Worms in fish??

[nontypical]

I recently had gotten permision to fish a nice looking 10 acre private lake. The owner is only interested in the crappie so he had asked me to keep some bass if I wanted them. Along with a few crappie and bluegill , I keep 10 largemouths that were 1-2 lb range. In 3 hours me and another guy caught at least 100 so I understood why he wanted me to keep some. But when I got home and started filleting the bass some had what looked like small worms in them. They were yellow and aprox.1/4" long. Out of the 10 bass only 3 didn't have any,5 had 1 or 2, and 2 of the bass had alot so I didnt even bother finish cleaning them. My question is does anybody know much about this and are the fish that had 1 or 2 safe to eat. Of course I cut a large section around the worm but I still dont know if its safe. Any input on this will be helpful because this new to me.

[Multidigits]

There are yellow grubs. They won't hurt you as long as you don't eat the fish raw.

[golfman205]

me and a buddy caught around 30 crappie yesterday and they had little red worms that were about 1 1/2 inches long in the meat, is this bad? are they ok to eat?

[notimlmit]

I to have already caught some fish with the parasites in the meat. In the sportsman fishing guide it speaks about this but they are not supposed to be harmful to humans when cooked. Apparently they're not because most of the fish my group caught in Canada had these and that's been a while back. I still don't like the thought of it and also try to remove what I can.

[JP]

Don't know about the red ones...but multi is right....yellow grub parasites are common in all fish in the US I believe. My understanding of them is limited...but these little buggers are interesting...I believe the ones in fish are actually in some type of larval stage..the adults that actually lay eggs of parasites, etc are in birds mouths/throats....Until the fish with the parasites are eaten by birds, it never reaches "adulthood". Pretty interesting little critters if you're a weirdo like me.

Oh, and no, they won't hurt you...you can kill them with proper cooking and you will probably not notice any difference in the fish. However, I've only found them in one or two fish in my life...and I wasn't nearly hungry enough to eat them :)

[JP]

here ya go...exactly what I was thinking..here's a good FAQ site
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/pages/qa/fish/worms.htm

[weedwalker]

Cook 'em good and they wont hurt you. Just a little extra for the plate. MMMMM-MMMMM.

[bmason]

That should kill them. Cook well...enjoy.

[Mepperson]

I seem to find more of them in bluegill and shellcrackers, but with them eating snails and small clams, they are directly in the life stage of the parasite. It's probably unreal how many people have eaten them and never noticed that they were there.

[Snareman2]

They're called "flukes", they will not hurt you. You will see more in bass or other fish that eat smaller fish (kinda concentrates more in predator fish). I usually will take my fillet knife and pick them out if it's not to bad. Sometimes you will also see little black dots in the meat of bluegill, that is a type of fluke also, it won't hurt you either.

You might want to change the way you worded your first post. You made it sound like you and your buddy caught at least 100 bass. You said, "I kept 10 Largemouths". That's probably nice to know, but the limit is actually 6 per person, per day.

[Snareman2]

me and a buddy caught around 30 crappie yesterday and they had little red worms that were about 1 1/2 inches long in the meat, is this bad? are they ok to eat?

Most things that live in cold-blooded animals (fish) will not live in warm-blooded animals (humans). So I would not worry about it, just cook the fish.

A good example: Trichinossis in pork or bear meat, the host are both warm-blooded. Therefore you are cautioned to make sure the meat is dune before comsuming, if not, the worms could migrate through your muscles also (Not good).

[Xi Bowhunter]

I have found parasites in the mouth tissue of bass, but never in the meat its self.

[quackrstackr]

We caught a bunch of bluegill about 3 weeks ago that had some sort of parasite. Most of them looked like they had glitter in them.

I used to fish a pond a lot that had the parasite that looked like black pepper too. It first showed up in the warmouth and within a couple of years was found in most of the bass and pretty much all of the bluegill.

[nontypical]

You might want to change the way you worded your first post. You made it sound like you and your buddy caught at least 100 bass. You said, "I kept 10 Largemouths". That's probably nice to know, but the limit is actually 6 per person, per day.[/quote]
thanks for pointing that out to me. Let me rephrase that "WE kept 10 largemouths"

[Bucknuts]

They were on a private lake so they can keep as many as they want too.

[quackrstackr]

They were on a private lake so they can keep as many as they want too.

Popular thought, but it's wrong. The limit is the limit regardless of whether you are on private or public water. The limit may just be different on different public waters.

[lthomas]

I recently had gotten permision to fish a nice looking 10 acre private lake. The owner is only interested in the crappie so he had asked me to keep some bass if I wanted them. Along with a few crappie and bluegill , I keep 10 largemouths that were 1-2 lb range. In 3 hours me and another guy caught at least 100 so I understood why he wanted me to keep some. But when I got home and started filleting the bass some had what looked like small worms in them. They were yellow and aprox.1/4" long. Out of the 10 bass only 3 didn't have any,5 had 1 or 2, and 2 of the bass had alot so I didnt even bother finish cleaning them. My question is does anybody know much about this and are the fish that had 1 or 2 safe to eat. Of course I cut a large section around the worm but I still dont know if its safe. Any input on this will be helpful because this new to me.

It is hard to find any fish that dose not have some sort of parsite growing inside of their meat. A lot are imbeded deep within the meat and not even seen unless held up against a light.
What a waste to throw away those fish. You have a better chance of getting a tape worm from pork than any parasited by eating fish...
I hope you dont do this in the future.

[grouser68]

The worms wont hurt you if cooked(maybe even if uncooked) just look at it as more protien!:D

On a serious note, after filleting I hold the fillets up to a light and if there are any of the nasty lil' buggers in there I scrape them out.

[trust me]

Parasites are very common in fish, and are not a problem. Remove the worm, cook all meat thoroughly and enjoy like you always have.

[Snareman2]

They were on a private lake so they can keep as many as they want too.

Try explaining that one, when you are caught with a bucket full of bass. I guess you think there is no size limit also.

I don't ever remember seeing a clause in the law or fishing guide about private waters. The bass you catch in your pond look exactly like the fish in the river. 6=6, any more and you are subject to a fine.