We spent this afternoon up to our necks (at times) in the bullfrog pond in Briones Regional Park. At the height of the summer it’s not too deep, but still over my head in the middle, which is where the biggest bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) hang out. By wading all the way in until we were tiptoeing on the muddy bottom, or even swimming, we managed to catch several frogs with our long-handled nets, although a dozen or more escaped, laughing at us as they hopped away.
We also caught a couple of bullfrog tadpoles, so big they already have small rear legs beside their tails. Bullfrog larvae take a couple of years to mature, so these monsters didn’t hatch this year from their eggs.
Steven E. F. Brown 