Frogging time!

Maybe it’s no coincidence that school lets out for the summer and Louisiana’s frogging season opens mere days later.
“I didn’t grow up doing this,” said Caleb Cart, of Eunice, laughing, as he instructed six children on the finer points of frog grabbing while Bryon Zaunbrecher of Mowata steered a crawfish boat through a lake near the Eunice airport. “We’re going to have a good time.”
Frogging season opened at midnight Monday, a bit past bedtime for most children, even for a summer break curfew, so Cart and his cohorts waited until the first full night of the season to head out on the waters of Zaunbrecher’s lakes. Zaunbrecher served as captain for the outing while his first cousin, John Zaunbrecher, served as spotlightlighter. The catching crew was made up Owen, 7, and Sloane Cart, 6, two of Cart and wife Katie’s three children, friend, Jesslyn West, 5, daughter of Chris and Lauren West of Eunice; and Byron and wife Maile’s children Colton, 3, Gracie, 5 and Zoe, 11.
Frogging season is closed each year during the months of April and May for the mating season, and once it opens, all hunters need is a basic fishing license, for those of age, a bright light and a good grip. While many hunters hand grab, devices that puncture the skin, such as gigs or spears, can also be used to take bullfrogs and pig frogs, and there is no limit, only a length requirement, on those harvested.
The frog catching cruise left the banks of the lake at 9 p.m. under the light of a low full moon, and Zaunbrecher informed the boat’s passengers of scouting information he had received as he steered the boat toward the southern levee of the lake.
“They (crawfishers) have been seeing a lot of them in here,” Byron said. “The water level looks good, too.”
harvested.
The frog catching cruise left the banks of the lake at 9 p.m. under the light of a low full moon, and Zaunbrecher informed the boat’s passengers of scouting information he had received as he steered the boat toward the southern levee of the lake.
“They (crawfishers) have been seeing a lot of them in here,” Byron said. “The water level looks good, too.”
“I didn’t catch a one last season,” Caleb said. “I’m ready to get on them frogs.”
“Ya’ll ready?” Caleb asked the children.
Six “Yeahs!” rang out from the boat.
“Good, ‘cause if ya’ll don’t catch ‘em, ya’ll are fired,” Caleb said, laughing.
The children took their places kneeling just behind the bow of the boat, and John began to move the spotlight along the edge of the levees. Moments into the trip, the first pair of shiny eyes were spotted, and Byron stopped the boat so Zoe could grab the night’s first frog.
“Go Zoe,” Caleb said as Zoe handed her frog to him, and he placed it in a crawfish sack.
John swept the spotlight further down the levee as Byron moved the boat forward, and a few more sets of diamond-like eyes sparkled in the dark. For the next two hours the children took turns jumping out of the boat and onto the frogs, sometimes coming back empty handed as the frogs slipped away and other times gripping the slippery creatures as tightly as possible on their way to the crawfish sack.
“Ya’ll are missing almost as many as we’re catching,” Cart said, laughing, as he climbed back into the boat empty handed.
“You’re fired daddy,” Sloane said of her dad’s failed attempt to grab a frog.
In the momentary lulls between spotting frogs, Cart and the Zaunbrecher men discussed friends’ frogging reports from opening night, past frogging honey holes and memorable frogging trips.
“One year we caught so many that the guy holding the bag was just putting them back in the water cause he was tired of opening bag,” Byron said, laughing.
Several times during the trip all the children leapt off the boat at one time and raced off toward the circle of light with a frog at its center, and Cart also found himself in the water rounding up frogs, sometimes two at a time.
By 11 p.m., Zoe lead the way amongst the children with the most frogs grabbed. As the moon got higher in the sky, the number of frogs spotted and caught began to drop. Of the few spotted, several made quick work of hopping into to the thick grass on the levees or diving for deeper waters.
“They can see us now with that moon,” Byron said as Owen doves for another frog. The frog made a break for the deep water, and Zoe hung over the side of the boat, shoved her hand into the water and pulled it out, gripping the frog.
Byron pulled the boat back up the bank just after midnight and unloaded the sleepy children and two and a half crawfish sacks with about 60 to 75 frogs in them.