Frog fishing

[tjm]

6-7"? or bigger?

[Quillback]

My only frogging experience was going with my grandad and one of his buddies gigging them at night in a SE MO drainage ditch.  Carbide headlamps, and they'd scan the shore looking for their eyes then stick them.  They had a fish basket full of frogs when we left.  I was too young to use one of those gigs, but it was fun to go and something I still remember 50+ years later.

[Dutch]

Well since this has long ago gone south, frogging for those green jumpers was always done with a 22 rifle.  Shoot them from across the pond in the throat so they flop backwards onto the bank.  No rags or fairy wands needed and no hooks to remove.

[fshndoug]

Shot them and caught them, had a blast frogging as a kid.

[tjm]

3 hours ago, Dutch said:

Well since this has long ago gone south, frogging for those green jumpers was always done with a 22 rifle.  Shoot them from across the pond in the throat so they flop backwards onto the bank.  No rags or fairy wands needed and no hooks to remove.

Did that too, but rags were cheaper and reusable, .22 was mostly reserved for mammals

[willyfish]

Wow this went sideways! I just wanted to know what braid you guys liked. 😀

[Champ188]

11 hours ago, willyfish said:

Wow this went sideways! I just wanted to know what braid you guys liked. 😀

Hey Willy, I like the 65-pound PowerPro braid for frogging. I remove the pitchfork from the end of my gigging pole and tie the braid into a slip-knot noose, then carefully reach out with my pole and encircle the frog's neck with the noose. Meanwhile, Donna dangles a can of Bud Light on another pole in front of the frog and when he reaches out for the beer, I yank upward and snare him around the neck. Don't try this with any of those "craft" beers though ... these frogs are only interested in BUD-WISE-ERRRR. 

 

[Flysmallie]

22 hours ago, Dutch said:

Well since this has long ago gone south, frogging for those green jumpers was always done with a 22 rifle.  Shoot them from across the pond in the throat so they flop backwards onto the bank.  No rags or fairy wands needed and no hooks to remove.

My mom’s stepdad was closest to being my real grandad. He took me everywhere. He had also been an Army Ranger in Korea so you did as you were told. All us kids called him Sarge. Like I said he took me everywhere. Sometimes that was camping trips to Texoma, but other times you would find yourself wading through moss in an old muddy farm pond hunting frogs. He also shot them with a 22. I wasn’t allowed to shoot any because I had other jobs. Watch for snakes and beavers. I don’t know if that was really a job but I was doing it! I was also the frog retriever. And I held the spotlight. PERFECTLY STILL, hopefully. At 10-14 years old it was a terrifying experience in the dark. I should write a book about all the BS that old guy made me do.  

[nomolites]

I started with a recurve bow…riding bikes to the ponds and creeks and stalking the banks in daylight.  They didn’t go anywhere once hit but you had to be stealthy or they were gone.  Graduated to a .22 Benjamin and  the .22lr and gig later depending on circumstances.  Not near the opportunity there once was.  Love me some frog legs.

Mike

[Carl1969]

The summer I was 13 or 14, I had a Marlin .22 with a 4x scope & my grandfather's ponds had a crowd of big black bullfrogs. Big ol' mothers. Upon dressing them out, a few had BBs under their skin from my Crosman pellet gun from the previous summer. I'd lay on the dam, imagining myself a sniper & zap 'em from across the pond. Big pile of froglegs that year, but I've never seen that size or number of bullfrogs since.