beagle-

here's a link about them.


http://www.goerie.com/greatinvasion/...ater_flea.html

They are active in summer conditions. Spring and fall they seem to receed (thank God)
As far as what they do to the line......... I'll take my digital next time I attempt to troll and show you what they look like. An absolute mess!!! The tail of these things hook to your line as you're trolling then they just accumalate and pile right up one after the other. It's so bad on the lake I fish on now after 10 minutes of trolling they are gobbed on the line from the top of the water all the way down to the release. You can't reel in a fish because they all get hung up on the top eye as you're reeling. It looks like a jelly/cotton substance on your line. The line gets fraided and twisted and they end up in your spool. A real problem for sure.