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The American Bullfrog - Part Three

by Keith A. Williams

Bullfrogs are nutritious and are often hunted for their delicious, white meat. This is not necessarily easy, because they have very good vision in low light and can sense vibrations near them. There are many options that work pretty well as far as methods for hunting Bullfrogs for food. Some prefer to shoot them with a .22 rifle, but I tend to view this is a pretty wasteful expenditure of ammunition. Also, because Bullfrogs are best hunted at night, I don’t endorse the idea of shooting along a river or creek bank in the dark. One can use a blowgun to shoot and pin them to the ground, as is done with wharf rats, but with the frogs’ exceptionally strong legs a misplaced shot is likely to see then pull the dart from the ground and head straight for the water. When that happens, not do you not get the frog, but also have one less dart to show for your efforts.

A long pole with a multi-pronged gig is often the preferred method of choice when hunting them from an airboat, since the seats are usually higher above the water, and this enables the frogger to harvest them without unnecessary movement. A catch bag is often used with the gig. This is a bag with a long, skinny throat that is held open by a stiff wire hoop. After gigging the frogs, you simply scrape them off the gig with the inside of the hoop and the frog falls down to the bottom of the “chute” and then have difficulty escaping from below. A variant of this for the squeamish is a spring-loaded grabber that sits in place of the gig. I don’t like these, as they must be re-cocked by hand before each use, and so adds another step in the operation. Also, it doesn’t really benefit someone from getting their hands dirty, as the frog must still be removed by hand from the claw. Frogging is a pretty messy endeavor and in my humble opinion, is not really ideal for the faint of heart to begin with.

Another trick that works quite well is to dangle a red dry fly, lure, or small piece of material in front of them on a piece of fishing line. More often than not, they will readily attack it and are just pulled in for supper. Yet another option is to use steel whip radio antennae with a wooden dowel for a handle. With this, the frogger stalks within range and then just smacks them senseless with the deceptively fast weapon. For those less handy, a flexible sapling will work pretty well for this as well. I have a Sjambok that I think would work really well for this role, but then again, the sapling is free. At any rate, I think that this method is best suited for hunting frogs without a boat, since it is more difficult to approach them without some noise to give you away.

Whenever possible however, I prefer the simplest of all methods, in which you just idle along in a boat with a little patience and a keen eye. A bright light directed into the frog’s eyes momentarily causes them to pause and they will tend to remain motionless unless some motion or noise is detected. If this happens, they will attempt to dive into the water where they feel the safest. With this in mind the idea is to ease alongside them and reach or jump out and grab them by hand. This is a pretty straight forward process that is not only effective, but is also so much fun that in the days of yesteryear, it was one of the preferred ways for a young boy to spend a Friday night and still stay out of trouble.

Perhaps with a little luck and maybe a greater awareness on the part of their human counterparts, there will still be an abundance of these fine creatures for the next generation of upcoming woodsmen to enjoy them as well.


ON TO PART 4 - The American Bullfrog

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