This past weekend Lancaster County Ducks Unlimited had its 1st annual frog gig. It's the first one ever in the state and it turned out really well. Some have asked and perhaps you are reading this and wondering… why a frog gigging tournament? So before we get into the details of the competition I’d like to give some backstory to this event.

A few months ago the guys and I were at a Ducks Unlimited planning meeting sitting around thinking of ways we could raise some money for DU and we were specifically brainstorming ways we can raise support other than having a dinner banquet or a hunter’s party. We wondered what we could do to attract some new people. We had to think outside the box. After thinking a little while I said “Guys what about a frog gigging tournament?” They all kind of questioned it, but the more we read into in and studied frog gigging the more we found people doing it. And that was all we needed to get the wheels in motion.

So we all set the date and event venue. We decided to do it in July because it's hot out and the ole bull frogs would be out on the hot summer nights. We set the venue to one of the committee members’ farm and that proved to be a perfect location. The weigh-in site was a big open pole barn with a large man cave attached to it. We advertised about the frog gig a lot of folks showed interest. We were fortunate enough to have Heybo Southern donate some of their famous frog gigging tees and hats. They are a faithful supporter of our DU Chapter in all our events. So with all of the promotions and logistics set the only thing left to do was to have the event and gig some frogs!

We had 32 teams enter the contest which exceeded our expectations. We had first through third place for the 20 biggest frog and a cash pot for the biggest frog.

The Winners were as follows:

• 1st Place: Team Bass – Matt & Trevor Banks – Weight 11.54 lbs
• 2nd Place: Rich Hill Frog Stoppers – Jacob Shrader & Colby Adams – Weight 11.43 lbs
• 3rd Place: Team Rich Hill – Matthew Mungo & Andrew Baker – Weight 10.93 lbs
• Biggest Frog – Team Tradesville – (Colt Ellis & Ryan Griffin) – Weight .89 lbs

The prize packages were as follows:

• 1st place: A pair of DU edition savage 17 caliber rifles.
• 2nd place: A pair of k2 20 quart coolers
• 3rd place: A pair of gigs, head lamps.
  • Also each place had a Heybo prize pack included

Everyone I spoke with said they had a wonderful time at the event and they also mentioned that they look forward to doing it again. We made DU some good money and we all had fun doing it. And one of the best parts was that there were a lot of parent-child teams. We always love to see youth involved in the outdoors.

Thanks again to everyone who participated