Frog Gigging Adventures with Captain Frog Boy

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

In the woods, my name is Joel Clayfish.

I get to drive this semi, semi, semi-colon semi.

We're driving semi.

I drive

this

semi

across the great states of Michigan.

I don't have a CDL.

Do you?

I'm driving Wisconsin.

Illinois.

And Iowa.

Megan's lover Dave right off the top

of the show.

He's got a question.

No, I was just thinking I had a CDL.

Dave has

a CDL.

Perfect.

We can get this train rolling.

We

should take limos to the show from now on.

Dave, you could drive, because you

have a CDL.

Let's just get a semi.

Where are we going to get a

limo

from?

But you don't need a CDL to drive a limo.

You don't?

I don't think so.

All right, well,

he can just

drive.

I'll drive.

You need

an LDL.

Race

to the limo.

Raised

in the

Woods

is a show about the great outdoors of the Midwest.

You can hear us on your Civic Media stations live on Saturday mornings at 11 o'clock.

In our ever-growing network you can find us on Facebook under raised in the woods you can put raised in the woods on a Google search And it will direct you right to our show to listen if you happen to miss it on Saturday So jump on the old intranet and check us out.

Thanks for coming along.

I am really

Excited about this week's show.

Not

only were we able to convince former co-host Danielle Fairman to come

back this week.

Yeah.

Welcome back, Danielle.

Great

to have you here.

She had no idea about our guests today.

I did.

I'm so excited.

And she pulled out about 30 seconds ago and the smile on her face is so ginormous.

Well,

like imagine you're at, I'm assuming we do what we're going to talk about at night, correct?

Uh,

yes.

And then, oh, ma'am.

Imagine showing up in a limo to do this, like your guide comes up in a limo.

The thing.

There's so many

things.

James Cooper, be a little nervous when you leave here tonight.

You better check your rear view mirror.

Danielle is pretty

stealthy.

James Cooper is here and James Cooper

is one

of a kind.

He is the only, the one, the only

frog gating guide in the state of Wisconsin.

Of course we've got Megan the Somalia pirate along and her lover Dave

making

another guest appearance with us today, which is fantastic.

Now let's hop to business.

Can I just say how this day has finally arrived?

I have been talking about this since we met James almost a year ago.

My goal for 2026, my only goal was to go frog gigging.

And you are here.

Should we do it tonight?

Can we do it tonight?

Things

are gonna get weird.

There is a lot of excitement

in the room.

I didn't bring

any of the stuff with

me.

Stop, we have hands.

Yeah, we can do it.

That's the best way to go.

We're gonna get into all the ins and outs, and oh my gosh, you guys, I am so excited.

I can't even stand it.

Well, let's get a jump on it then, Chelsea.

I'm giddy

for gigging.

I wanna start,

first of all, first of all, I wanna know.

Are there t-shirts?

James

Cooper.

Very my work

I gotta ask James.

Are you a leg

man?

Frog legs, you guys.

Frog legs.

We need to tell our listeners a

story

about what he actually does.

No, I need to tell the listeners about a story, a little quick story that happened right before we started recording.

Megan's lover, Dave is here and he, what he found out about the gigging thing.

And a few days ago, he took it upon himself to start practicing.

So he found a huge.

Bullfrog.

It was in the road.

Yes, it was the road and he went up and he caught it.

And when James got here, he pulled

up

and

he

goes, Hey,

James, see these legs?

This

is

just too much.

I love it.

This is so exciting.

First of all,

James Cooper, the only, the world's only frog gigging guy.

Why don't you explain to the listeners what frog gigging is to begin with?

So frog gigging is where you go out at night with headlamps.

There's spears or you can do them by hand.

You go out and you catch bullfrogs.

So there's a couple of ways you can do them in a Piro.

A Piro is like a

kayak if people don't know what that

is.

Oh, Joel wants to do that version.

Yes, he

does.

So I

have

a new version of P-Rose.

I have a kayak that we can go out to if we don't want to do it by shore or do it out on a boat.

You can go up and you will shine the light on the frog in its eyes like my phone is a frog.

and you will go up right behind it and grab it.

Yeah.

And then the frog and then you just throw it in the

bucket.

It

is really too bad.

You cannot on radio see James acting out

his frog giving

experience in the

studio

because he was wonderful.

He was

more animated

than a turkey caller at a

competition.

I'm just going to say that.

Like I feel like I would fall.

I would not breathe, and it would just ruin the whole thing, but I would laugh hysterically.

You go noodling, Danielle.

Yeah, but like, I'm just crawling down a leg or a frickin...

stick to go in there.

Yeah, but

still my eyes are not open.

I'm looking at this frog dead of the eyes and just like

on a serious note.

Oh, I'm not

sure.

Chef Ellie Lawton, who is a certified French culinary and certified French chef.

Frog legs are a delicacy and they actually are.

I mean, they're served

at

the finest restaurants.

They are so delicious.

And I know James has a few of his favorite recipes he's going to share with us in the cooking segment.

And a little bit later, we're also going to talk about Megan Salazar's experience eating her first frog legs recently and she

is you guys terrified of frogs.

I want

to talk about that.

I'm terrified

of snakes and she's absolutely

terrified.

Yeah, like she's actually terrified of frogs.

What about them?

We're not judging here.

We're supporting her situation.

I'm judging.

I think that's weird.

I did strongly encourage

the eating of the frog legs.

I don't know about what, but I'm judging

you.

Hey, we're Planet Fitness.

This is a judgment free zone.

Why do you, why,

how on earth are you afraid of

frogs?

So I grew up on a creek in Virginia.

in one of the many places that I lived, and this kid next door shot one in the eye with a BB gun, and the bullfrog lived outside my window, and it had this BB for an eye all summer long.

Megan, why don't you tell an adult about this?

I don't know.

What was my story come

back?

Then we went on this little mini Model T Ford, and we piled all these kids in it, and we hit a curb, and we landed on all these smooched frogs on the road.

Yeah, Megan.

Okay.

I'm traumatized.

First of

all, let me say there's no lower breed of human that I know of that.

it goes out there and tortures animals and not ethically kill them to use them

for food.

First of all, but I think a lot of people don't look and realize, and that's one of the cool things about the show.

We had a taxidermist on here

who

literally picks up roadkill

to

taxidermy it and give it new life after it's, you

know.

And she makes beautiful art pieces and jewelry out of the bones.

But I don't think a lot of people who live in Wisconsin realize we've got a food resource out here

in our amphibious population and

James I'll eat snakes and iguanas but the frog thing I just had a really hard time well you

gave it a go though the foul life was in town we were filming for the national television show the foul life and travel wisconsin and we went to one of the best restaurants

in the state of wisconsin the tornado room in madison shout out to them and we had frog legs and i watching megan and i think there was a there was a lot of beer pressure uh

it was from me i'm not gonna lie because

uh megan megan tried her first frog leg uh and what did you actually think did you get past it enough in your mind to actually see

I

did because I couldn't say no and I was on camera on top of that.

So there was no saying no.

Oh, that's right.

The camera was like right in my face.

But they actually were extremely tender and taste wise.

Like everyone says it tastes like chicken and it pretty much did, but better chicken.

But I seriously, mentally had to like talk myself through it.

Yeah, you really did.

I at one point almost felt bad.

But I'm like,

no.

I

literally looked across the table and I'm like, Megan, you are one of the toughest people I know.

Eat the frog leg.

We

just came back from Japan and we were eating horse and we were eating like baby anchovies that were alive still.

It was so odd to see you struggling with

something to eat.

It was just so weird.

But I will say, yeah, quick shout out to tornado room.

As far as frog legs and restaurants go in the state of Wisconsin,

The tornado room is my number one now.

Yeah, that

was fantastic,

Danielle.

Have you been

to multiple

places that have frog legs?

Oh, sure.

Yeah, probably about five or six in the state of Wisconsin.

So I mean, my list isn't long, but...

I don't know.

There's a person

hearing that restaurants serve frog legs.

Yes.

No,

no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

All right.

Have you eaten frog legs?

No, you haven't tried them before.

I know you brought some.

I'm going to say, I think they taste like a combination between chicken and scallops.

They've got like a seafood-y kind of essence to them and that kind of texture.

They're more rich than chicken.

I absolutely love frog legs.

I put them right up there with some really decent alligator, some well-cooked alligator tastes similar to frog legs and kind of almost like grouper.

They've got like a grouper meatiness to them.

See the thoughts that I'm having is how

Are we eating these like a chicken leg?

Yeah.

Like a drum.

That's kind of what they look like.

They're smaller, drummy.

Okay.

So that was the other thing.

Ellie did cut my food for me.

But I think

if I had to eat it off the

bone, I would have lost it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I just think of it as like a chicken wing.

That's what it looks like

to

me.

Megan's lover.

Have you eaten frog legs?

I actually have.

And it was like Joel said, it's like chicken wings.

Yeah, like a chicken wing.

Yeah.

Okay.

So in order to get these frogs, do I need a license?

So in the state of Wisconsin, it's the state, the Wisconsin state law for frog gigging is very up and down.

And that's one thing I'm trying to change.

You're trying to change?

I like this.

Well, you got the right guy in the room to do

that.

Yeah, no

kidding.

So you don't need

a license, technically, to go frog-gigging.

I require it myself.

You require a guiding license.

No, a fishing license.

Fishing license.

So you

get the frogs, because they have a limit on.

So in my eyes, if you have a limit on something,

you need a license.

That's a good thought.

Most wardens don't know anything about this.

When I applied for my guide license, the chief warden actually called me and said, what do you want to do?

So that was a big thing.

So you do have to do it on public waters.

So it is

very.

You cannot frog gig if you got a pond in your backyard.

So you can.

But if you wanted to do it guiding wise,

it

has to be.

on public waters, but if it's just a group of buddies, that's what I would do.

What is this limit?

Five.

Five.

Five frogs per person per day.

And then is there a bag limit?

That's the bag limit.

A possession limit.

Oh, we got a lot of questions to get into.

I'm so excited.

What is

the possession limit?

Five.

No, so it's five total.

Five

total per person.

So you can't have any more than that in your freezer?

No, that day.

So

is there an overall possession limit?

How many you can have in your freezer?

It's so I

would probably be in

trouble.

I like James.

Oh

my gosh.

The whole walk-in freezer.

Just

legs.

We jumped right into that

one and you never know

what you're going to get

raised in the

woods.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

This show, I mean, gosh, it seems like almost every show is off the rails right off the bat, and this is no excuse.

My name is Joel Clayfish.

I host this show, and every week I am always surprised at what we've got

going on here.

Chef Ellie Lawton is the co-host, former co-host, Danielle Fairman

is

back with us.

Great to

have you.

Megan Salazar, her lover, Dave, is here, and the man of the hour.

Captain frog boy

himself

James Cooper who makes his living I can't make this I can't make this up.

I love this so much frog gigging champion

of the world of Wisconsin.

The best frog gigging guide in the entire state.

The only one.

Yeah.

James Cooper is here.

I tell me, James, James guides people frog gigging.

How in the ever loving hell did you start?

Yes.

So it dates back when I was a kid, my family, my grandparents lived in Louisiana.

in a pick in Louisiana and uh I lived in Ohio and we would go on vacation in the summers I'd be shipped down there to spend with my grandfather and my grandmother and

Is this because your parents didn't like you?

No, just because they told me.

He likes frogs.

This is kind of

weird.

You need to learn southern ways of stuff, fishing,

hunting.

That sounds wonderful.

Yeah, it does.

It was awesome.

My uncle ran a campground.

Oh, jeez.

So like bait shops and

being

my uncle and my grandfather guided.

So

I kind

of grew up in it.

Boar hunting, gator hunting, fishing, duck hunting.

They did it all.

Wow.

So, growing up, there were certain seasons we were allowed to play outside, not because there was electronics, there wasn't nothing back in the day, but the copperhead.

You're talking about this like you're some 60-year-old dude.

My body feels like it, but... To paint you a picture, he looks like he's about what, he had 25?

I'm 30, so

I'm just a

baby.

He's still young.

But no, we would...

get snapping turtles, I'd do it all.

And then when I was about six to 13, I was allowed to start driving boats and fishing

and doing

stuff.

Sounds reasonable as a six year old.

Yeah.

And, uh, but

I did have

my own Piro and it would, I would go out

and the Piro is a type of kayak

and, uh, my grandfather's brother used a hand car paddle.

So

everything

was.

all handmade.

So

I grew up like, like

Cajun way.

That's how they say it.

We're going to get some good recipes, son.

Gumbo is my favorite thing.

I love seafood.

I

could eat seafood sushi for a whole nine yards my whole life.

I'm on the seafood diet.

I see food and I eat it.

That's a good diet.

Yeah.

But no, yeah, I grew up doing that.

And then when I turned 16,

And my high school years, sports took involved and I played a bunch of sports and I really didn't go travel back to Louisiana like I should have.

And then my grandparents passed away and

then

we moved them up and I haven't been back to Louisiana since.

But I still have a Cajun way, grew up on Lake Erie, walleye fishing and.

deer hunting, and then I took a job up here, a firefighting job up here, and I just started the Wisconsin outdoor

stuff.

So it's

been really...

It's plenty out there.

Crazy.

I started a YouTube channel, and then I had...

About frogs?

No, about waterfowl hunting, actually.

Oh, wonderful.

And then

I just, a couple guys on the fire department, I was like, hey, you want to go frog-igging?

And they're like, what's that?

And I'm like, you.

So a bunch of grown man come up to your uniform, like you want to go for all the good.

So we take it out of the woods at

night.

So we went out.

One of the buddies has a private pond and we were gigging him.

And then like everything, someone sees headlights,

headlamps

and the sheriff got caught out.

Yeah.

But we know one of the sheriffs was one of our friends.

And he's like, what are you doing?

So

I have some photos of some sheriffs.

Frog digging in

uniform.

But no.

And then with your story of eating the first frog, one of our trainings, I made frog legs about 75 of them.

for the fire

department.

No one ever had him.

I have one girl.

She does not eat seafood, meat, the whole nine yards.

I traded.

I tricked her.

Oh, I said it was a chicken wing and

she ate it.

Did she like it?

She loved it.

Did you tell her after?

I

did tell her

after.

Was she mad?

She wasn't that mad.

She didn't cry.

She held a

grudge.

I have told so many people that Sky Carp is just shredded beef and they end up loving

it

and end up later.

I love the type of mad people are when they find out because they want to be mad that they tried it, but then they liked it so much that they can't be mad.

And I can imagine that happens a lot with frog legs.

You can do them in like a jalapeno popper too.

And then you put some dove in it.

Just do a cutie board of jalapeno poppers.

No one will know.

What did you call it?

A cutie board.

That's

the Cajun way of saying it.

Cutie board.

Cut the

cuties.

We's all fixing to eat that

cutie bar.

Get her done.

That is

fantastic.

We's

all fixing data.

Oh my

gosh.

Okay, we have lots of questions still to go.

This show

is going to go by in a

flash.

I can already tell we're going to need to have Captain Frog Boy back again because James...

Do you

know if he's okay

being called back?

How do you feel

about that nickname?

I thought

Frog Man's

better than Frog

Boy.

I might have to make a sticker of it, Captain.

I can

already

tell

Captain Frogboy is a good enough sport.

I can already tell he's got a great enough personality that

we're gonna have him

back and we got lots more raised in the woods.

This is Raised in the Woods, the Raised in the Swamp Edition.

My name's Joel Clayfish, Captain of the Skiff.

That's

how you're going to say Captain Underpants.

No, Captain Underpants is our special guest today.

James

Cooper, the state's only frog gigging guide.

I just think it's an, I think Captain Frog Boy is a fantastic nickname, but I have to ask, do you have nicknames?

People have to give you nicknames if you are the frog man of Wisconsin.

So, a lot of guys just call me Cooper Cooper or, but

people call me Odd.

That

has

nothing to do with

frog.

But I get

called Cajun Boy a lot.

Cajun Boy.

Okay.

And you said Odd.

How

about the Ribbit Wrangler?

That's a good one too.

I like that now you said a lot of people call you odd I can see

that

No kidding, Danielle.

Listen,

there's nobody on this panel that I know

who is so

quickly to make fun of themselves

as me.

If you can't laugh at yourself, you've got no business laughing at anybody else.

So you've got a few nicknames that have to do with frogs, but Cajunboy, I like that one.

You seem

very Cajun.

Yeah, I like Cajunboy.

Yeah,

so let's get into this.

I know everybody here's got some crazy questions for you.

So you started fraud gigging and thought I'm gonna actually start a business doing this

yeah, so I ran a YouTube channel and I had a lot of subscribers or a cake and you take me out doing this and I'm like well

I don't know.

I don't want to be a guide.

My family did, and then my uncle was like, you should do it.

Yeah.

And I was like, OK.

We like

him.

So I started a Halligan outdoor guide service.

Why Halligan?

Because I was a firefighter.

And the Halligan.

Bar opens the door to save

people.

And

my motto is I open the doors to the outdoors for people.

Oh my gosh, James!

So that's where... You're melting our hearts here.

So

I do a lot of stuff for veterans and stuff.

And first responders, it's always great to get out on the water after...

PTSD is a huge thing right now men's mental health, so

but

outdoors is a great gateway Oh, we couldn't agree more.

Absolutely

getting the stress out

good for you.

Thank

you, but no I started it a few years ago and Getting the guide license for bow fishing was super easy and ice fishing but The

frog was a

little I got a couple phone calls from the

DNR's office like where are you gonna be doing this?

Do you know how to do it?

What

did they know how to do it?

I don't think I

can

do

this

yeah, I I said it's I know the limits I but the limit the rule book for this is very Shady not shady.

That's spotty

spotty

on the laws verse

Only one county you can't frog gig in in the state of Wisconsin.

Which one?

Which is?

And that is the state capitol.

Oh.

Dean County.

Dean

County.

Why?

Well,

the state

capital, there's a lot more toads than frogs.

Let's just say sometimes the

Illinois water runs deep up here.

So they got a little jumpy about you doing it

there.

No, that was already a rule

when

I

came up and the possession limit is five per day.

That is super small.

from where I grew up.

And what is it down south?

It ranges from 25 to 75 frogs per

person.

But is the frog population up here that much smaller that they have it less?

I think the frog population is about the same.

But Wisconsin did not have frogs.

Along like a couple in the 80s and 90s

see and that's why I wanted to move here.

There were no

So this is also on a serious note.

This is a conservation story.

Well, I was just gonna ask James I was gonna put you on the spot and like tell us how the importance of doing this and managing a population like that

so actually the American bullfrog is actually not American bullfrog.

It's actually

They were invasive.

They came over from boats.

And then now that they've been in the States for a while, now it's American bullfrog.

But before there was Egyptian bullfrogs.

And they came over a long time ago.

Is that because they hop like an Egyptian?

Oh,

wow.

That was

pretty

deep.

No.

So it's very like the frog.

Bullfrog is super new to people.

Where did they come from?

So they came from Egyptian.

They came through people's boats, being on people's boats trailers.

They came through the rivers.

They came through birds flying

and

the

eggs.

With the eggs on their feet, sure.

And when they went to

the restroom.

Sounds like a pyramid scheme.

Oh, geez.

I can't help it.

I can't help it.

He's very punny.

But no, it's there's a lot of things we could go in for two hours on how frogs are.

It's like the Asian carp.

OK.

And it's like the crane population.

What's

constant does not like to limit themselves on trying to help the population sometimes on stuff.

So.

I've been working and trying to get the limit changed and I'm trying to get where non-residents can do this because we are a very destination state.

Yes.

Travel Wisconsin and the tourism folks want people to come here and I can imagine with a healthy population that needs to be controlled and somebody like you who does this it would be advantageous to bring that tourism

here.

And the money that I've turned down for our state.

Really?

I want to do it and they

can't.

There's actually a bucket list.

There's a lot of bucket list guys.

that want to get a bullfrog in each state.

Oh my gosh, that is so cool.

There's people that want to come and catch bullfrogs.

The hot slam.

Yeah, the hot slam.

Are there variations between the states of what the bullfrogs look like?

Yes, so there's like

leopard bullfrogs with colors, they're black, gray.

What's the most common one in Wisconsin?

So there's a leopard and then the American bullfrog.

Okay.

And

then the toad gets mistaken a lot and the toad this

scary sometimes for some people.

The toad is scary?

Yeah, some people are super scared

of a toad.

I mean, I'm not

scared,

but

I don't like

them.

Just because they're warts.

Yeah.

Those aren't real, you know that,

right?

I know.

You can't really get warts from a toad.

I

meant warts on a toad, not

if

they pee on

you.

But no, there's a lot of people.

I know I have a buddy, he's...

Frog gig in almost like 25 states

and he wants to come up to

us constant.

So what's the largest one in Wisconsin?

So

the largest I've got, I call it the unofficial record because there's not a record of

it.

It was

about 14 inches.

And then three

and a half wide.