Unique Blue Crab Catch

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Eastern
Location: East Wye River

I thought you might be interested in a very strange crab mutation in a crab my wife and I caught yesterday (9/13/2011) on the Wye River. We iced this crab so that he would cooperate for the photos. He was later steamed, but we did save the claw.

Interestingly, in the 35 years I've crabbed the Wye, I've caught plenty of white perch and spot in my crab traps, but never a catfish. Yesterday we caught and released at least a dozen in our traps (10"-12"), and they were stealing the bait off of our bait pins all day.

Thanks,
Steve & Toni Quigley