My new 2 acre pond already has showed 2 pretty good sized bull frogs swimming in it. About 10-12 inch long stretched out. Are they "good" for the pond? Can you get too many? I know they eat insects but what else do they consume? Should I be worried about them or just let nature take its course?
IMO they are great to have as forage and will do very little damage if they take a few small fish. They will also eat each other. I have lots of frogs and chase GBH away when they come hunting them.
Yeah my pond has had them for a long time i'm talking big ones! I had one come after my zoom super fluke and I hooked em. He was 17 inches spread all the way out! Hugh BF!! My kids like to take a coffee can around the pond once they have babies and put them in the can and use them for bait! The BG love em!! And if there the right size so will your bass!!
Flame, I wish I could get a few big bulls in my pond. I want to go bull frog hunting someday on the pond and harvest legs every so often. I saw my first frog swimming and poking his head above the water yesterday but he was maybe 3" long and prob. not a bull frog. I am guessing.
Tracy When my bull frog tadpoles show up you are welcome to come get some to stock your pond. Heard one yesterday back in the flooded timber .... Love that sound
I've got a glut of them in my ponds....and I'm on the same page as Bill D. above - they're a good addition to any pond if the end goal is a wide forage base. You're hard pressed to scoop up a bucket of water around my pond edges and not get a bullfrog tadpole in it. Just another protein source for my fish is how I look at it.
Thanks everyone,I will now officially start raising bullfrogs.If they start luring in GBH is that considered hunting over a baited area? I'm just sayin!
Here is one of mine from 2 years ago. The pic does not do it justice this thing was hugh and guarding it's babies over there somewhere cause she was not moving one inch even though I was like 3 feet away.
I wish I had more bull frogs. We used to have a lot until the egrets moved in they eat every frog, lizard they can. They do however eat a lot of grasshoppers. Every pasture has a flock every day. I have seen them eat shad over surfacing stripers too.
I wish I had more bull frogs. We used to have a lot until the egrets moved in they eat every frog, lizard they can. They do however eat a lot of grasshoppers. Every pasture has a flock every day. I have seen them eat shad over surfacing stripers too.
Feel free to come get some of mine. I have one about every 10 feet of shoreline. My wife is sending me frog hunting tonight with my little boy because they keep her up at night.
Flame..about 3 months ago I bought some adult size bullfrogs at a local Asian market. They were pretty large...so I would think some of them must have survived. I have yet to spend the night at the property but I hope to hear them when I do spend my first night out there later this summer. Adult size bullfrogs are relatively hard to source and can be pricey online, but the Asian market in Plano, Texas carries some really nice large live bullfrogs...I can't remember the exact price but they weren't much.
ps: Of course worse case scenario the frogs being they are from an Asian store who knows if they are local...they could be from Thailand and be super invasive and take over my entire property and even eat the donkeys and everything else in sight! (lol)
We're experiencing what, on the surface anyways, appears to be an excellent bullfrog year. There are thousands of large, legged BF tadpoles, and the adults are here in numbers that I haven't seen in years. I expect the herons to arrive in force, any day.
I can run a net in my ponds and collect 50-100 American Bullfrog tadpoles every run, without fail. I estimate I have 10-20,000 in my main pond, if not exponentially more. Per Bob Lusk [and my own personal experience], fish do not utilize bullfrog tadpoles as forage due to a enzyme secreted on it's skin which is their only defense mechanism. They are far too vulnerable for them to survive active predation to have ever made it through evolution is my personal reasoning, so I see the logic on what Lusk states regarding the subject. Further, if tadpoles were utilized as forage, my SMB and HSB would all have WRs approaching 200 with the endless availability! I have never witnessed a HSB, YP, WE or SMB eat a tadpole, and I have tossed them into the AM LMB feeding frenzy by SMB/HSB from time to time to test the theory. If a fish does take one, they are immediately spit them out.
LMB and CC may utilize them as forage - I don't have any experience there. Also, some on the forum have stated they've seen their fish target tadpoles and I am not doubting them - but I do wonder why our experiences are so vastly different. If tadpoles were the only option for my fish maybe they'd be eaten - but I have never witnessed this, and the dense population of tadpoles in my fishery indicate they are not utilized as forage.
Now, adult frogs seem to be fair game, and preferred forage items in fact - I have VERY few adult leopard frogs in my pond and I attribute this to high predator density and their preferred forage status. The bullfrogs however seem too large for my limited gape fish, but I'll bet they'd love a shot at them if they could manage them.
Next time you're looking in BPS or Cabelas catalog, check out how many tadpole shaped artificials are on the market. Last time I checked, there were few to zero. Seems more evidence to support Lusk's experience.
In terms of pros and cons, I don't see any downside, and I think adult frogs can help diversify a forage base as noted by others.
I talked to a South Texas fish farm guy not long ago. They are selling 2nd year bullfrog tadpoles for $5 each. I would love to have some but not at they price.
5 bucks a piece dang I have a fortune on my pond and didn't even know it! Heck I'll sell my tadpoles for 2 bucks a piece I'm like TJ I got tons of them! I have also put them on a hook by the tail thinking I'm gonna get a big ole LMB to hit this thing and I won't even get a nibble! I always wondered why they wouldn't eat them and just figured it had to be something on their skin.
Thanks for the confirmation on that TJ! I wonder what changes as they become frogs? Why doesn't their skin continue to produce this defense for them? Their bodies / skin must change as they change??
All I know is the adults I have can leap buildings in a single bound!! Dang it man!
I talked to a South Texas fish farm guy not long ago. They are selling 2nd year bullfrog tadpoles for $5 each. I would love to have some but not at they price.
Dave drive up here with a 100 G tank, I will load you up with thousands for the price of a handshake.
IIRC Scott says he's seen his toad tadpoles get hammered by his LMB - not sure about his BF tadpoles. The enzyme or pheromone excreted by tadpoles making them distasteful to predators makes sense - how else could a tadpole ever make it adulthood otherwise? They are slow and defenseless. I wish my fish could make a meal of them - my WRs would be through the roof. I think Tony should perform some scientific research and taste test them...hey, it's for the advancement of the forum!
I've put literally 100's of Bullfrog Tadpoles in my pond and have only heard one or at the most two adults in the past 5-6 years. Are they growing to adulthood then the LMB eating them? Thoughts?
Scott, same here...I have tens of thousands of tadpoles, but I'd say fewer than 100 adult bullfrogs. I know bullfrogs get hammered by mink, coons, herons, snakes, owls, hawks, and in your case, LMB and CC. My suspicion is they lose the pheromone once they become frogs and become a forage option for a host of animals.
IIRC Scott says he's seen his toad tadpoles get hammered by his LMB - not sure about his BF tadpoles. The enzyme or pheromone excreted by tadpoles making them distasteful to predators makes sense - how else could a tadpole ever make it adulthood otherwise? They are slow and defenseless. I wish my fish could make a meal of them - my WRs would be through the roof. I think Tony should perform some scientific research and taste test them...hey, it's for the advancement of the forum!
Forget the worm in the tequila...next season's maple syrup will feature a tadpole in a few select bottles, intended for close acquaintances.
The other evening while out in the pouring rain checking on things for flood problems, I found two very large bullfrogs. They were both about the size of salad plates. When the jumped ungracefully into the pond to escape me, it sounded like a child belly-flopping into the pond! I have never seen a bull frog that big, and two in one night!
Like many of you I have thousands of tadpoles, and now many have legs and are dense around the pond edges. If I could get $5 a pop, I could take the summer off!
Yeah I caught one, one day on my pond I couldn't believe it. Caughtit on a floating worm!!
My worm hit the water and I saw this hugh wake from about 20 feet away coming at it and I thought oh man this has got to be a big bass!! Ha,ha right. Caught a 17.5 inch Bully from nose to toe. Thing was a beast!! Best fight I had all day!!
My wife tells the story of a large bull frog that lived near a garden pond in her yard. One day she found it dead with a bird in its mouth (also dead).
When we bought this property and moved here in fall of 2009, we noticed hundreds if not thousands of bullfrog tadpoles in our pond, but heard no adults. The next spring after ice out, we could see dozens of larger tadpoles, the size that begin to change into frogs come summer. We were expecting lots of big frogs to eat. Nothing doing-we have 1 bullfrog presently. The tadpoles all disappeared before they became adults. We've never seen another tadpole since the summer of 2010. I'd like to understand what happened. Shoreline cover has always included some cattails and bulrushes. Underwater vegetation was non existent the first 2 years. Now, there's lots of elodea and some sago is moving in. What happened to the frogs is a mystery to me.
I have huge amounts of bullfrogs and other kinds and have never put any frogs or tadpoles in the pond. What I noticed is when my pond was new I didn't have frogs. Then when I had the heavy infestation of Eurasian Milfoil they just showed up and loved to sit on top of the milfoil that was on top of the water. When the GC denuded my pond of vegetation the frogs mostly disappeared and came back when I reintroduced vegetation. They go where the food is and vegetation has lots of bugs. My dog Dolly catches several a day just to play with. The turtles and frogs coexist well together.
One of the best things about frogs is the tadpoles eat algae.
When we gig bull frogs we always check the stomach contents when cleaning them. It's amazing what they will eat. We've found that there favorite meal is small bullfrogs. We have also found water snakes, baby painted turtles, rats, fish including a 9" Redfin pike, bugs and birds. If it fits it's gone. But the fact that they eat there young may explain the lack of young frogs.
I noticed my snake population in the pond has grown and at the same time my Bullfrog population has gone down. So I reduced my snake population yesterday evening. Removed 4 snakes from the pond. I have seen another black one, if I see him again, I will remove him.
When we gig bull frogs we always check the stomach contents when cleaning them. It's amazing what they will eat. We've found that there favorite meal is small bullfrogs. We have also found water snakes, baby painted turtles, rats, fish including a 9" Redfin pike, bugs and birds. If it fits it's gone. But the fact that they eat there young may explain the lack of young frogs.
I've found many of the same things you mention. They are voracious and highly predatory. Back when I was bass fishing a lot, I would catch them fairly regularly on topwater jerkbaits.
If they could achieve a bigger top-end size, it might not be safe for your terrier to visit the pond alone.
Was out fishing yesterday and it was like a biblical plague of baby frogs. Looked like the ground was rolling ahead of me. If I had a mind to I could net thousands of them. I might try fishing with them.
In my nearly 68 years on this earth, I've seen almost no downsides to having any kind of frogs or toads where I fish and garden.
I wasn't too fond of the "giant bufo toads" we had in Hawaii that would hide during the day in my cucumber patches. I'd think I was grabbing a cucumber, and it would be one of those critters. They secreted a nasty substance that was supposedly a poison. I'd just wash my hands good after grabbing one. The hippies of the 70s would lick them to get a psychedelic high. I never tried that.
As a kid I used tadpoles for bass bait underneath the cranberry bogs along the south edge of the 80-acre lake on my uncle's farm. The tadpoles produced monster bass (for Northern Wisconsin) in June and early July. I think they were probably leopard frog tadpoles.
I mostly have bullfrogs throughout the summer on my bass/bluegill/CC/HSB pond. Just not very many.
The only downside was one big bull frog I named "Heart Attack." He was rather large and lived in the high grass on the north side of the pond. I'd get with about step of him, and he'd let out a croak, noisily spring several feet into the water, and nearly give me a heart attack.
One day, after he did that, I'd moved about 20-30 feet away from where he resided - after he'd done his act. I saw and heard all kinds of commotion in that area. A big bass had jumped into the grass and grabbed him, and then the bass flopped its way back into the water. That was the last of my friend "Heart Attack".
That pond has a limited number of smaller bullfrogs. Near sunset I regularly hear bass going up into the grass to grab them. (I keep about 12- to 18-inch wide swath of taller grass all the way around that pond for critter habitat. When I weed whack, I don't trim it less than about 8-12 inches).
I have a grow-out pond that is filled with RES and FHMs this summer. It is really filled with bull frogs. One is especially big. I've named him "B.P." for B.P Richfield from the old TV comic series "Dinosaurs".
Now and then, something goes in there and cleans out a number of the bullfrogs. My RES and FHM population also takes a toll. I'm thinking it is probably some kind of snakes. I just never see them.
My put-and-take HBG/HSB/CC pond has a few tadpoles, but virtually no frogs, but the settling pond that feeds that pond is loaded with bullfrogs and green frogs. Right now the settling pond is a slimy algae mess, but the frogs seem to like it.
I have toad houses made from old flower pots in the north shadows around the house. Most stay occupied. I figure thee toads eat a lot of bugs. I water the houses a couple of times a week with a hose.
In any case, I love having the frogs and toads around.
We're experiencing what, on the surface anyways, appears to be an excellent bullfrog year. There are thousands of large, legged BF tadpoles, and the adults are here in numbers that I haven't seen in years. I expect the herons to arrive in force, any day.
Tony,
Same here in Northern Indiana, but not just bullfrogs.
Haven't had many visits by herons this year. When I do I just fire a bottle rocket toward them.
Lots of medium sized bullfrogs this spring and lots of tadpoles. Lots of FA mats for them to hide in.
Big bullfrogs would hop across the top of the FA mats.
Raked the FA mats out of the pond and lots of frogs hopped back in from it.
Left and was gone a month. Came back and the FA is almost all gone, water has a nice planktonic algae bloom, and very few frogs.
When I removed the FA, either the LMB and/or GBH did away with the frogs or the frogs moved to the creek behind the pond. I think the FA was their protection and when I got rid of the FA the frogs became part of the food chain. Sad to see all the large bullfrogs gone.
Here's one that found it's way into our fish trap. We have a dozen or so that are this size and many more that are smaller. Kids love going around the pond counting frogs.
yesterday @ the pond I was seeing something come up to the surface and take a breath and then dive straight back towards the bottom of the pond. This was taking place in 6 foot or deeper water. My first thoughts were the fish were piping for air, but I watched more closely and discovered they were big tadpoles, about 3" in length and over an inch around in size. It would happen so fast it was hard to take a good look. I am pretty sure they were bull frog tadpoles and if so, I will have a lot of bull frogs. has anyone else ever seen this, it was first for me.
I knew I had them but did know how many until I took a spot light out one night and walked the shore!! OMG!! I had frogs everywhere man! Little ones, big ones medium, Bull's and some other types.... Its amazing how close you can get to them with the light. I have not done it yet but sometime I want to catch about 6 or 7 of them and go fishing with them just to see what happens... I would think the bass would love an early morning medium sized frog for breakfast!!
Isn't night around the pond an amazing thing??? I don't do it as much as I should or would like to (not the energy reserves I had 30 years ago - I get tired when night comes). But every time I do, always end up spending more time than planned.
Got up one night at 3 am because could not sleep. Went around the pond and saw all kinds of neat stuff. Frogs, toads mating, snake eating a frog, fish asleep in shallow water (picked up a small BG by hand), crawfish in shallow water................ goes on and on.
For those that have not done it, take a light, wear rubber boots, and visit your pond at night. Take bug spray.
yesterday @ the pond I was seeing something come up to the surface and take a breath and then dive straight back towards the bottom of the pond. This was taking place in 6 foot or deeper water. My first thoughts were the fish were piping for air, but I watched more closely and discovered they were big tadpoles, about 3" in length and over an inch around in size. It would happen so fast it was hard to take a good look. I am pretty sure they were bull frog tadpoles and if so, I will have a lot of bull frogs. has anyone else ever seen this, it was first for me.
Tracy
I saw this for the first time 2 weeks ago...in my big pond I had what looked like a swarm/school of something almost churning the water about 3 feet off the bank. I finally got close enough to see that it was dozens of bullfrog tadpoles 'breaching' for lack of a better word, over and over again. No clue what the purpose was, I assume eating something? It was really cool to watch though.
Two years ago I had so many tadpoles coming to the top of the water and diving to the bottom that it looked like rain drops all over the pond. I haven't seen nearly that kind of action since. I do have lots of frogs because I have a very vegetated pond. I thought the reason for this might be that the tadpoles were close to changing into frogs and so they were going from getting their oxygen from water to oxygen from the air.
Two years ago I had so many tadpoles coming to the top of the water and diving to the bottom that it looked like rain drops all over the pond. I haven't seen nearly that kind of action since. I do have lots of frogs because I have a very vegetated pond. I thought the reason for this might be that the tadpoles were close to changing into frogs and so they were going from getting their oxygen from water to oxygen from the air.
My pond looks like this today all around the edges.....I have never seen anything like it. Thought for a second it was rain drops.
Two years ago I had so many tadpoles coming to the top of the water and diving to the bottom that it looked like rain drops all over the pond. I haven't seen nearly that kind of action since. I do have lots of frogs because I have a very vegetated pond. I thought the reason for this might be that the tadpoles were close to changing into frogs and so they were going from getting their oxygen from water to oxygen from the air.
My pond looks like this today all around the edges.....I have never seen anything like it. Thought for a second it was rain drops.
For those that may not seen it before here are bull frog tadpoles popping the surface.
Flame..about 3 months ago I bought some adult size bullfrogs at a local Asian market. They were pretty large...so I would think some of them must have survived. I have yet to spend the night at the property but I hope to hear them when I do spend my first night out there later this summer. Adult size bullfrogs are relatively hard to source and can be pricey online, but the Asian market in Plano, Texas carries some really nice large live bullfrogs...I can't remember the exact price but they weren't much.
ps: Of course worse case scenario the frogs being they are from an Asian store who knows if they are local...they could be from Thailand and be super invasive and take over my entire property and even eat the donkeys and everything else in sight! (lol)
Zep do you remember the name of the market? I found 3 in Plano and went to Jusgo. They had them for 6.99 a pound. Not the best quality as some had red noses. They also were not trying to get out like the bullfrogs I caught earlier this year. I ended up getting 6 massive ones. Next to the frogs they had soft shell turtles but they looked in poor shape. I picked out the best of the soft shells which were kinda high at 15.99 a pound. I felt sorry for the soft shells. They also had live Catfish (Some good size ones), Tilapia, Carp/Koi, Large Mouth Bass, Crawfish which you can't get live at a regular supermarket because they are out of season. Going to go check out the other 2 places for Bulfrogs and Turtles.
I would love to see photos of the 'taste test'.... 
