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Post by ogeezer on Feb 27, 2007 5:52:18 GMT -6
seems i read that last year or maybe the year before in the Darwin Awards Legends section. Whatever? Drive on!
but speaking about frogging, what method do you use: .22? spear-gig? Or snap-gig? And are you a wader or a bank-walker? Use a lantern or powerful spotlight? And what course of action do you take when you happen upon a water moccasin (aka cottonmouth)? Just curious as its been years since I've been or talked to anybody else who once went after those big bullfrogs?
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Post by ogeezer on Feb 28, 2007 12:56:16 GMT -6
as a fisherman, you should know frogs - the Rapid Rana sp. commonly known as "spring or leopard frogs" in these parts make excellant fish bait for catching big lunkers (bass) and Yellow-cats, if you don't attach a heavy weight that keeps the frog from swimming to the surface to grab a breath of air.
...and if you know where to find 'em, frog tadpoles are good too
...as per the bullfrogs, known scientifically as Rana catesbienna, with all the chemicals being sprayed on crops these days & deforestation of wooded bottomlands plus drainage projects, and of course increased predation by other animals, its becoming exceedingly rare to find this wiley critter worth bagging for the dinner table.
Still sometimes, out near my place or others way off the beaten track, on a warm summer night, you can hear the drumming of a lone bullfrog calling up a mate in the distance - and memories of grabbing up a spotlight, snap-gig, burlap sack comes flooding back to happy, simplier times.
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 1, 2007 9:41:01 GMT -6
Sounds like a Bullfrog inhabits that pond, and probably two since eggs were seen. Let me ask, was the egg mass in large geletan clumps or was it long and stringy. If the former its a frog; if latter a toad (the terrestrial, land amphibian).
Bullfrogs take a long time to mature from a tadpole to breeding adult. On average a bullfrog tadpole is that for up to 2-years, over which time the tail-like appendage gradually disappears and legs begin to form. Then from about the size of a Spring/Leopard frog (also common to this area) to adulthood, the bullfrog will spend another 2-3 years before it reaches maturity. Over that time, predation is high among fish, birds, reptiles (like snakes & turtles), mammals (like the racoon), and even amphibians (eels, salamanders and frogs). Cannibalism by larger bullfrogs also takes its toll.
Naturalists (wildlife history buffs) --- no, wmdm, that's not naturists in the buff --- contend only 1 or 2 of billions of eggs laid annually by bullfrogs throughout the area ever makes it to adulthood, which is part to blame for its decline. There are some who would like to start a bullfrog breeding and care program to raise the populations of this amphib but that people's reluctance to critters perceived as being slimy is holding such efforts back.
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DirtyDon
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Post by DirtyDon on Mar 1, 2007 9:53:16 GMT -6
Our favorite place in H. Matamoros for eating Frog Legs told us their Frogs came from India.
Googling found that Indonesia, Bengladesh, and several other Asian Nations are exporting frog legs.. bad thing is, their mosquito populations are increasing as a result and they're having malaria epidemics over there... dammit.. Importing Frog Legs in the U.S. we should have a "Frog Tax" affixed to each shipment to offset the costs of treating diseases caused by increasing mosquito populations. Somebody call Al Gore and have him work it out for us...
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 1, 2007 10:36:26 GMT -6
Decades ago, before enlisting in the Army & while going to college at Chapultipec Tech in Kingsville -- what we called Tx A&I, do to the student body of nearly 6,000 being 3/4 chicano (as they referred to themselves then) -- myself & other biology students earned $$$ catching "spring frogs" in the hundreds to take to a biology supply house in Corpus Christi where the amphibs were dispatched and injected with blue + red latex dyes into arteries & veins so high schoolers throughout the State had something to dissect.
While down at Chapultipec Tech, learned the bullfrog seldom was not found south of the Guadalupe River ... so to help widen its range, I began catching the Rana catesbienna here and transporting it to the Coastal Bend area, where today the bullfrog, maybe not in flourishing numbers, but still is found in many of the massive stock tanks and man-made lakes throughout the region.
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 1, 2007 20:55:07 GMT -6
when i was about 8 or 9 my dad along w/a couple of other's went frogging, the next morning my sister and i went outside to look at them and there were frogs everywhere, the towsack had fallen over and came untied and they were jumping all over the place......just a funny childhood memory i'll never forget
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 2, 2007 6:46:19 GMT -6
Was out back today putting together the twins and granddaughter's birthday present, burning a chicken on the pit and sipping on a cool one. If anyone buys one of those outdoor gym sets (slides, swings, monkey bars) for the kids DO NOT BELIEVE THE 8 TO 12 HOUR ASSEMBLY TIME label. Bull feathers. the pre-drilled holes are all wrong and can not be used. Anyways I was sitting there cussing the gym set when I saw movement in the 40 gallon fish tank by the pit. No fish in it and the filters turned off for the winter but water still in it. Got up to take a closer look into the green water and there was a frog. While watching a snake swam by. WOW! Sit back down in my chair and was watching the frog and snake do their dance but the snake got him. Well heck, got back up and grapped the snake and shook loose the frog---put him back into the tank. d*mn snakes - Sounds like the gym set was made in China; and if it was, it won't last near as long as American or even Mexican made sets;
- If you put in some blue stone (copper sulfate) - Wharton Fed has it OR you can use copper wire having green coated powder) it'll rid your fish tank of alga-bloom & make it habitable for fish again; and
- While saving the life of a frog is commendable, snakes are benefical, because without them we'd be up to our a$$es in rat's, mice & other fast breeding, nuisance pests.
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 2, 2007 16:23:20 GMT -6
i run over every snake i see, 2 me the only good snake is a dead snake! now i'm probably gonna die from a snakebite.....ooooohhhh that's gonna suck
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 3, 2007 8:17:24 GMT -6
i run over every snake i see, 2 me the only good snake is a dead snake! now i'm probably gonna die from a snakebite.....ooooohhhh that's gonna suck I just don't understand that kind of logic. Does your deep-seeded hatred for snakes come from the scriptures about Adam & Eve? If not that, then what? Me wonders, had you lived 150 years ago, would you had the same resentments (most everybody else did at that time) about the American Indian --the only good indian is a dead indian? Not liking or even hating something, isn't always a reason to kill it. I don't like Hillary Clinton, black widow spiders or even illegal aliens; yet I've got no great urgency to kill either of the three. I simply avoid them or do my darndest to see they don't get the best of me. Hell, I didn't even hate the Viet-commies, even when I was killing them; killing only those who treatened my life or those of my fellow soldiers existence was our job. A job that didn't include repeating those actions again when I returned there in January. I just don't understand your reason for wanting to kill every snake you see? Would you please enlighten me as to why!
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 3, 2007 11:13:33 GMT -6
because i had one try to bite me at a park......never again will i let that happen, they won't get the chance if i can help it!
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 4, 2007 10:02:00 GMT -6
because i had one try to bite me at a park......never again will i let that happen, they won't get the chance if i can help it! Well bite 'em back!Seriously, snake meat is quite tasty! Easy to clean too. Just slit up the belly, peel off the skin (makes nice hatband when cured), cut off head & slighlty above anal-opening, pull out the internal organs, and you done. Good either fried (tho cornmeal/flour batter won't stick well to the flesh) OR thrown in the pit smoker. It's got a helluva backstrap, which more than makes up for the ribs which there are many & its nutritous too, almost like eating jerky but without the fat. And unlike dog, you won't mind eating this critter if for no other reason than REVENGE!
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 4, 2007 16:12:35 GMT -6
maybe i'll just run down 2 the pond and skin 1 up 4 dinner! ;D
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 5, 2007 8:26:30 GMT -6
maybe i'll just run down 2 the pond and skin 1 up 4 dinner! ;D if'n youre gonna eat snake, word of advice: stay away from the musky smelling ones (like the Natrix sp. and the moccasins) which emit really foul odors that will taint your hands & even the snake meat, rendering it inedible. Natrix sp. snakes are the non-poisonous water snakes, of which some 10 species inhabit this region. They have a nasty reputation, will strike at anything, fend being more dangerous than they are, and having close back-angled teeth around the perimeter of their mouth will make a nasty bite (but unless the bite isnt cleaned properily) yet is non-poisonous. But its the smell that really offends people, the defensive mechanism similar to the way a toad will envariable pee on you when you pick it up. The moccasins (the hemetoxic poisonous variety), commonly called water moccasin or cottonmouth in this region, is the same species of reptile, namely Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma, that comes in a variety of colorations which makes it appear to be a different snake species ---i've had numerous arguments with unknowing old timers who are never convinced the moccasin & cottonmouth are the same species ... like those who contend the toad-frog is a frog that lives on land and not a separate species of amphibs belonging to the toad family ... both viewpoints belong to persons who are herpetologically illiterate. --- While the Agkistrondon sp., that also includes the copperheads, carries fangs to inject the hemeotoxic venom (affecting the blood), its smell (like the Natrix is more offensive than the threatened strike. Anyway, if youre gonna eat snake, stay with the rattlers (of which 6 different species are found here), the copperheads (of which 3 are found here, minus of course the moccasin), and the notorious chickensnake, the ( Elaphe sp.) of Great Plains & ratsnakes, plus any of the other varieties of large/long snakes contingent to the region, like the Coachwhip ( Masticophis sp.) that is easily caught in limbs of low-hanging short trees where this climber has gone to hunt fledging birds in nests. ... Next time you want to show the kids baby birds in a nest, it mite be wise to look up in the branches very carefully, since the vine you see mite actually be the snake you didn't expect to encounter! So whatever snake you harvest for tablefare, bon appetit' ;D
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 5, 2007 10:15:18 GMT -6
maybe i'll just run down 2 the pond and skin 1 up 4 dinner! ;D if'n youre gonna eat snake, word of advice: stay away from the musky smelling ones (like the Natrix sp. and the moccasins) which emit really foul odors that will taint your hands & even the snake meat, rendering it inedible. Natrix sp. snakes are the non-poisonous water snakes, of which some 10 species inhabit this region. They have a nasty reputation, will strike at anything, fend being more dangerous than they are, and having close back-angled teeth around the perimeter of their mouth will make a nasty bite (but unless the bite isnt cleaned properily) yet is non-poisonous. But its the smell that really offends people, the defensive mechanism similar to the way a toad will envariable pee on you when you pick it up. The moccasins (the hemetoxic poisonous variety), commonly called water moccasin or cottonmouth in this region, is the same species of reptile, namely Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma, that comes in a variety of colorations which makes it appear to be a different snake species ---i've had numerous arguments with unknowing old timers who are never convinced the moccasin & cottonmouth are the same species ... like those who contend the toad-frog is a frog that lives on land and not a separate species of amphibs belonging to the toad family ... both viewpoints belong to persons who are herpetologically illiterate. --- While the Agkistrondon sp., that also includes the copperheads, carries fangs to inject the hemeotoxic venom (affecting the blood), its smell (like the Natrix is more offensive than the threatened strike. Anyway, if youre gonna eat snake, stay with the rattlers (of which 6 different species are found here), the copperheads (of which 3 are found here, minus of course the moccasin), and the notorious chickensnake, the ( Elaphe sp.) of Great Plains & ratsnakes, plus any of the other varieties of large/long snakes contingent to the region, like the Coachwhip ( Masticophis sp.) that is easily caught in limbs of low-hanging short trees where this climber has gone to hunt fledging birds in nests. ... Next time you want to show the kids baby birds in a nest, it mite be wise to look up in the branches very carefully, since the vine you see mite actually be the snake you didn't expect to encounter! So whatever snake you harvest for tablefare, bon appetit' ;D glad you told me that, i definately want to pick the right one to go with my alvacado salad! ;D
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 5, 2007 10:52:03 GMT -6
To help you enjoy the culinary treat of a snake dinner, including cleaning & preparation, go here to the thread: Bon Appetit' in the Recipe section!
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 5, 2007 11:24:05 GMT -6
yeah i saw it! ;D
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 13, 2007 8:47:57 GMT -6
Speaking of Frog Legs, here's a good recipe for fixin' what i call, REDNECK FROG LEGS:
5 lb's frog (front & back legs & backs, individually separated)* 3/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar crushed ice 1 cup milk 6 eggs, separated 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil 1/4 tsp salt salt and pepper 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour vegetable oil *Tendons (leaders removed) from legs to prevent legs from jumping out of pan.
Wash the frog legs thoroughly. Place in a large pan and sprinkle with lemon juice. Cover with crushed ice and refrigerate 1 to 3 hours. Combine the milk, egg yolks, olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the batter. Sprinkle the frog legs with salt and pepper to taste. Dip legs into the batter then dredge in the flour. Fry until golden brown in deep oil heated to 375 degrees. Drain on paper towels.
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 13, 2007 10:20:46 GMT -6
i didn't know there was anything to a frog's front leg
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Post by ogeezer on Mar 13, 2007 10:28:14 GMT -6
i didn't know there was anything to a frog's front leg depending upon the size of the frog, it could be a nibble or a bite -- meat is meat, said the predator to the prey!
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DirtyDon
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Post by DirtyDon on Mar 13, 2007 10:38:10 GMT -6
A friend from Guatemala (NOT Keyser) told me they eat the whole frog down there.. Special care with skinning. Also, the eat the chicken feet (claws and all) and the comb. The chicken intestines they wash in lye water, then dry and deep fry.. Make a sort of chicken chittlings.. "chicklings".. Caught that weirdo that eats bugs eat some weird stuff last night on the Discovery Travel Channel... fried Palm Tree Grubs.. Yummmy! Yum! We're missing all the good stuff. Somebody alert Jack..
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Post by ~WineMe~DineMe~69 on Mar 13, 2007 13:04:03 GMT -6
yuk!
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DirtyDon
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Post by DirtyDon on Apr 1, 2007 10:42:02 GMT -6
What about the tree frogs.. the kind that predict rain with some percision..
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Post by easydoesit on Apr 1, 2007 19:12:26 GMT -6
I heard them a couple days ago calling for rain. When it did and so much of it, I wanted to go outside and shoot em. JK. Guess it's better to have frogs than crabs.... ;D
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Post by ogeezer on Apr 3, 2007 18:13:16 GMT -6
This thread began talking about this frog - the BULLFROG...then touched on the LEOPARD FROG (known locally as the Spring Frog) ...and touched on the TREEFROG...progressing to the frogs DirtyDon & easydoesit have been hearing, which are quite small and elusive, despite their loud voices. They include, the TREEBARK FROG (also called the Cricket Frog) and the GRAY TREEFROG found mostly in thick wooded areas and the SPOTTED CHORUS FROGThe above amphibians are frogs; the amphibs below are toads (mostly terrestrial, living on land). The most common toad is the GULF COAST TOADbut in Wharton Cty, you'll find these fellows too. The EASTERN NARROWMOUTH TOADand the GREAT PLAINS NARROWMOUTH TOADand the rarest toad in Wharton Cty is the WOODHOUSE TOADA popular treat at the RoadKill Cafe, is "Road Toad Alamode"
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DirtyDon
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Post by DirtyDon on Apr 3, 2007 18:58:31 GMT -6
I was calling them frogs with out ever really eyeballing one, I'm not near any water, creek, pool, or water laden ditch. Has to be toads and toadettes.. My group are pretty accurate, however I have a friend who's frogs\toads chorus singing is way up there in rain predicting accuracy...
Both sets of frogs are accurate down to the area or neighborhood, almost spooky...
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