Spending holiday weekend gigging makes for delightful trip home for frog hunters

EWING, Mo. — About an hour before Bryce Cooper left his office on a Thursday afternoon, several of his co-workers became disinterested in their daily tasks and started chatting about their weekend plans.

It didn’t take long before Cooper found himself sucked into the casual banter.

While most of the conversation hinged on bar hopping or barbecuing, the 28-year-old Northeast Missouri native revealed he had another endeavor in mind.

“I’m going gigging,” he said.

Stone-cold silence followed.

“No one knew what I meant,” said Cooper, who grew up in Lewis County but currently works in Kansas City. “And I think a couple of them were scared to ask.”

A co-worker who had been employed by the financial consulting firm for less than two months was the first to broach the subject.

“What instrument do you play in your band?” she said.

Cooper laughed. His 23-year-old co-worker grew up in Chicago, earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Missouri State University and had no experience with the outdoors in any form. In fact, she had never been on a farm or taken a walk in the woods until she met a guy from Pike County during their junior year in college.

“She’s learned a lot since then,” Cooper said. “But she still had no idea anyone hunted frogs.”

None of his other co-workers had heard of “gigging” either.

It’s how frog hunters land their prey. They use a gig — typically it’s a three- or four-pronged head attached to a long pole — to spear frogs while hunting along the edges of ponds, lakes and other waterways. Hunting takes place at night with the use of headlamps or flashlights.

“Musicians looking to land record contracts or develop a fanbase go gigging,” Cooper said. “So her question wasn’t out of bounds or off the wall. But the only gigging I was going to be doing was late at night with a couple of buddies and a cooler of beer.”

Frog hunting season in Missouri opened June 30, and Cooper met three of his lifelong buddies in Lewis County to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend to do something they’d done every summer since they were mischievous teenagers.

They arrived at the farm pond on a friend’s property north of Ewing shortly before sunset, parked their trucks, pulled out their coolers, set up lawn chairs and waited for darkness to envelop them.

“We needed some time to throw some B.S. around, catch up with each other and relax,” Cooper said. “None of us live in Lewis County any longer, so we all had a bit of a drive. This gave us a chance to relax and wait until late to actually go hunting.

“It was a crystal clear night and pretty darn warm. We knew the frogs would be out.”

Armed with gigs, dip nets, spotlights and waders, the four men partnered up — two walked toward the east side of the pond, the other two headed to the west side — and planned to meet at the far end of the property. They estimated the pond to be roughly two acres, so it was going to take some time to navigate.

With a substantial amount of brush and logs, as well as banks with a gentle slope to the water, there seemed to be plenty of environment for frogs to frolic.

“We harvested plenty of frogs from this area growing up, even when we weren’t supposed to be on the property,” said Ben Johnson, one of the four hunting that weekend. “We knew we’d see some frogs.”

There were more croakers than they could catch.

By the time they reached the far end of the pond — their best guess is it took more than 90 minutes to meet up — Cooper and Johnson had taken eight bullfrogs. The two others had harvested six.

The individual daily limit in Missouri is eight frogs, and had the quartet of hunters wanted to keep looking, they could have tried to catch their limit. There were cold beverages in the coolers, and their families and friends had made a variety of plans for the remainder of the weekend.

“We decided we better get some sleep,” Johnson said. “None of us are married, but we have girlfriends and parents who want us to be part of the weekend fun. I guess you could say we showed a little bit of maturity by not staying out all night. Maybe we are growing up, even though we still act like carefree teenagers at times.”

When the holiday weekend ended, Cooper returned to Kansas City and to the office where the morning chatter centered around the weekend that was.

The first question asked of anyone came from the 23-year-old.

“So Coop, how’d gigging go?” she asked.

Incredible, he said.

“I’ve got plenty of frog legs to eat this week,” he told her.

She declined an invitation to join him.

“She doesn’t know what she’s missing,” Cooper said. “I’m going to enjoy those frog legs and think about the weekend. Frog hunting with my buddies is the best gig I’ve ever had.”