Frog Gigging

Frogs are a good source of easily obtainable food. Frog gigging can potentially save your life in a survival situation. One of the most practical ways of catching frogs is to use a gig. During warm weather, if you are near a body of freshwater, chances are you will be able to find frogs.

What is Frog Gigging?

Frog gigging is basically hunting frogs with a long, multi pronged spear. This is usually done at night with a flashlight but can also be done during the day. You can use a boat, if you have one or just wade into the water. When using a frog gig you shouldn't have much trouble reaching them from shore either. Once of the advantages of frog gigging is that you don't have to get so close that you scare the frogs away. If you were to try to catch them with your hands, you would need to be a whole lot more careful as the frogs tend to dive under the water before you can grab them. Using a frog gig allows you to skewer them before they have a chance to move.

Gigging isn't just a method for hunting frogs. You can catch other things with a gig as well. This includes fish as well as just about anything you can spear.

What is a Gig?

A gig is basically just a long pole with multi-pronged spear head attached to the end. It will usually have 4 to 5 prongs. They sometimes only have three. The prongs will usually be barbed. Sometimes they are arranged in a flat pattern with one prong after the other. Sometimes they are arranged in more of a square pattern. For normal frog gigging the spear head is all metal and can be attached to the end of a pole. It is generally manufactured specifically for that purpose.

DIY Makeshift Survival Spear

It is also possible to construct a makeshift frog gig from wood. If you are out in the woods and need to find food, building your own survival spear from wood is a great option. You aren't limited to a single prong either. Using a long branch or stick it is relatively easy to construct a multi-pronged spear. The idea is that you would first split a the end of the stick the long way. Then split each of those sides again basically forming a 4 way split in the end of the stick. Once you have this you can place smaller sticks inside the split to wedge it apart. You would then use cordage to make sure it is held together tight. Last you would sharpen the ends of each of the 4 prongs and add barbs.

If you want to learn more, check out our article and video on creating a wooden survival spear / gig HERE .

Frogs Are An Excellent Food Source

Frogs are a good source of food. They generally are easy to find if you are near water and the weather is warm. You will generally need more than one but they are also easy to find so that isn't much of a problem. Frogs are also delicious. People go out of their way to catch and cook frogs because of how great they taste. Normally people would fry the back legs since this is where most of the meat is.

In a survival situation you may not have everything you need to fry them but they are still easy to cook. Keep in mind that you also probably wouldn't want to waste anything either. If you are using them as a food source to stay alive you shouldn't waste even the smallest bit. If you don't have a pan or oil you could just skewer them and roast them over the fire. In the worst case you could just boil them if you really needed to. Boiling is a bit easier to make sure that they are fully cooked and that they are cooked evenly. Roasting over a fire should taste better.

Flounder Gigging

Flounder are also a really good source of food. If you are lucky enough to be near the ocean there will likely be many, many different things that you can catch or find that are good to eat. Flounder are one of those things.

If you don't happen to have regular fishing gear (hook, line, etc. ) you can still catch fish. Once popular option is to use a gig. Flounder gigging is basically where you wade into shallow water and spear flounder. This can also be done with a boat if you have one.

When flounder gigging, you generally look for them in the sand. Flounder will cover themselves with sand and just sit on the bottom. The easy part is that they aren't moving around, so they are easy to hit with a spear. The hard part is actually spotting them, since they will be hiding under the sand. They blend in very well and can be hard to spot if you don't know what you are looking for. Only their eyes and a faint outline will be visible. You need to look carefully. Once you spot one, you are going to want to pin it against the bottom until it stops moving. After that you can try pulling it up.

Flounder is delicious. They are easy to cook and will pretty much taste great no matter how you cook them. A single flounder will provide more nutrition than a frog which is important in a survival situation. Catching flounder is always great. If you happen, by some chance to find yourself both in a remote area AND near the coast, having flounder for dinner is going to make things a whole lot more comfortable.

Sucker Gigging

Another popular fish to catch with a spear is the sucker fish (Catostomidae). This is a common freshwater fish. It is common to catch them in streams and small rivers. You can skewer them with a gig if you want to be efficient and make things easy. You can also potentially stick them with just about any pointy stick you happen to have on hand. They tend to be easy to catch and it is even possible to catch them with your hands. This is not usually even that hard if you have the time. If you want to save yourself the trouble, a multi-pronged spear is the way to go.

Frog Gigging Tips

Watch out for other, more dangerous wildlife. This may include anything from alligators to venomous snakes.

A flashlight can be either tied or taped directly to the spear so that it can be pointed at whatever you are targeting while freeing up your hands. Just make sure that it is tight and that it doesn't slip off into the water.

Using a head mounted light is even better.