First frog rodeo held in Bayou Gauche

Landon Lasseigne and Rannon Breaux are such serious froggers that when Bayou Gauche’s first frog rodeo was announced they prepped for it like an Olympic event.

They scouted the area’s wetlands in advance of the rodeo and located heavy bullfrog hangouts, but these two determined guys worked even harder for the win. They further narrowed these locations to the ones with the biggest frogs.

So when it came time to compete it was game on for these veteran hunters – and they won.

They brought in the biggest bullfrog, weighing in at 1.3 pounds (a record sized bullfrog has been recorded at 1.5 pounds), and also won the category with the five biggest frogs collectively at 5 pounds 4 ounces.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Lasseigne said of the rodeo. “You get people to go to that bar and it’s where people drink in Bayou Gauche. I think they should do it every year.”

That’s the plan, according to Joel DeJean, owner of Fisherman’s Wharf in Bayou Gauche.

“It was our first ever,” DeJean said. “We plan on making it an annual event now because it was such a huge success.”

It was so successful he added they’re also sponsoring a fishing rodeo, Casting for Cops, on Oct. 13. All proceeds benefit the families of police officers who have been injured or died in the line of duty.

The frog rodeo was Michael “Shrek” Hotard’s idea. He and his wife, Christina, who is also a bartender there, assisted with holding the event.

Christina said the crowd was bigger than expected for vent with little advertising that drew 10 teams. She’s already planning a “bigger and better” rodeo next year.[pullquote]“We were scouting a couple days ahead of time. They had money involved. We were ready to go.”- Landon Lasseigne[/pullquote]

“I think it was great,” she said. “It looked like people really enjoyed it and we hope to make it an annual thing.”

Lasseigne and Breaux won $200 for winning both categories.

“We were out there looking,” Lasseigne said. “We were scouting a couple days ahead of time. They had money involved. We were ready to go.”

In Bayou Gauche, where the waters of Lac Des Allemands flows, is where the two found their winning bullfrogs. They rode along the banks looking for them and grabbed them wary of what he called “a Cajun stop sign.”

“You have to use a spotlight to see them because their eyes are green or yellowish,” Breaux said of finding frogs at night. “But when you see red that’s called a Cajun stop

 

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