

 

this is the shape so far the bottom may need to be a bit "rounder" but I have this shape on the printer to make sure I have the scale right.

[mark poulson]

I think you're right.  Between the metal bill with screws, and the hooks and hook hangers with screws, that looks like all the ballast on that lure.

I really like the two color paint job, and the "textured" paint.

Really neat.

Edited May 14, 2022 by mark poulson

[aulrich]

A little further down the design road, there we straight lipped and concaved lipped versions. Because I am crazy I picked concaved, it only took 4 hours and 3 YouTube videos. I had the ballast in front of the hook hanger but for some reason it looked wrong so I put it under the center of mass. 

I don't think I will try for the textured look since one pike will likely take most of it off.

As for the tail I am going to use a zonker strip (a strip of rabbit fur for pike flies). I will just mount a stud to try the strip to.

 Now to figure out how to model the eyes and ears 

The lip looks beefy but it is only 2mm thick at some point I need to figure out how thin I can get away with with a printed lip. 

[Travis]

Looking pretty good.  I haven't printed any additional lures but been designing odds and ends.  Sure gets easier the more you mess with the software but still find myself watching a videos too often.  

 

[aulrich]

I hear you, today I finally figured out how to move a feature like a ballast hole and not break the time line.  

I also took the time to go back to a video and finally model a lip halfway correctly. The last half is shaping them so they cut through the water like a thin lip but are strong like a thick lip, I also want them to be shaped so they self align when you install them.

 

[aulrich]

It passed the tub test with luckI have rabbit strip in my fly tying stuff.  A lake test later this week if the weather agrees.

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by aulrich

[Flaswimbaiter]

The eyes look like plastic dolls eyes which I use for my baits. I paint mine the color I want or black the out. I get them from Aliexpress.

[aulrich]

the eye on the manatee is the look I want. I think I might add a little now with mono whiskers too  

[Nathan]

You may want to cut the fur off your zonker strip..all but the last quarter inch or so..Nathan

[aulrich]

That is a good thought, I was thinking there may be a bit too much drag s much as I like the flowy nature of a zonker strip.

Too much kitchen renos the last two weeks and not enough fishing.