Sir Toadie's Cricket jigs.

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Trick or Treat. Well it was a Treat to open my mail box
yesterday. Holy Cow what did I find ? A package from Sir Toadie. Man I could hardly wait untill I got back in the house. I had a good idea what was inside the enevlop.
Much to my surprise there was more than I deserved to get. 2 packs of crickets and 1 pack of little frogs. Oh hot dog it's 82 degrees outside and I got new plastics to test.
As I grabed my fishing gear I hear this voice from the kitchen, Where are you going ?

My responce was something like. I just got a surprise from Toadfrog, I'm going to the river.

Not so fast came her responce, did you forget you have somewhere to be in 45 mins.

I responded what ever it is, it can wait till tomorrow. Boy was that the wrong answer.

My wife was very unkind as she reminded me it was halloween. I was signed up to work
the cotton candy machine at the harvest fest at our church.
She reminded me how much I had been telling all my sunday school kids to make sure to
stop by and visit me for an extra large cotton candy. Man she was right I hate say it
but fishing was going to have to wait.

So I went to bed with visions of fishies swimming in my head. Only to wake up this morning to
a storm comming in. Where did all my nice warm weather go ?
The wind is blowing so hard my plum tree no longer has any leaves, the high today is going to be 53 degrees. with rain starting tonigh through the next 3 days.
I not complaining about the rain,
I just wish it would of held of for a couple of more days.
the weatherman is saying next week is looking good, dry and in the mid to high 60 degree mark. So as soon as I get a chance I will be testing these new bugs.
and shall post a full report.

[toadfrog]

I will bet you a quarter that if you take them to a heated dock this winter you will still get crappie . And if you don't I'll pay the quarter and eat one of the crickets ,

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LOL.
They almost look good enough to eat.
notice I said almost.

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OK the bad weather passed thro, and I waited a couple of days for the water to settle.
I went to my favorite Gill honey hole this morning. Time to test my new cricket & frog plastic jigs.
so the following will be an account as to how everything went.

The water was as smooth as glass.
I used 2 poles both set up the same except each pole had a different cricket.
one pole had a solid color and the other had a 2 colored cricket.
I had each pole set with a size 8 hook 1 16th oz split shot and a float approx 18 inces from the hook.
I had each placed in the water about 2 foot apart. after 30 mins of nothing I changed my set up.
I removed the float and tryed fishing on the bottom. 30 mins. again nothing.

A Deputy Sherriff showed up we started talking, I told him I was a beta tester for the Sir Todie crickets
showed them to him, as well as some other nice jigs I have been blessed with.
He told me I should have been at my honey hole the day before yesterday.He said yesterday he
had arrested 3 men for several violations. None of them had a fishing lic. each of them had well over the limit
as well as undersize fish and no Id's. he said they quite possably fished this area out for a while.
We talked a little about O-F and he said he was going to join O-F. It sounded like a qulity web site with good people. Best of all he told me about his honey hole about 1/2 mile up river.

I found the spot he was telling me about it is a creek that feeds into the river,there is a tree that has fallen over accross the creek. He told me to go out about 1/2 way and the water was about 15 foot deep.
He said I should try to set my bait around 12 foot.

I set both rods up the same again, this time I used a slip float and a 1/32 oz jig hook.
first attempt I used a red worm one one hook and a live cricket on the other. I wanted to know if there were any fish at this spot. If were they feeding or not.
after about 3 mins. I hooked a small bluegill on the cricket. nothing on the red worm.

I now set each pole with the plastic crickets both with the same color
one pole I cast it out and allowed it to sit. The other pole I dropped stright down, and I would jig the bait
up & down about 10 inches to make the bait move.
I hooked a fish on the one I was jigging. I lost it before I got to see what it was.
So I reeled the other pole in and placed on a 2 color cricket and started jigging it
I caught a nice 11 inch crappie with in about 3 mins.

I switched back and forth between the solid and 2 colored baits and I got hits on each color.
it seemed each color works as well as the other. I caught several bulegills and 2 more nice little crappie

Then I switched to the little frog.
I tryed just casting it with just a hook in it and reeling it in.
I tryed casting it with a little weight on the line as well as using a float
and jig head. I did not get any hit on this jig. I will have to find another place to try these out,

So in closeing I must say if anyone has any doubts about using Sir Toadie's plastic crickets
Don't use them. this will leave more of them for me LOL
I highly recomend these crickets. they are an outstanding
bait. in a little over 90 mins. I caught at least 12 gills and 3 nice crappie.

[toadfrog]

Mix up some pure anise oil and WD40 equal parts . Rub it on with a q tip or soak the baits in it . DON'T let the warden Know . Some states it is no legal . OOPS might of already joined . My Bad

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LOL it is ok to use sent on your bait here in Ca.
I only used the oli that was on the baits when I got them.
I have some of the other baits you sent back in march I soaked them in wd-40