Frogging

[poorboy]

All this discussion about 22 shotshells has got me thinking about all the nights I spent shooting frogs. The crimped ones did shoot harder but were harder to extract from the little 4in smith that I used. I sure am craving a plate of frog legs.

These were some of the best nights of my life. That goes to show what kind of life I have had so far. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] You must be a redneck if you take your future wife frogging. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I figured if she didn't mind carrying the dead frogs she was a keeper. I am not sure if my standards were way high or way low, but over the past 12 years and 2 sons later I feel I was right on target. After all I did carry the frogs for my dad, I wonder if my sons will enjoy the same things a little later on.

Enough rambling, must be the snow!
Patrick

[LazyJ_Arabians]

Frogging is mine/son's favorite sport also. Never got my wife interested, but she did spend her honeymoon with me at a trout resort. Illegal to shoot frogs here so we use gigs and probably would anyway for the sport of it. I keep a huge ancient aluminum square-stern canoe just for the purpose. It can carry me and my other frog buddy, both our teenage sons, and my 15 horse outboard. Works well because you can "shoot" it way back into brush, get the frog, grapple your way back out, then scream and cuss while the kids bale out all the water moccasins that fell in the boat. Makes for a great overnight outdoors adventure topped off by eggs 'n legs for breakfast.

[Al_Wa]

<font color="blue"> bale out all the water moccasins that fell in the boat</font color> [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

Whoa, I would have bailed ( me not the water) We caught the frogs with long bamboo poles and a little hunk of yarn. Frogs are really agressive. Great fun and fine eating.

[Bird]

I was grown before I heard of frog gigging, and I've also read of using yarn, fish hook, and pole, but we never hunted frogs at night, never used a gig, never used the rat shot, but Dad &amp; I sure did shoot a lot of them with ordinary .22 ammo in the daytime. And I still think frog legs are mighty good eatin'.

[Pat]

Bird, You are a tad late to try to convince us you led a sheltered childhood.

I didn't get serious into bringing home bullfrogs for food until I was 12. I wasn't a picky eater but was selective and had totally unreasonable phobias. I didn't eat a frog leg untill I was in my mid 20's and didn't eat liver (on purpose...curse that giblet gravy!) till I was in the USAF (they didn't offer alternatives on liver day) but back to frogs. Mostly I shot them with .22 short hollowpoints in the daytime by slowly walking the banks of farm ponds. A few times my dad took me, several times my aunt (his sister the biology teeacher) took me. My aunt, uncle, and parents loved them, but I ate chicken or whatever. I harvested huge quantities of them. When my aunt went she was the retriever. I would shoot them from the side usually and although they were dispatched virtualy instantly they often made that one last reflexive jump. So... we carried a telescopic fishing pole with a treble hook to retrieve them. In all, I have probably shot a pickup load of them.

One time several of the big bulls had really distended bellies and my aunt the bio teacher and my mom were curious so they didn't just clean the frogs, they examined the contents of their guts. Well, it turned out to be a BAD idea. They cut open a few and out came snakes from 8 to 18 inches long. These frogs had been gorging themselves on snakes. The sight of all those snakes in various degrees of being digested was sort of upsetting. For a while after that mom or my aunt would nearly get sick if you said frog. They got over it in time and frog consumption went back up.

One of the best fly casts and presentations I ever made as a school child got me a big frog.

I have gigged frogs but shooting them with a bow by flashlight with a line on the barbed arrow was probably the most demanding, skill wise.

We now have 10 ponds (#10 is only a week old and only full to maybe 3% capacity) on our place and get to hear bullfrogs in season but there are not nearly enough to warrant harvesting. I would sure rather listen to the last few than eat them. (Like with our declined Bob White quail population. I have enough to listen to but not hunt.)

I am worried regarding the precipitous world wide decline in frog populations. And now with the coming invasion of hybrid fire ants, I fear for their survival here. Fire ants have been documented to kill and eat turtles.

If electricity wasn't so expensive, I'd be tempted to string some lights down low over a pond to attract flying insects low enough to the water for natural frog food.

Patrick

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
that one last reflexive jump

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, they'd sure do that sometimes. Dad said if you aimed right and broke their back bone, that wouldn't happen, so that's where we tried to aim. And I guess you've found that little black (nerve?) running down the leg that can cause them to quiver or jump a little even after the leg is skinned and removed. First time Mother had that happen, she refused to cook them for awhile until Dad &amp; I convinced her that we'd removed that from all of them.

I may have told you before, but quite a few years ago, I had to go to Detroit on business and we ate in what we were told was one of Detroit's better seafood restaurants. I noticed that the menu had frog legs, so I asked the waiter, "How many frog legs are on that dinner?" He said, "I think it's 10 pair." I said, " Ten pair?!! He said, "I think that's right, but I can ask the chef." I said, "Never mind, just bring me that." He was right; 10 pair of little frog legs still attached at the pelvis. Now I'd eaten lots of bullfrog legs, but I didn't know anyone killed the babies, and of course, I still don't know what kind of frogs they were but they were delicious and 10 pair made a real nice meal.

[Stoneheartfarm]

Bird,

I've tried frog legs several times, and they've always been pretty good sized. They also always seemed a little bit tough, with not much flavor. Looks like you must have gotten the last of the good frog legs. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Steve

[Bird]

Like anything else, Steve; some better than others. I haven't had many frog legs recently, but I once stopped for dinner in Kentucky and got a pair of really big, pretty frog legs than I was really disappointed in; too much breading, poor flavor, and tough. I don't know for sure what the problem was, but suspect it was because they had been cooked too long ago and kept warm too long.

[LazyJ_Arabians]

My dad had a hilarious method of hunting frogs. He rigged a 14' doubled 2x6 with a boat seat on one end and he'd put it across his truck bed and tuck the other end under the bedrail. Driving down swampy country roads one of us kids rode out on the frog seat with a gig while the rest rode in the truckbed scanning for frogs in the ditches. If you got bounced off or missed a frog you forfeited the seat to the next rider. Dad and my uncle would be laughing their heads off in the cab drinking beer and trying to hit every pothole. Dad! MAILBOX!!

[Pat]

Bird, I didn't go into the details but since you oppened the door (thanks!) I'll mention that I usualy shot them from the side and aimed below the hump to take out the spine. Many of them made quite a leap anyway. I know the nerves you mention. Galvan experimented with frogs you know... Passing electric current through them and making them twitch after they were killed. (Galvan is the guy whose name was attached to Galvanic action, Galvanize, etc. Often times they did more than just make one last big leap. Many of them made on last big Pee during that last big leap. I know you knew but was too much the gentleman to mention anything so indelicate.

Really fresh frog legs and some fish have been known to have muscle spasms when placed in hot oil resulting is splashing hot oil out on the unwary.

There used to be a chain eatery named Anchor Inn, an all you can place that went out of business. They served frog legs of medium size. They had an all you can special on lobster once that was reminiscent of your 10 pair of frog legs experience. The lobster, tails only, were breaded and deep fried. Most of the lobster tails were smaller than good eating sized crawdad (crayfish) tails and had more breading than meat. A couple friends and one of their brothers and I peeled off the breading and reordered untill we were stuffed. Took a while. Only time I ever had "popcorn" lobster.

Patrick