Frog gigging

[David LaPell]

I haven't been frog gigging since I was a little kid, going with my father when I was about 6-7 years old. I decided that I want to get back into it again, but to say that I am out of practice is an understatement. What we used to do was go on the banks of Lake Champlain with a spear and a light and get a bucket full since our frogs were not as big as the big bulls down south. Anyone still gig frogs and can pass along a few pointers.

 

[dmar]

Its been a long time...! Definitely was some fun when I was a kid. If I remember correctly, not much to it; a flashlight, a stick, and a bucket! You want to get them with the flashlight before you get too close...

 

[HAWKEYE10]

It has been years since I have gone frog gigging. My brother in law and his kids would go. We always brought back a good mess of frogs. The wife would fix them for breakfast with eggs home made biscuits, and milk gravy. We always went to farm ponds and used a wire gig on the end of a piece of thin wall conduit pipe. Don

 

[tops]

I never could use a gig so I would shoot them with a .22 short. I haven't been in years but it used to be fun and the legs were good. Larry

 

[CJ]

I never could use a gig so I would shoot them with a .22 short. I haven't been in years but it used to be fun and the legs were good. Larry

We used to do the same as kids. We got a lot more frogs with a gig and a 22 with head shots versus just a gig. Never had much luck with 22 shorts though. Always used 22LR and even those didn't kill all the frogs, maybe 2/3s of them, but it stunned them enough to fetch 'em with the gig. It was always odd to come home hours later the next morning and still finding lots of our frogs with a bullet hole in the head and still hopping around acting like a frog should.

 

[Fishslayer]

I can't really repeat what my late Grandpa had to say about frog giggers & frog shooters on this forum without Handejector rapping my knuckles & sitting me in the corner for a timeout.

We hunted them with a fishing rod & colorful streamer lure. My favorite was a red & white GoGetter, IIRC.

We also ate the backs & front legs. My Grandpa was of German descent & thought anything else would be wasteful. He told a lady once that when cleaning fish he left in the...ummm... "vent" so as not to waste a good mouthful of meat!

 

[G.T. Smith]

When I was a kid in the 50's there were gobs of bull frogs around just about every pond. We had 2 ponds and they were thick. I used to put a hook and sinker on to give it weight to cast, and put a small piece of anything red on the hook. I would cast it near the frog and barely wiggle it. They would almost always jump on it. Otherwise I would use a flashlight and a stick. I love frog leg gravy.
Around these parts, frogs have gone the way of the quail, as in scarce. What is even better than eating them is listening to them while you are going to sleep. That and whipporwills. or however it is spelt.
If there were a lot of frogs I would go every night that I could. My wife likes em too.
good luck, because with all the unemployment, it is hard to find a gig.
Peace,
Gordon

 

[cass]

In my area of Texas, most of the frogs have disappeared - it's probably been twenty years since I've heard a bull calling at night. I read a research paper not too long ago that proposes that the reason for the decline of frogs, and all amphibians and egg laying reptiles in general, is probably caused by air-borne pollution from jet exhaust. Some claimed the problem was due to fire ants or pollution run-off from farms/ranches. The study was conducted in those areas that the possibility of those factors were not possible. I believe it. Given the number of aircraft in the air at any one minute, plus the huge amount of exhaust gases the planes give off, the particles have to settle somewhere, and that somewhere is total ground saturation. Around my area, a frog jig would be a collectors item. Sad indeed.

 

[NKJ nut]

I haven't been in a while but I always enjoyed gigging frogs. Shooting them wasn't officially an option as it was illegal.

 

[Chubbs103]

When I was growing up, my neighbors had a 14' aluminum boat. Evenings in the late summer we would go up the creek setting lines for snapping turtles. Once it got dark, we would take the spot light and come back down the creek spot-lighting and gigging frogs.

Get back. Skin the frogs. Grab a little sleep. Go back up the creek collecting snapping turtles.

A can hardly come up with a better plan for the summer.

Chubbs

 

[medxam]

I had to give it up. My nerves were shot from all of the cotton-mouths that kept trying to crawl in the boat with us.

 

[kennyb]

10-4 on the cotton mouths...a girl i knew was bit by one as she retreived a frog

 

[Faulkner]

I have some buddies that live in Little Rock that have access to minnow ponds a few miles east of town. By minnow ponds, I mean this is a full fledge minnow farming operation with dozens of 5 acre ponds in rows.

These boys nail two 2x12's together and slide them under the rails of their pickup with the board sticking out on the drivers side. Then they screw on a swivel boat seat on the end. They drive down the banks of the minnow ponds with the fellow manning the gig sitting out on the boat seat on the end of the 2x12 hanging out over the water. One guy is in the back of the truck running the spotlight, a second guy in the back with a .22 rifle for killing snakes, and the last guy driving the truck.

The gig pole has a gig on both ends. One end has the standard three prong fork, the other has the spring loaded grabber. When the frogs are on solid ground you stick 'em, and when they're sitting on a lily pad you grab 'em. These guys think only sissies shoot frogs, and you're not considered a real man until you've caught at least one bare handed.

I've been out with these guys when we've taken 50 or 60 bullfrogs in less than a couple of hours. Oh, and I've taken 3 bare handed . . . and it'll cause your bowels to turn loose the first time you do it.

 

[Indiana George]

The best frog leg pointer I ever received:

NEVER, ever fry them: Ruins their delicate flavor.

Instead, sautee them in clarified butter and a semi dry white wine.

YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[charlie sherrill]

Several seafood restaurants around here have frog legs on the menu. I ate some last Sunday after the Jackson, Ms. gunshow. They're now farm raised and not as good as the ones we used to gig at night on the creek that ran through Hattiesburg, Ms. but they're still good. I got a deal on some Brazilian raised frog legs a few months ago. They were huge. It didn't take many to fill you up. I knew an old guy a few years ago that raised frogs in his house. He's no longer with us. I used to buy frog legs from him and he always wanted you to sit and talk for awhile before you left. It was pretty noisy in his house with all the frogs croaking. He raised them in tubs similar to what you would use to water livestock. One of his main topics of conversation was why his wife left him. They're seasonal, but I can still buy a 5 lb. box of them for under $20.00 when they have them. They go good with gator tail, shrimp, oysters, fish, and beer.

 

[27145]

I sure am glad I joined this site, before today I never heard of frog gigging. I guess that is what happens when you live most of your life in NYC.

If the SHTF, you guy's will be just fine, I will "croak".

 

[Gutpile Charlie]

I haven't done it in over thirty years.

Back in the day, I belonged to a golf course that had a couple of ponds. I played a little bit of golf, but went to the ponds multiple times a week to fish for bass.

The ponds also had a lot of bull frogs.

A young man, that had been a former student, had flat bottom boat and would call me and we would go there at night.

Always used a flashlight, tried to spot the frogs at a distance and then moved directly on to them. Used a gig on the end of a pole. I really like operating the boat as opposed to the actually gigging.

We would always get a big mess and loved to eat the legs. (In case you haven't already found out, outside of the legs, there is really nothing else left to eat on a frog!)

I really enjoyed those summer nights on those ponds.

 

[Bailey Boat]

Maybe I'm strange but I went last weekend, collected 16 fair sized specimens and 4 whoppers. That made a good meal for my wife and I when combined with a little rice and a few hushpuppies.
I can't find anyone to go with me that's not afraid of the dark and what "might be out there"..... So I just go by myself and enjoy the chase, the catch and sometimes just sitting on the lake, in the dark, listening to the night sounds.... Relaxing to say the least.....

PS: George is correct about the preferred method of cooking.....

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Y'all can eat the legs-I'll eat all the backs