When is a frog not a frog? A crawfish not a crawfish? When the frog or crawfish is really a pork rind. Ingenious fishermen have carefully fabricated butcher's scraps into the shape of fresh water fishes' (such as bass, carp and walleye) favorite food for decades with many bait manufacturers "angling" for pork rind bait market supremacy. Traditionally, frogs were used for bait, but just how did this fish fake out originate? By all accounts, back in the 1920's two Wisconsin fishermen, Alan Jones and Urban Shreiner, ran into an alleged frog shortage around their favorite fishing hole, Jordon Lake, which prevented them from enjoying their favorite pastime-catching bass. With some ingenuity and a jackknife, Jones and Shreiner sculpted a faux frog facsimile from a fresh pork rind. The color of the skin and fatty texture fooled the local fish so well their new enterprise selling a new kind of fish bait was born - the Uncle Josh Bait Company. A plus was that Jones' family were the makers of Jones Sausage; thus insuring that would be no shortage of lure material. Uncle Josh's success spawned a whole host of imitative competitors; although plastic and latex "rinds" briefly eclipsed the use of real pork in the 1960's, a pork rind renaissance of sorts took place in the 1980's. 80 years on the quest to perfect false frogs continues apace, and today, pork rind bait rigs are available from no less than a dozen manufacturers including the one that started it all, Uncle Josh. Today's pork rind bait aficionados are spoiled for choice with a host of colors and shapes to choose from beyond the original green and white; yet as before the rind is packed in brine to prevent spoilage and help maintain its shape. An additional benefit of pork rind bait is its relative toughness which makes it more durable (i. e. less apt to be shredded by hungry prey)

It is more difficult for fish to tear.