Keith Lusher 04.28.25
As a child, I can keep in mind the nights when my cousin and I might stroll the path that meandered via the swamp. Our eyes scanned the darkness searching for two small yellow dots shining again at us. I might shine the highlight, and he would do the gigging. After the frog was on the gig, we’d slam it down into an aluminum garbage can that we took turns dragging behind us.
On a mean night time, we might catch between 20-30 frogs to fry up. As I received older and realized extra about frogging, I noticed that there was a less complicated method to do it, which required solely a brilliant highlight and a ship.
That’s how Peyton Clement of Loranger, LA, has been doing all of it his life. Clement frogs the Manchac Swamp in Southeast Louisiana and has perfected catching frogs into an artwork kind. “I’ve been doing this since I used to be a child,” he mentioned. “My buddies and I might go up and down the bayous choosing up frogs wherever we might shine them. We’d get 50 frogs an evening and convey them again to the camp to scrub and fry up.”
Whereas most froggers use a gig, Clement mentioned there may be a neater manner. “All we use is a powerful highlight,” he mentioned. Clement positions himself on the bow of the flatboat whereas the motive force shines the sunshine on the financial institution, on the lookout for a pair of eyes reflecting again. After the eyes give the frog away, the motive force turns the boat and goals it proper on the frog on the shoreline. “It’s necessary to maintain that mild pointed on the frog as a result of it distracts them lengthy sufficient for the particular person on the boat’s bow to seize it. The one factor that scares them is that if the boat pushes waves up onto the shore,” he mentioned. Cement mentioned the vast majority of the frogs he catches are on the shore. “Whereas many of the frogs we catch in Manchac are on the shoreline, you begin to discover extra frogs within the hyacinth and lilies the additional south you go. We went to Bayou Gauche simply south of LaPlace, and so they had been all within the floating grass.”
Clement mentioned he prefers catching frogs on the shoreline as a result of it’s simpler to seize them when there may be onerous land beneath their our bodies. Plus, they’re simply onerous to identify within the water. The 20-year-old mentioned his favourite situation to go frogging is when the tide is low. “Typically there will likely be 4 toes of shoreline uncovered, and that’s when it’s very easy to identify them,” he mentioned.
Because the boat nears the shoreline, Clement makes use of an overhand method that brings his hand straight down over the frog. After getting them within the boat, he grabs the frog’s two legs and slams them in opposition to the aspect of the boat to knock it out. After that, it’s straight into the ice chest.
At first look, the cleansing course of could look intimidating, however Clement mentioned it’s truly fairly easy.
When cleansing the frog, lay it on its stomach and lower round its waist with scissors.
Subsequent, lower off the toes, then pull the pores and skin down from the waist towards the legs such as you’re pulling its pants down.
Then lower the legs off on the base, rinse with clear water, and also you’re achieved.
For cooking, soak the legs in milk for an hour to take away any fishy style, then fry in butter or bread and deep-fry like rooster wings for a scrumptious swamp-to-table meal.
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