Firehawk7309

Just venting here. I've finally put up my bow for the year and decided to get the boat out and give it a try yesterday. The weather here in Kentucky has been unseasonably warm and the crappie and bluegills were very active. I caught somewhere near 100 or so in about four hours. I decided to take 15 crappies home for a meal and every single one of them had tape worms I discovered as I was fileting them. The bluegills had little black mites on the outside of their flesh, and I didn't keep any. Anyone have this same thing happen before? I ended up throwing all of the crappie away since each fish had between 3-5 tapeworms in them.

Chuck7

By tape worms: are you meaning those little yellow worms in the flesh of the meat? They are usually rolled up and no bigger than a BB.??
Chuck7

newtohogs

i had the same problem from two places i fished last summer. one farm pond and one creek in the state of VA. fish looked normal till i started cleaning them. i found little seed looking things that opend up to worm like creatures. i even asked a bioligest what it was but he didnt really know. if any one knows what this please e mail me and tell me. my concern is this i understand most if not all living things have parasites and worms of sorts are these fish ill and should the meat be tossed away? i know i threw away some nice fish last year because of this. who kows they may have been ok to eat but it freaked me out.

Chuck7

The fish are fine..Stop wasting those fish. We've had that in Florida ever since I've been here.

Simply fillet the fish and hold the fillet to the kitchen light. They are easier to see that way. Cut those little worms out and cook those fish. Our crappie don't usually get them but our bass are full of them. I don't keep the bass. If there are only 2 or 3 worms in your crappie I would not toss them.. Technically they wouldn't hurt you anyway after frying them in hot oil. I've never heard of the bluegill mites but if your talking about little black specks I guess I have. We ate them but I don't see that alot.

Chuck

Firehawk7309

No these were actually tapeworms between a quarter to a half an inch. I got on the DNR site and they said these fish were still edible, just to cut off the meat around the worms. The black mites also were supposed to be alright.

fishadict

Up north we have these worms too. I have seen them in perch, but the difference is in the winter time the meat clears up of these parasites. That's why most people will ice fish for perch in the winter time and not bother with them in the summer. That and perch are a lot easier to catch through the ice. Parasites show up in fish when fish spend too much time in warm water. Fish with parasite are usually found up along shore lines or in shallow water. It may be possible that with the mild winter, it may not have gotten cold enough down there this year to get ride of the parasites.

Chuck7

Makes sense to me. In Florida I only eat the crappie and bluegills. I'vekept well over 100 crappie this year with no worms. The bass and catfish taste nasty to me so I'm a catch and release man on those. I love the shellcrackers{Red earred sunfish} Anyway my specks have been worm free.maybe it's because I fish for them in 10 feet of water.
C7
PS Here are some buttermilk battered specks.