Finally

[1977 Walleye Guy]

Well, I haven't had the best luck out on the ice in the last month to say the least. I decided to hit a pond that's been on my mind lately. There was about 2" of slush and water lying on top of about 6 -7" of good Ice.
raised the pucker factor to about a 6 

I drilled 12 holes, then start looking with the x67. First hole I tried, nothing 5.8 ft. second hole, 6.8 ft, cought one gill right away, then a lg.mouth about 13" long. Then the hole went dead. So on to the third hole. 6.1 ft. Lots of marks. I cought ruffly 20 or so gills, 7 crappies.....and something big that got away with one of my jammin jigs AARRRHHH.....LOL. Never left that hole.
fish were cought on Jammin jigs neon Bobber fry, red glow......until it was so wrongly taken then a white/blue glow. tipped with waxies. cought fish from bottom all the way up to two ft under me. crappies seemed to respond about a foot of bottom to 3ft.

Gotta say it was a good moral booster for me!! the pond I was fishing is a 10 sunfish limit so, I kept two crappie and 7 gills.




Now to the dishearting part........ I was cleaning those gills and every one of them looks like this. crappies were fine, What in the heck is it?




The last one I was filleting had this white worm looking thing crawling out of the flesh......what the heck??




Well I pitched the one with the white worm crawling around, but waiting to here about the black spots . I figure it's a parisitite of some type.

Jason

[Ice Crazy]

Your right! They are parsites. Fish and wildlife told that they won't hurt you.you could eat them. I don't mind a few ,but thats more than a few. but when you cook then they will dissapear.The couple of white I pick out with a knife. Over population and run off water,Fish and wildlife can tell you how to fix that.

[swantucky]

Good job sticking with it and icing some nice fish.  The parasites would have me thinking twice about eating them,  I know they say they are fine but I think those fillets would be going to the barncats and coons.

[bladebait]

Maybe that's why it's a ten panfish limit? I think I would make it a catch and release pond.

[Duckdude]

i had the same question on a different forum. i caught a bucket full of gills and they all had those black spots on them (not that many but quite a few). i had tons of responses saying they are a small parasitic worm and won't hurt you a bit. everyone said that pretty much all bluegills have them. i fried them up and they were just fine. as for the white worm that is pretty nasty

[WalleyeJones]

The worm I've never seen like that. I've seen both white and black spots which I believe are the larval stage of a certain type of snail. Fish that spend a large amount of time in weeds tend to get them. I've seen them in bass, perch, crappie, and gills. If they're ate up with spots, I just throw them back. Sure, they're all safe to eat once you cook them thoroughly, but fish eat worms...not me.

[Cold-Foot]

I was told by the Dept. Of Wildlife there is a easy cure for a pond that has fish infested with parasites. There is supposed to be a cheep chemical treatment that could be applied to the water twice a year that kills these things. They said that birds/ducks transmit and infect the ponds and lakes as they fly to and from them. I have seen them in fish so bad that I trash can the fish heartbroken. When there is only a few spots or larva in a fish I eat them and never notice it. I was also told that every tame and wild animal may have some sort of thing and it is not going to make you sick. It does however turn your stomach a little.

[Scientist]

Other states have this problem as well check out the thread

http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=36527.msg374748#msg374748

[BottomDweller]

last summer i caught a ton of browns and had to kill a couple because they were hooked bad.  the bigger ones had similar black spots in their filets, but only four or five to a fish, so not so repelling, but still not very attractive compared to the solid red or orange filets i always get out of the lakers i eat year-round.  i froze them so that should kill any living parasite, but i have yet to eat them, and to tell you the truth, i'm not sure i'm going to...  i definitely wouldn't if i saw a friggin' worm emerging from its burrow in the filet.