These fins are made for walking....

From my garden blog -
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I returned from a two day road trip to find a dead catfish in my driveway.  It looked to me to be about a 3-4 pounder and had most likely only been there for a half day.  How on earth does a catfish end up in your driveway????  Were aliens responsible?  Does this have some deep meaning behind it?   

I'm used to finding dead animals in my yard, but never fish.  Both my dog and cat enjoy hunting.  For my dog she's usually responsible for a few possum, rabbit and field rat deaths each year.  My cat focuses on birds, reptiles, and rodents.

There are plenty of fish close by too.  Lake Minneola is a couple hundred feet to the west and on the east side of my house there is a small pond about 500 hundred feet away.  That would most likely be the source because it is slowly drying up as the result of our drought and is a more likely place to find catfish than Lake Minneola.

After inspecting the catfish I could find no signs of an animal attack.  I doubt either one of my pets were responsible so I was thinking maybe one of the local hawks or Ospreys may have inadvertently dropped it while buzzing overhead.  But after closer inspection I could not find any wounds that may have resulted from being clutched by a bird.

So that leaves one possibility, it is a walking catfish.  I've seen pictures of them, but have never seen one in real life.  I know they have established themselves throughout Florida and I've seen video footage of them on our local TV stations.  I scoured the web for pictures and after reviewing dozens of photos, my mystery fish does resemble a walking catfish.  Unfortunately I've already buried the fish so I can't do a close comparison.

This will certainly make it easier for me to fish for fresh fish.  I can work in my yard and still fish.  How cool is that  when fish walk right up to your back door!