In Northeast Georgia, there seems to be a dearth of ponds stocked with the big bull frogs that yield prized frog legs. If I can find them, should I add them to the pond. Would they be bad for the bass and bream I just stocked?

If they're a decent idea, where can I find some good adults or tadpoles to buy?

If there are LMB in the pond, they will make short work of any excess frog population. I would just let them show up on their own. The wisest of them will survive.

If frogs want to be there, they'll show up. And if they don't want to be there and you put some there, they'll leave. If you're going to try it go with tadpoles.

There are plenty of frogs, just no bull frogs.

Cicero, BF need lots of emergent and submergent vegetation to avoid predation. The more shallow area there is with weedy banks your pond has, the better chance of survival and reproduction. I'm a great lover of frog legs and have been gigin for 6 decades. they are around 8-9 bucks a pound in Piggly Wiggly. I encourage you yo give it a whirl. If there are lots of ponds around I'd bet you could swap some chores or just sweet talk some neighbors into letting ya tarp some tads or even catch a bunch of developed frogs. Do both. A simple minnow trap baited with fish food or bread will work well.

+1 on Bob-O's comments!

Prior to eradicating my pond overran with Coontail, Chara and FA I had thousands of BF tadpoles and hundreds of huge BF's surrounding the pond (many of which hit the grease).

Once my pond was void of vegetation, off they went .

As far as LMB eating bullfrogs, IIRC the BF tadpoles apparently put off a pheromone LMB don't like. Yet that may be different once they grow. Predation concerns for my BF's came more from GBH's and other critters (muskrats, coons, etc.).

They're starting to show back up, especially with all the rains and being at full pool, and I personally welcome them! Their croaking adds to my "pond therapy" .

Is there any place in particular that I can order them though? I'm somewhat short on connections to people with bull frogs...

Cicero...I had difficulty finding adult size live bullfrogs for sale anywhere...online, hatcheries, etc. I finally found them at an Asian food store in a suburb of Dallas. They were really large bullfrogs. Not sure where they came from...maybe shipped in from who knows where? Of course not knowing exactly where they originated from it's possible every horror story scenario could happen...but I doubt it. I put them in last year...have not seen or heard them since..they were large enough that some would have a good chance to avoid predation. When I spend more time there I hope to hear them at night.

ps: this online source has them sometimes, but way too pricey
for my liking, since they could easily be eaten at that size:
Live Bullfrogs Online

As lovnlivin said the way to attract frogs is vegetation in your pond. That draws bugs. Food is the secrete. Here is the third spawn I have seen so far in my pond of tadpoles this spring. This is about 8 feet long and five feet high.

FROG HEAD FOOD.
Fish pellet on this frog. I was feeding my fish and came back two hours later the saw this frog.

Although I sometimes have a couple in my big pond, the Bullfrogs seem to have longer lives and reproduce better in my forage pond where there are no large predator fish. If you could add a small, shallow sediment pond ahead of where your main water source enters your pond it will become filled with filtering weeds. Bullfrog habitat.

Like Bob-O says, a baited minnow trap will trap lots of them easily if you can find a pond or creek with the tadpoles. I've caught them in minnow traps when not trying.

I had them in my pond...until I got some larger bass. I don't spend much time around the pond lately, but have not seen any frogs/tadpoles when there.

Sean

We built our pond in the fall of 2013. Until now, the only frogs have been Northern Greens. Tonight I hear a bullfrog singing so I think they have found our puddle. Hope they thrive as we love frog legs!

We've got bullfrogs the size of kittens. What's the best way to catch them? And when is the best time of year to harvest a few?

John Monroe, The picture of black clouds in the shallows may be American Toads rather than bullfrogs. If they are still there, pick one up and look closely. See if you can see a 'spiral' imprint on their back. We also have clouds of black 'toadlets' in our shallows just like you. The American toad spends its life out of water, but comes to water to lay eggs. If you check daily, when the toadlets are big enough they will all come out of the water at once and head for the woods. You will see the grass just alive with wriggling toads trying to made it to freedom.

The bullfrog tadpoles take 3 years to become adults and you will likely not see clouds of them. They tend to be more green (not black), their tails are not tiny corkscrews but more broad blade like tails. They move much more quickly than toadlets, to the point of hardly being able to see them dart.

Cicero, you can source bullfrog young pretty easily on ebay, they sell by the dozen or larger quantity, you can pick their size. But once you stock them it isn't clear why sometimes they stay and reproduce and other times they grow up and leave.

This page shows some pictures. It also has a MP3 that you can click on to hear their unique 'trill' like call. I guess they are the only toad or frog that has jet black tadpoles.


American Toad call

John - For your latitude the current tadpoles are very likely toad tadpoles as canyoncreek suggests. Generally toad eggs area laid and hatch several weeks prior to bullfrogs. It is a couple to several weeks too early for bullfrog tadpoles in central Indiana. Bullfrogs are just beginning the reproductive cycle in our region.

I will let friends hunt deer, squirrel, turkey, and rabbit. Coon hunters are welcome on our place also. I draw the line at bullfrog harvesting however. I've seen firsthand how easily their numbers may be decimated, and how long it takes them to recover.

I enjoy the frogs and have a few bullfrogs on both ponds. Tons of BF tadpoles as well as Leopard frogs but the number of adults doesn't seem to increase. I guess the migrate away when they mature. Many of my BF tadpoles overwintered and are now growing legs. It's funnu but if I walk around the ponds the frogs jump in like I'm trying to kill them but my riding mower doesn't bother them at all. I have to be careful or I'd run over them.

John M, you are a wizard with your camera! Maybe you or someone else who is into macro photography and get the lighting and positioning right to show the pretty little spiral on the back of those tiny tadpoles (toadpoles) They don't hold still well but when they do, with the right lighting, that little mark is pretty cool.

Until a couple weeks ago, I had bullfrogs all around my pond. Now I'm down to just a few. The pond is visited by a GBH every day, and I think that's where the frogs are going.

Catching Bullfrogs. My dog Dolly sees and catches them at night as we walk the pond. I have no idea how she sees them when I see nothing. She brings them back to the house about 600 feet from the pond and when she is done watching them I pick them up and return them to the pond. Usually they aren't hurt.

One of my dogs chases bullfrogs every day, but I don't think she's ever caught one. It gives her a lot of exercise. She either charges them or swims after them. I can't understand why that doesn't work, and obviously, she can't either.

I had the same situation last year where I had 15 to 20 Bull frogs and then I had just a few. I also had seven water snakes that I could see most days and no telling how many I could not see. I changed that!! and this year I have another good supply of Bull frogs, some of them are monstrous in size Another thing was last year I had hundreds and hundreds of leopard frogs that my dog Charlie like to chase but have seen none this year. And that is exactly what Todd Overton told me, that I would not see that again. Maybe my bass are bigger ?? Not sure why such a change.

Tracy