At one of my girlfriend's ponds we have been catching mud cats that are missing body parts. Prolly some old "war wounds", but there are no visible scars or deformities that suggest these parts were ever even present on these fish...

Left pectoral fin?


Eye?


Here are some of the more normal channel cats we caught also...

lol

Yep, that's what I'm thinkin'

In a small pond like that they may be inbreeding casing the deformities.

I remember fishing a golf course pond when I was younger and catching catfish that had one eye or no eyes. Some would also have extra whiskers and other weird stuff. I'm gonna agree with angler josh and say they're inbreeding.

It's over population I believe. I've never seen it happen to catfish, but it's very common with carp. I've seen carp with no eye's, weird shaped tails, etc. I can't remember what it is that causes it, but I know it's got to do with over population.

Yea I agree, you can't keep even a perch head in the water for a minute without having a mud cat engulf it! It is a shame too because there are some really nice channel cat in there, but you can't keep a bait in the water long enough to give them time to find it...

YOu will see the same thing in Arkansas, sad.

good looking channel's. i wish i had a tank with that problem-cant keep yur bait in the water for more than a minute until you get a bite.

Nice looking catch , not the cat !

+1

eat it and let us know how it works out

Looks like that and will take her on fish off. She's a Keeper