Frog Hunters

My dad and his friend Gene were returning from a successful nighttime frog-gigging trip when Dad’s truck’s headlights went out. Looking all over, they could not find a fuse. Lucky for them, they found a .22 caliber bullet that fit perfectly into the fuse box. The headlights came on.

After traveling approximately 20 miles and just before crossing a bridge, the bullet overheated. Unlucky for them, it discharged and struck Dad in the right testicle. The truck swerved and hit a tree. Dad suffered minor cuts but did require surgery to repair the other wound. Gene suffered a broken rib and was treated and released.

Gene told everyone, “Thank God we weren’t on that bridge when he shot his intimate parts off, or we might have died.” When Mom found out about the wreck, instead of asking about poor Dad and where she could see him, she asked, “Where are the frog legs? I need to get them in the refrigerator.”

Now, it’s a good thing I was already born when this happened, or I wouldn’t have been here to try gigging frogs for myself. In my teenage years, every boy learned how to gig frogs, cut their legs off, and bring them home for their mom to fry up for the whole family. Of course, we were poor back then, so Mom was good at frying up about anything I brought home, but she dearly loved frog legs.

It was a warm summer day. My friend Frankie and I decided it was time for us to be real men and hunt frogs. We found an old burlap sack to put the frogs in so we wouldn’t have to put wiggling, bloody frogs in our jeans pockets.

Dad let us use his frog gigs since he had not gone frog hunting for years. I guess it was hard for him to gig frogs with one testicle. Mom was very excited at the possibility of Frankie and me getting a bunch of giant bullfrogs so she could fry up frog legs again.

Dad also let us use his flashlight and gave us some tips and advice since we knew nothing about this great sport. One of the first things he said was to be alert for snakes. He assured us that snakes found at a pond were usually harmless, but a water moccasin snake, which is poisonous, could be visiting the pond.

Frankie and I thought about that a lot as we walked to the pond where we had permission to hunt frogs. Some people may think there is not much excitement when hunting frogs. That’s not true. Walking into a spider web in the dark can cause anybody’s heart to start beating really fast. When you realize you have walked into a spider web, you start wondering where the spider is and screams escape from your mouth.

We knew there were cattle in some of the fields, but we didn’t know which ones. Typically, cows are gentle animals. However, cows are curious, and for their size, it’s amazing how quietly they can walk up to you in the dark.

Your heart can start beating very fast when you turn and see glowing eyes about four or five feet above the ground staring at you. It gets more exciting when you realize the eyes belong to a 1,500-pound cow that could quickly decide it didn’t like you.

Thankfully there were no cows in the field on the way to the pond, but another danger is stepping into a fresh cow pie when walking in the dark. When you step into a fresh one, you can slip and fall. You do not smell very good when covered with cow pies.

When you step into a hole or small ditch, slip in the mud, walk into a low-hanging branch, or trip on a stick, it can get your heart beating fast too. All this can be very disruptive to the frog hunt. Any of these exciting activities often cause a person to yell, curse, or both. Frogs are not used to hearing these types of sounds around a pond. When they do, they jump into the water where it is hard to gig them.

Dad’s flashlight was good for spotting the light reflecting off the frog’s eyes or any other animal’s eyes the light found. A frog will freeze when light is shined in its eyes. That enables the hunter to get close to the frog before spearing the frog. It does become tricky walking toward the frog and keeping the light shining in the frog’s eyes. Moving the light beam off the frog’s eyes can cause it to jump. Walking while holding a light beam on a frog’s eyes is similar to walking and trying to balance a book on your head. It takes a lot of practice.

We had numerous misses trying to gig a frog that night. We said some words that, if our moms had heard them, they would have washed our mouths out with soap. We fell into the water a few times. Limbs attacked us and scratched our arms and faces. Did I mention all the mosquito bites? We left the pond that night wiser in the knowledge of frog gigging but with no frogs. The first thing Mom said when we got home was, “Where are the frogs?” She loves her frog legs. Just ask Dad.

Larry Whiteley