If there were a frog gigging tournament series back in the sixties, my dad Fred Clayton of Red River County, Texas would have been the Bill Dance of the gigging world! I remember vividly standing behind him on a remote pond bank shining that big four cell silver flashlight into the eyes of a hapless bull frog. Dad with gigging pole in hand, poised like a great blue heron, ever so slowly eased the gig within striking range of what would soon become the centerpiece of some of the best eating in freshwater.
So many folks today have never eaten fresh frog legs dusted with flour and deep fried in hot lard until they were a golden brown and fork tender. I’ve eaten frog legs at some very fine seafood restaurants but the frozen ‘legs’ they prepare are tasty are no comparison to those freshly caught and cooked!
There are several methods of procuring your fresh frog legs from the wild but the most popular is gigging or spearing them with a gig mounted on a light weight but strong pole. There are two basic type gigs used; the ‘grab’ gig which cocks open and is spring loaded and the prong gig comprised of three of four sharp points. My dad used the grab gig and this is the only method I knew about until I was well into my teens. Position of the gig when striking the frog is very important. The trick is to strike the frog in the back so that the sides of the gig clamp tightly together and holds the frog. It’s possible to catch the frog by the head but not nearly as efficient as a good body catch. A bit of knowledge of frog anatomy is necessary regardless the type gig one uses. When ‘shining’ frogs at night, which is by far the best time to go after them, only their eyes and top of head are visible above waterline but after a bit of practice, it’s easy to determine when the critter’s body position underwater by the angle of the head. This sounds a bit technical I know but it really isn’t, bit of practice and most beginner froggers quickly become proficient.
The prong gig is basically a spear with several very sharp prongs. Body position of the frog is still important when plunging the spear but not as important as with a grab gig. Most gigging is done very close to the bank or sometimes on the bank close to the water. The trick with a prong gig is to pin the frog to the ground before attempting to remove him from the gig. When gigging in water much over a foot deep, the grab gig is obviously more efficient, the tension of the spring loaded jaws usually grip the frog tightly and he seldom gets away. Keeping the light focused on the frog is key to getting within gigging range. I remember my dad instructing me to “keep that light on the frog, boy”! On the occasion when I moved the light from the frog to the ground, I was quickly reminded of the task at hand!
There was very little deviation from the way I was trained to gig frogs. Ole dad had a system that worked and he stuck to it. When I grew up and moved away from home, I carried my love of gigging and eating frogs with me. When I moved to the suburbs as a young man with a growing family, I found the ponds close to town loaded with uneducated frogs. My new friends were often reluctant to go out with me for an evening ‘gig’ but they usually got caught up in the excitement and once I fed them some of the fruits of our harvest, they became serious froggers!
I later learned there was more than one way to put frogs in the croaker sack! While in my early twenties, one of my neighbors was from Arkansas and he grew up catching and eating frogs, just like me but using a far different method. He used a boat paddle instead of a gig! When he first told me about his system, I thought he was joking but after our first outing, I learned there was more than one way to put frogs in the skillet! We used a joh boat and after shining a frog, paddled quietly within a few feet, raised the boat paddle and came down, hard on Mr. Froggie. Just has my friend had said, the frog simply sprawled out the water surface and was promptly put in the bag!
I later learned that frogs have a weakness for a Texas rigged worm slowly twitched in front of their nose! My long time friend the late Bob Hood who enjoyed a long career writing about the outdoors and I were fishing a 10 acre pond near the Trinity River in Texas many years ago. Bass fishing was great on Texas rigged worms and Bob spotted a bullfrog setting within inches of the water. “Want some frog legs to go with our fish dinner, Luke”? Bob asked. He tossed the worm up on the bank a few feet about the frog and as soon as the soft plastic was within pouncing distance, the jumbo size frog made a leap, landing square on the worm and engulfed it. Bob was then solidly hooked to a critter that made catching a bass seem boring! That frog jumped up on the bank then back into the water and made a couple of dives. My buddy soon had him in the boat and for the next couple hours, we both abandoned our quest for largemouth and proceeded to boat several big bullfrogs which were later the centerpiece for a frog leg/bass dinner fit for a couple of kings!
Don’t think for a moment that only the legs of a bullfrog are edible. My dad always skinned the frogs from the head down and removed the back. The flavor of the meat is exactly the same as the legs, there is no ‘dark meat’ on any part of a frog, and it’s all delicate white meat.
On one evening outing dad and I had a banner night our croaker sack was half full of frogs. My dad placed the bag in an ice cooler but forgot to close the lid. The cooler was put in our little outbuilding/tool shed with a dirt floor. The plan was to get some sleep and skin the frogs in the morning. The next day when we opened the door to the shed to retrieve our frogs and begin butchering them, the sack was on the floor, empty and there was not a sign of a frog anywhere. The little shed was tight but did have a dirt floor. To this day, we wondered what might have stolen our frogs. There was no sign of a raccoon or other critter entering the building. Later we decided it had to be a snake or snakes that made away with what was to be a huge frog leg feed that evening.
In recent years, I have used my .25 caliber PCP air rifle to shoot frogs I spotted on the bank but avoid shooting them in the water for safety reasons. I’m sure if my dad was around to read this he would probably be reminding me gigging is the only accepted method of harvesting a frog dinner and… ‘to keep that light on the frog”!
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