During a bass-fishing trip to Toledo Bend the middle of May, Jason Pittman and his dad Floyd found themselves flinging hollow-bodied frog on top of grass mats in the back of a pocket.
“We saw something move that we thought was a bass boiling on dad’s bait,” the younger Pittman said. “A couple casts later we got a glimpse of a frog jumping from one mat to another. That thing was apparently chasing dad’s frog.”
Floyd Pittman made another cast back into the mat and noticed his bait get heavy and his line load up.
“The next thing you know,” Jason Pittman said, “we’ve got a frog on the end of the line trying to get another frog out of its mouth after he cannibalized it.”
Although this was the largest frog Pittman had ever seen in real life — it measured nearly 14 inches on a fish-measuring stick — this was not the first real frog Pittman has ever seen caught on a fake frog.
“I’ve seen it on the Red River and the Northshore area (of Lake Pontchartrain),” Pittman said. “I guess frog’s got to eat, too, and it looks like they’re just as opportunistic of feeders as bass are.”
Pittman said this particular frog at Toledo Bend quickly went from a laughable situation to one reminiscent of panic-stricken Japanese running from Godzilla.
“First, the frog went into hang-on mode and started trying to grab ahold of anything it could because it realized that something was dragging it off,” he said. “Once it cleared the mat, it started frog kicking under the water.
“We just stood there wondering if this was really happening.”
When Floyd Pittman flipped the frog in the boat is when things turned ugly.
Jason Pittman tried to grab the frog behind its head, but the massive frog started fighting back.
“That thing must have had nails on his back feet, and he started digging into me,” Pittman said. “It was kind of like giving a cat a rabies shot.
“The thing just went ape crazy and got psychotic on us.”
Because he knew hardly anybody would believe them, Pittman had his dad hold up the frog next to a fish ruler.
“Fourteen-inches,” Pittman said. “And I’m not sure I ever want to tangle with one like that ever again.”
