Thank you. Need frogging help.

[filletedalive]

After months of attempting to log in, a single email to our moderators and I was able to log in. Thank you. <br />
This is the most informative fishing forum Utah has. Thanks to the members and followers that provide up to the minute information and advice for the best experience. <br />
I'm looking for some frogging spots. My kids (me) asked if are frogs are tasty. It's been years since I had them. I am hoping for some tips on ponds or lakes that carry some frogs and how to get them.

[Uplandman]

After months of attempting to log in, a single email to our moderators and I was able to log in. Thank you. <br />
This is the most informative fishing forum Utah has. Thanks to the members and followers that provide up to the minute information and advice for the best experience. <br />
I'm looking for some frogging spots. My kids (me) asked if are frogs are tasty. It's been years since I had them. I am hoping for some tips on ponds or lakes that carry some frogs and how to get them.

One place I know that has legitimately thousands of frogs is Hobbs resivour in layton I don't know if you are allowed to harvest them or not or if they would be any good eating but there are maybe millions of huge bullfrogs there. In the spring when the water is in the trees they are hard to spot out and you need a canoe or paddle board to get to them but me and my brother catch them for fun while we fish for bass there. We use artificial frogs and if you can cast it accurately enough to get it right next to them they will eat frog every time. You could clean house doing this.

[Anglinarcher]

Ya, I don't have a clue if frogging is even legal in Utah.  It is best to call the Division of Wildlife Resourses.  https://wildlife.utah.gov/ 

Notice that frogging is not even listed in the fishing or hunting regulations at all.

Most, if not all, of our Native Frogs are listed as sensitive (not quite threatened).  The Bullfrog is not on that list and is not native, but many people do not even know the difference between our native frogs and the Bullfrog. 

If frogging for Bullfrog is legal, the leggs are fantastic eating (don't overcook or they get chewey).  It is also a great way to slow down their expansion.  IF legal, I totally support catching and eating as many as you can.

[FishfulThinkin]

After months of attempting to log in, a single email to our moderators and I was able to log in. Thank you. <br />
This is the most informative fishing forum Utah has. Thanks to the members and followers that provide up to the minute information and advice for the best experience. <br />
I'm looking for some frogging spots. My kids (me) asked if are frogs are tasty. It's been years since I had them. I am hoping for some tips on ponds or lakes that carry some frogs and how to get them.

Here's an article from the DWR website about frogging in Utah. Bullfrogs are an invasive species and are unprotected so no seasons or limits apply. 

https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-...frogs.html

[Boatloadakids]

Ah man, your post brought back so many fond memories of my childhood. Growing up in Spring Lake most of my time during my single digit years was spent on the mountain behind my home, fishing, and hunting frogs. It was a life todays youth will never know because most of them can't do much more than walk around with a cell phone stuck in their ear. Even the thought of wallowing around in the swanps hunting frogs is abhorent to them. Sad.

We hunted the common leopard frog which was abundant at the time. Don't see meny of them anymore but the bellowing bull frog is easily found today. We hunted them with "flippers", a BB gun, or just a 3-4 foot stick. It was easy to catch them by dangling a fly in front of them from a fishing pole but "the hunt" was always the best way to get them in numbers. 

When I tell my grandkids I ate frogs when I was their age all I get is the common aaauck! and disbelief. Times long gone.

And then there was the guy visiting a cafe in the South who asked the waitress if she had fron legs. "Yes" "Well hop over there and grill me up a cheese burger." 
He survivied but it was touch-and-go for awhile.

Welcome back to BFT and good luck on your frog hunt.

BLK

[filletedalive]

Great tips. There were some articles last year from the dnr  that bull frogs are encouraged to be harvested. We are in NSL, I will check with Layton to find if public harvesting is allowed. I really don't see very many of them while out at various lakes but I have never really been looking for them. But a catfish fry with Cajun frog legs sounds pretty good. Or maybe I'm becoming more delusional the longer I'm stuck inside. Thanks again.

[Anglinarcher]

After months of attempting to log in, a single email to our moderators and I was able to log in. Thank you. <br />
This is the most informative fishing forum Utah has. Thanks to the members and followers that provide up to the minute information and advice for the best experience. <br />
I'm looking for some frogging spots. My kids (me) asked if are frogs are tasty. It's been years since I had them. I am hoping for some tips on ponds or lakes that carry some frogs and how to get them.

Here's an article from the DWR website about frogging in Utah. Bullfrogs are an invasive species and are unprotected so no seasons or limits apply. 

https://wildlife.utah.gov/news/wildlife-...frogs.html

Nice find, very nice find.

[Fritzfishin]

ive done ALOT of frog giggin here in utah! they taste amazing! jordan river holds pockets of large bullfrogs, as well as mantua in the summer! ive caught them on artificals as mentioned above but stealth with a gig is my prefered method!! 

[catchinon]

Lynn mentioned his childhood memories and it got me to thinking. When I was a little kid we lived on a dryland farm in the 4-Corners area. There was a small pond that had been built by the Anasazi and improved by the pioneers. It drained a large area of caprock and would be full in the spring. It would go dry sometimes in the late summer but the frogs would always be there the next spring. We bent straight pins and tied them to yarn and the yarn to a willow. We would "bait" with a little piece of red cloth. Dangle it in front of a frog and it would snarf it up. Sorta like fly fishing for frogs. We did try our fishing rods with baitholder hooks that we used to catch mountain trout. But the barbs made it hard to get the frogs off and it was strictly catch and release. We preferred the barbless pins. 

One time we went to a bigger pond on my grandfather's west forty. The whole family went along and we had a frog-leg fry over a campfire. They were delicious, and yes, they tasted like chicken.

When we moved to irrigated country when I was in fifth grade we had a pond and a big irrigation ditch with plenty of frogs. I graduated to hunting them then. I still remember the copper glint of the BB as it flew through the bright sun toward it's target. I had to aim low and to the left, so I could clearly see the frog as it floated on the surface of the pond or rested on the bank of the ditch. One time I took one of my victims home and put it in my underwear drawer (why did we do dumb things like that when we were young?). Anyway, the next time I opened the drawer the frog had come back to life! That was just about the last time I engaged in senseless killing like that.

[dubob]

My cousins and I used to cut the top off the cardboard, wax coated half-gallon milk cartons, cut two slots on on side for out belts to go through, and head for the weedy areas of Grandma's lake with BB guns in hand.  We kill and gather them up until all three of us had a full milk carton.  Then back to Grandma's to cut off and skin the legs.  Grandma would then fry them up in some butter and we would chow down until they were all gone.  Them was some grand days I tell ya.  

On those rare occasions when I visit an upscale restaurant and see them on the menu (y'all ain't gonna find 'em on the menu at Micky Dees), I definitely order them up for dinner - even if I was thinking steak going in.  They ARE that good folks.  But then, I also LOVE snails (escargot).  Good luck on the frog hunt.  

PS: I've been told by a restaurant manager that most commercial frog legs served in restaurants are an African variety because that variety has larger legs.

[MWScott72]

I used to hunt bullfrogs in OK during the summer and early fall.  We had a couple spots in the marsh where my dad built a few duck blinds, and they needed maintenance every year.  While he would fix and brush them up, my little brother and I would grab BB guns and go wade thru the swamp searching for them.  Only problem with a BB gun is that even with a head shot, they would often dive and you wouldn't see them again.  Wish I'd known how easy they were to catch with a standard fishing pole - we would have came home with a whole lot more.  And they are good eats!!!

[Kent]

Ah man, your post brought back so many fond memories of my childhood. Growing up in Spring Lake most of my time during my single digit years was spent on the mountain behind my home, fishing, and hunting frogs. It was a life todays youth will never know because most of them can't do much more than walk around with a cell phone stuck in their ear. Even the thought of wallowing around in the swanps hunting frogs is abhorent to them. Sad.

We hunted the common leopard frog which was abundant at the time. Don't see meny of them anymore but the bellowing bull frog is easily found today. We hunted them with "flippers", a BB gun, or just a 3-4 foot stick. It was easy to catch them by dangling a fly in front of them from a fishing pole but "the hunt" was always the best way to get them in numbers. 

I grew up riding my bike to Spring Lake and often fishing with the Mikesell boys, of my age and a couple years younger.  They would often fish with live frogs, right where the water runs out of Spring Lake.  They would cast a frog out weightless out near the bull rushes and wait.  It wouldn't be long before a largemouth bass would slurp up that frog and then it was fish on.  I didn't know where to catch any frogs, but I thought that live mice would work.  I set up a trap in a chicken coop, but fortunately (I would have probably either been bitten or scratched had we caught any.) was unsuccesful in catching any live mice.  Those were the good-old-days.

[fast_randy]

Wow, I used to swim at Hobbs. I learned to love frog legs and catfish at the same time back in the 1970's in Texas. My friend was training race horses down there, and I had to go there for training several times because of my job. The ranch he worked on had several tanks,  we would call them ponds, full of catfish and bullfrogs. Giggin at night is a ball. They are great eating and hop around in the fry pan as you cook them.

[CrayDad]

Years ago my youngest found a ton of frogs down at Palie Lake (August-ish). Hope that helps

[Boatloadakids]

Kent-- Those were good times indeed! All five of those Mikesell boys were good lookin' kids. I think I have mentioned to you before that they had a knock-out older sister and I have been courting for the past 53 years. She has aged a bit but she is still a beaity to me. I, on the other hand, have retained my youthful good looks.

[Bduck]

There was the time I spent gigging big bullfrogs back east in Alabama. Also remember the Calaveras County Fair in Angels Camp California and the famed frog jumps. I've attended this event in the early 60's again later in mid 70's.

https://www.gocalaveras.com/travel-direc...g-jubilee/