That is a mistake, because frogs are incredibly tasty and easy to get (with some practice). I tried to take some photos and even video last night and they turned out to be of such poor quality, to be unusable. So we will have to rely on some discussion of the subject.
My son and I spent a few hours picking up our legal limit in frogs last night. I did quick search to see if I had ever covered the subject in one of our blog pieces here and lo and behold…nope!
First things first, you do not need a gig to get frogs. If you can find a creek that you can wade into easily, grabbing frogs is fairly easy to do. A gig simply allows you the the ability to be farther away from the frog when you make contact with it. The key to catching or gigging frogs is to think like its predators and do not alarm it. Here are some simple tips:
- Come from the front of the frog if it all possible when grabbing or gigging, this limits its ability to move away from you. If it moves, it moves toward you.
- Take a good flashlight and shine it directly into the eyes of the frog. This will temporarily blind the frog so you can get close to it.
- If you are gigging or grabbing do so between the two sets of legs. These little guys are pretty slippery and you want to get hold of as much as you can without damaging the edible portions. Once you get good at it, then start gigging them directly in the head.
Please note you will need a good gig, and from my experience that simply does not exist. I have bought so many gig heads I cannot count and they have all failed me at some point.( So if you run a gig head making business and are reading this, send me one to review so you can prove me wrong. ). The reason for this is if you gig a frog in the middle of the water they will more often than not get off the gig. So make sure when you gig them, you gig them in such a way that you can then pin them to the bottom of the creek, pond etc. By so doing you will then be able to get to the frog and get it off the gig.
I think I have made it clear that I am not a fan of making animals suffer when hunting, fishing, etc. So when frog gigging if possible, I will immediately cut the legs off of them and discard the upper torso. If in a survival situation I would then save it. For regular eating there is so little meat on the upper torso it is cooks up to literally nothing. However, in a survival situation I would remove the entrails and the skin and eat the rest of the animal since the bony structure has a fair amount of nutrition in it.
Here are a few thoughts on processing and cleaning frogs. Please note that if you have never done this, it is not easy.
- I grab the frog by the hind legs and sever the spine on just beyond the pelvic girdle. If you have never done this there will be a small bump just beyond the back legs on the head side of spine. I always use an extremely sharp knife so that this part of the process is as quick and efficient as it possibly can be. When you do this you will have two legs that are still connected.
- Once that is done I place the legs in some sort of container. (On survival treks this has sometimes been a cargo pocket on my pants). I will then remove the skin when I have completed the trip.
- I grab between the legs with my non-dominant hand and grab the skin with a pair of pliers with my dominant hand. I then pull the skin off with the pliers down to the foot. I then cut the foot off with my knife and discard the skin and feet. (If time allows, I will utilize this portion as turtle bait.)
For eating:
- For survival, cook over a fire any way you can get it cooked. Roasted, boiled, on a rock on a stick, etc. Much like fish, make sure it is cooked through and through.
- For sustenance and good eating at home: Bread with your favorite breading fry in a skillet, or you can grill them on the grill…they cook up fairly fast.
