Still settling in to things here but with 4 seasons under my belt now, I’ve gotten a pretty good feel for things here now. Figured I’d share some critters.

Gotta say otters here are pretty similar to what I’ve caught up north, but bigger here on the coastal bay.
The coons, well terrible!
Fox are peculiar. Some are better furred than where I came from. Seem to have a short nap variety and a longer variety. Time of catch doesn’t matter with the two types. Some are just short napped. Colors isn’t as good here though for the most part. More orange than red.
Our beavs range from flat to heavy with pretty good color.
Our grey fox are top notch. And I love our coastal rats. As many blacks as browns and they do shine.
Last but not least, are newcomers.. coyotes. Better than most I caught in Jersey and PA. Head scratching on them!

A few more

Nice job, Mud!

Always impressive photos.

Coyotes and rats. Curious to what some of you think on the stink dogs. I was hesitantly pleased.. I really don’t like coyotes lol.

That’s a good pile of fox!

coyotes seem nice for that far east. can sure tell what you mean about the fox hvy an short. purty rats!

tell us about your rats? are most of the rats black in your area? is it common? how do you market them and do you get more $ because of the color ?

I don’t trap much of the typical rat range here. Some but not much. I trap a few of the saltwater tidal guts on the coastal bay. Very difficult to access even in a kayak. Some of those guts are mixed blacks and browns and a couple are exclusively black rats. Not big numbers by any means but very pretty.

I sell my beaver and rats through FHA. Usually blacks are at or near the top lot. 6.50 is the worst I’ve done on them. Beaver rats and otters grade pretty well at FHA from here. As do grey fox.

Maryland fox always seem to have that frosty looking rump.

Great pics Mud.

Those are great pics.

Those dark rats are amazing. Thanks for the pics.

Very Nice!!!

nice job,

Great job, love the dark rats.

So do PAs lol. And the super long legs.....

I always thought Maryland had smaller rats. Those pictured looked good sized. Great job on the fur.

Late like this they will mostly measure 2xl and xl. This particular creek I’m on now they run large.

Are the rats fighting there? I pulled rat traps here in NY 2 weeks ago, a lot of bit up rats.

Very Nice

Nice fur! Are you related to Samuel Mudd? I knew a trapper from the Waldorf area that was a direct descendent of Samuel Mudd. If I recall correctly his name was Al Mudd. I don't know if Mud is your last name, but it reminded me of Al.

lol no sir. My handle is just a play on what used to be my favorite saltwater fish when I lived North. Everyone else was chasing the big fancy stripers and spring weakfish. This poor slob loved catching the little winter flounder we nicknamed mud-marlin in response to the elite chasing the real gamefish.. hence “Mud”.

They should be.. but only a slight these past couple days that had one bite on its back. Mind you I’m not in a heavy density meadow or anything. Very low density in these creeks where I catch the blacks.

Thanks for sharing the great pictures.

Mac

Great photo's! I knew the red fox were frosty butts, and the beaver, rats, and otter were as I remember. Surprisingly nice for that far south!! I can see those rats being top dollar stuff!

Thanks for the answers on the rats! Be interesting to know how many of those black rats are harvested.

I notice that your reds have little to no white on the end of their tail. I believe that comes from a majority of English red fox DNA. English red foxes were brought here a long time ago for fox hunts by gentlemen on horses. That would also be why you have short and long furred reds. Short fur being more English DNA and long fur more North American DNA. English reds do not carry the genes to make cross and/or silver foxes which is why we do not find those color phases here in the east. You have beautifully handled fox and coyote pelts. Eric

Very interesting Eric, thanks for sharing. Nice fur Mud, as always!

That’s interesting Eric, I was unaware of the genetic variation affecting the tail. I get a few snowball tips but not many. And the coyotes were surprisingly decent. Overall better than what I caught up there.

Thanks John. David said you guys didn’t do much this season at all. Better get on that pack of 5 you guys had.

The last of it off tomorrow with Brian Mohn to FHA.

Nice fur and great put up.

Very fine looking product there Mud!

Great pics!

Very nice and a great job. I have caught thousands of muskrats in my lifetime but have never caught a black one. Caught black coon and beaver, no rats. keep up the good work.

Garry-

Looking at the catalog slickpan, it looks like only 63 are newly offered blacks. 33 of those are mine. I sold a fair amount privately before the shipping date. The 33 were remaining that made that size and grade offered in the current catalog. There’s a second lot of 30 that I suppose are dealer goods that for whatever reason have not sold in previous auctions.

Wow, love those 'rats.