worms in bluegills?

[daffydone]

hey guys, the other day I was fishing a small pond and caught some nice gills, when we cut a few of them open we noticed some white looking worms inside the meat. what are they and are they safe? we only found two gills out of 36 that had them, are the rest of the fillets safe to eat?

[daffydone]

has nobody ever heard of this before?  this is the first time I have ever seen these things before.

[Germ]

ok not that i have ever encountered this but some friends have...apparently they don't harm us as long as we cook it and don't eat it raw...any temp over room temp will kill it or just cut that section out. Anyhow dont discard the hole fish. relate it to mould on cheese..cut off the section that has been contamininated then use the rest...Hope this helps!

[eriediver]

HEY THERE TIGHT LINERS:  I HAVE ALSO SEEN THIS IN BASS DURING THE SUMMER, I PERSONALLY WOULD NOT TAKE A CHANCE AND WOULD THROW THE WHOLE FISH OUT!

[FISH ON]

daffydone
i have found the same thing in the bluegills in the small farm pond i am fishing ...i was also wondering why they have them

[OU812]

I read up on it from the Game & Parks out here in Nebraska. They are saying that those little white ( and sometimes black) specks in the meat are a harmless parasites fish pick up from eating snails. Its no big deal...they advise to just cook the meat as normal.

Personally, if there is so many that the meat looks "peppered" I don't care to eat it. I just cut them out, if I see a few. If you happened to digest one, its harmless.

[daffydone]

I would have to say that these worms are the same width as a toothpick andapprox. 1/16 of an inch long, to me they seem very large. they are white in color. they stand out really well when you hold the fillet up to the light.
 thanks for all your help, I hope I don't ever see these things again, thats all I could think about while I was eating the fillets.

[mod_auger]

I have a buddy that shares this philosophy:

If this worm cannot harm the 7oz fish that it lives in, I surely cannot harm a person that weighs 200lbs. He's kind of a goofball, but he does have a point.

I personally don't worry about it. Of the few fish that I do catch with worms, they are not completely infested, but just have 2-4 worms in them total.

[reelcharacter]

Have seen this situation in Bluegills sometimes before. Can admit to cleaning, cooking and eating some like this before too. (Many years ago, so they have not done me in yet).    Somehow the prospect of added protein does not make me any more comfortable in eating them.

I wonder if once they have the worms and/or eggs under the skin, if they are there for good, or if it as an annual/seasonal thing?

-Reelcharacter

[rlover]

I have seen these many times. That is why I filet fish instead of the scaling method. The white ones, I just prode them out with the knife...or sometimes just give a little cut. The black specks we do not worry about. I had heard speculation that they come from Great Blue Herons somehow.

[pikemaster789]

I have seen them before, and I believe I read that they are of no harm to humans. PM later to remind me to look it up in my book for ya

[kevheads]

the black spots are called Neascus and the worms are yellow grubs.You can read about them at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/janfeb06/raw.html
I first started seeing the yellow grubs up in Minnesota in perch that were caught in shallow weeds,we would catch perch out in deep water off rock reefs that they would be clean of grubs but catch one in the weeds and they would be loaded with grubs.Just the last few years I have been seeing more and more in gills down here in Illinois.
    After you filet your fish,hold the filets up to a light when your rinsing them off and any grubs will stick out as dark forms in the filets,they are easy to remove with the tip of your filet knife.With perch up in Minnesota if you could see more than 5-6 grubs,it goes to the trash.Same with the Neascus,if there is just a few their fine,if it looks like someone rolled the filet in pepper,we pitch it.

   

[iceonly]

kev,
  NIce post. I had a biology prof that did his masters thesis on the same subject. Some lakes seem loaded with these parasites, while others seem clean. The specks don't bother me, but the worms give me the willies.

[IceRover]

You can read about them at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/janfeb06/raw.html

That is a very informative read, but I sure do not like that part about the tapeworms in the Northern Pike. I know many people who eat the pickled Pike and that info is not good. Thanks for posting it.

[Desperado]

When the fish is cooked thoroughly, the cysts will die and not be noticeable.

I say cook 'em and eat 'em fish and grubs, it's all meat.

[A- bomb]

350 degres@ 2 minutes will kill any parasite known to man. Thats why deep fried gills taste so good!

[Piggyn]

I first started seeing the yellow grubs up in Minnesota in perch that were caught in shallow weeds,we would catch perch out in deep water off rock reefs that they would be clean of grubs but catch one in the weeds and they would be loaded with grubs.

That's what my group experienced on Cache Lake this summer.  Perhaps you've been there since you frequent Quetico.   

[RLWagner]

I seen a program a few years back that explained that the black flecks are either baby snails or clams. Suppossedly the clam releases a spore like parasite that attaches to the fishes body, matures and falls back to the bottom of the Lake to become a mature clam one day. The show said they are harmless to eat.
This might explain why I seem to catch more fish plagued by this problem in shallow water ponds and lakes, but the fish from larger Michigan lakes seldom have these. The shallow water makes the fish more succeptible to attachment by the parasites.

[benjui567]

I seen this for the first time a couple years ago we were fishing a small pond in the hills of PA and caught a mess of large gills couple perch and a couple bass. When I was cleaning them I noticed the worms as well as the black specs when i pinched one of the worms out of the flesh it crawled across my thumb. That grossed me out bad had to throw the meat out. Kept the bass though they didnt have any worms or specs. I have heard that this happens in shallow lakes and ponds when they warm up something that they are eating i suppose. I also heard that they are harmless when cooked but I couldnt do it after that.