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How to Process Frog Legs

jagermeister

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Ohio
Itā€™s that time of year again, folks. Bringing this one back to the topā€¦

A couple limits in and 2022 is off to a good start. Frog numbers are looking great and the size has been phenomenal. Sunday night I caught one of the biggest, if not the biggest, frog of my life. Up here we call a 15-incher a ā€œfrog ohio.ā€ It takes a lot of bullfrog to reach 15 inches. This sucker was pushing 15 1/2ā€ when I stretched him out. I wish I had the pile of everything this frog ate over his lifetime! That would be cool.
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jagermeister

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Ohio
Giant!!

Question, do you use anything from the upper body/head area or is it only frog legs?
I have only ever utilized the rear legs. Mainly, because itā€™s just what Iā€™ve always done. Iā€™ve heard of some folks retaining the front legs too, though, on bigger frogs. Thereā€™s really not much there, other than whatā€™s on the rear legs. I suppose one could be skinned and gutted, and then cooked wholeā€¦ Thereā€™d be some meat there to pick atā€¦ But honestly I donā€™t think it would be worth the extra trouble. Itā€™d be like saving and eating the claws off of crawdads. Can it be done? Sure. But is it worth it? I donā€™t know. Iā€™d be interested in hearing from others about taking more than just the rear legs.
 

triple_duece

Ragin Cajun.
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Giant!!

Question, do you use anything from the upper body/head area or is it only frog legs?
We typically catch medium size frogs, so front legs and body doesnā€™t yield enough for us to do the whole body. Now the big ones are a different story. Typically our frogs are medium size and our other type of frogs are just smaller than bull frogsā€¦ā€¦we call the pig frogs.
Some years ago a forum online that was Louisiana based, they put on a frog rodeo. Winning 10 frogs weighed somewhere around 23#. Them guys w access to crawfish ponds catch some giants.
 

jagermeister

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Ohio
We typically catch medium size frogs, so front legs and body doesnā€™t yield enough for us to do the whole body. Now the big ones are a different story. Typically our frogs are medium size and our other type of frogs are just smaller than bull frogsā€¦ā€¦we call the pig frogs.
Some years ago a forum online that was Louisiana based, they put on a frog rodeo. Winning 10 frogs weighed somewhere around 23#. Them guys w access to crawfish ponds catch some giants.
Bullfrogs absolutely LOVE eating crawdads. We find a lot of crawdads in their bellies up here.
 

finelyshedded

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Way back in the day weā€™d skin out the entire frog if they were of the huge size. Typically anything over 12ā€ was worth it. After skinning, take your knife and decapitate slightly and pulling entrails out the neck. Then make a slit up the belly and cleaning out. Final step we slid knife blade under nerve cords in lower back and gently tug till the cords came out of the legs. Wash up good and freeze in bags of water till the feast. Those big headless skinned and gutted frogs looked like gray squirrels laying there. Lol Missing out on some good meat if you donā€™t. IMO
 

GoetsTalon

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Walbridge oh
Awesome! Figured you were out for the opener lol. Two weeks ago out at one of the local marshes I couldn't believe how many I heard early one morning. Just need to get out one of these nights!
 
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Bowkills

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Nw oh
Ive felt bad about throwing the frog away minus the back legs. Ive skinned and gutted the whole frog and fried. Kinda like eating walleye wings in my experience. Takes some time to eat it but its frog.
 
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