At sunset day before yesterday, June 30, Missouri's annual bullfrog/green frog season opened and it won't close until the end of October, giving frog hunters plenty of opportunities to take plenty of the great tasting amphibians home for some great eating.
This is the only Missouri hunting season that opens at sunset and I'd guess that several frog hunters miss opening "day" because it opens when "day" is almost over.
This year's persistent high water and flooding has probably relocated many of the big frogs, but they're still out there somewhere and it may take some scouting to find their new location. Once you've found them, it's time to plan a frog hunting expedition and determine just how you're going to catch a mess of frogs.
Determining your method of taking frogs (only bullfrogs and their smaller cousins, green frogs, are legal game) will also determine what permit(s) you need to stay legal. If you're going to get your frogs by hunting with a .22 or smaller rimfire rifle or handgun, pellet gun, bow, crossbow, or by hand or handnet, you'll need to have a small game hunting license in your possession to show a conservation agent should he stop by to check on you.
On the other hand, you'll need to have a fishing license if you're going to take frogs by using a gig, trotline, throwline, limb line, bank line, jug line, or by snagging, snaring or using a pole and line, and also keeps you legal if using your hands, handnet or a longbow. A combination hunting and fishing license will cover all methods. An artifical light may be used with any method, and frogs are easier to locate and catch at night.
If you do frog hunt at night and stay past midnight into the next day, be careful to not violate the regulation that says you may possess only one daily limit of frogs while you're "on the waters or banks of waters where frog limits apply".
If you take a limit before midnight and stay to hunt after midnight, the first limit must be kept separate from those taken after midnight and not "on the waters or banks of waters". Lock your before midnight limit in your vehicle before starting on your second (after midnight) daily limit of 8 bull or green frogs. The possession limit is 16, but don't be caught carrying more than 8 frogs while hunting even if you stayed after midnight and are entitled to another daily limit.
A big bullfrog can weigh over a pound and have back legs almost "chicken-sized". Eight of these "big boys" provides quite a bit of great tasting white meat, which when fried gives you one of the best "wild" meals you'll ever eat.
It takes bullfrogs at least three years to attain this size, and if you are taking smaller frogs from your favorite location, you may never see any bigger ones. Just like buck deer, if you really want to take the big ones, you've got to let the little ones live to get older.
The best frog hunting is in wetlands where it's hot, humid, muddy and there's gobs of mosquitos and snakes, but if this doesn't bother you, you'll have loads of fun slopping around in the water and mud and catching big frogs. If you're staying clean and dry and seeing no mosquitoes, you're probably not in a good frog hunting spot.
Find a good spot with plenty of big frogs and you've discovered a great way to enjoy Missouri's outdoors in the heat of summer, with the bonus of taking home some of the best tasting "wild" meat you'll ever sink your teeth into.
Bill Wehrle is outdoor sports editor of the Constitution-Tribune. His column appears in this space each Thursday.
Chillicothe, Mo. —
