By JACKIE TAYLOR | August 13, 2025

It’s another one of those…So…stories.

So, last weekend was an adventure. I’ve gotten involved with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks Wild Foods Academy (WFA) that is a pilot program designed to educate many ‘left-0ut’ people’s groups, indigenous, inner-city, rural, in foods that they may find in the wild.

Foods include those that people harvest through foraging, hunting, fishing and trapping that may be overlooked in a person’s diet.

The class has approximately 10 people enrolled from around the Kansas City area and month three of the 12-month series revolved around frog gigging.

Month one was catfishing and month two was carp bow-fishing at the Lower West Lake in Pleasanton. The third month class was located at the Eisenhower State Park near Melvern Lake 80 miles west of Linn County.

Since the gigging portion began at 9 p.m. and went to 11 p.m., I made camping reservations last Saturday and took my R-Pod – avoiding a late-night drive back to Linn County.

Once at the park, the day began at 4 p.m. with a walk on one of the park’s 22 miles of horse trails identifying edible species of plants along the walk. Things like green briar tendrils, dandelion leaves, etc. were marked, as were species that can kill or cause considerable irritation to a human.

Following a light potluck meal, we met the local KDWP officers and park manager who enlightened us on rules associated with frog gigging and the finer points of actually doing the hunt.

As I soon found out, the ‘sport’ of frog gigging is not new and many of the old-timers used to hunt frogs for a serious meal source.

Gary Smith, 82, who is almost a full-time resident of Eisenhower State Park, said he learned the sport from his dad when they would fish the Neosho River and catch bullfrogs on the shore with their bare hands. Smith said a spotlight would blind the frogs and his dad would quickly reach out, grab one and smack the frog on the side of the boat to dispatch it.

Our venture didn’t involve boats, it had more to do with rubber boots, jeans, lots of bug spray and a pond covered in moss.

Once we were outfitted with a six-foot wooden stick with steel, barbed prongs attached, a flash light and a bucket, we caravaned to the pond. Since there were only six of us, including the instructors 11-year-old daughter, we each had our own frog stick.

We spread out on the pond that KDWP management had recently cleared brush from and marked a spot, or, stalked around the pond.

We began before it was dark; that allowed us to see where we’d be hunting frogs – and, it allowed the frogs to see us.

Once dark hit, after 9 p.m., flashlights and spotlights worked to mesmerize the green bullfrogs. 

Needless to say, hitting a frog with a six-foot gigging pole took a bit of practice. I ended up holding the flashlight in my mouth to give myself an easier approach on launching the pole. I got one frog – and missed several. If frogs could laugh, they’d have had a chuckle on my spear abilities – or lack thereof.

One method that seemed to work fairly well for the group was netting the frogs. Again, there is technique in how you swing the net so a frog doesn’t escape beneath it. They are pretty agile little buggars, so many of us came up with nets full of moss and no frog.

I ended up with two smaller frogs; when I saw the big bullfrog one of the girls speared, I knew I was in the kindergarten class of frogs.

The mud on the pond was interesting. Since I was wearing knee-high rubber boots, being aware of how deep I was in potentially netting or spearing a frog was very important. The last thing I wanted to do was fall into the nasty pond water.

I found that mind over matter was important in frog gigging. First off, there were spiders hanging in webs on the shoreline. You’d have to brush the webs away before walking through. Next, who knows if there were snakes; no self-respecting snake could have stayed with the group walking the shoreline of the small pond that night.

Last, it was 90-plus degrees out, very high humidity and no wind blowing – sweat was the ode-de-jeur. 

I ended up giving my two frogs to the girl that gigged the huge bullfrog; mine wouldn’t have enough meat on them to barely get stuck in your teeth, but they would add to a meal of many more frogs.

All in all, it was very entertaining, educational and gave me a source of protein that I had never thought of before. 

The tools are minimal in cost; a Kansas fishing license is necessary to gig frogs. Many of the ponds around here have bullfrogs; it’s simple to check as at night they are the frogs with the low tone in their calls.

Part of the prerequisite of taking the Kansas Foraging class is sharing the knowledge; once I’m further in the classes, I’ll begin reaching out to the community to provide classes in my skill-set for those interested.