Wormy Perch!

[bradleyroy]

What is up with those little grub/maggot looking things i found in my perch today??? can i still eat them? what are they?

[hardwateraddict]

you can eat them that way. read an article in sports afield some years back saying it was safe as long as you cooked them thoughly. or better yet, take the tip of your fillet knife and on a slight angle pierce the affected area and the little critter will pop out. done this myself hundreds of times rather than chuck a quality fish.
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[Levisice]

I've done the same and never got sick...

[surflizard]

A lot of the warm water species pick up the parasites during the hot summer season and they usually die off once the water cools down. Most people wouldn't eat Cod or Haddock either if they saw the worms in them when ya first fillet them in the fall ! I have only found one pond here locally where the fish carry the parasites thru the winter and I choose not to fish it because of the high bacteria levels in the pond.

[dylan8351]

I eat them unless they are really bad. Certain bodies of water are worse than others but mainly I like ponds where fish cruise basins and stay out of the weeds. Below I posted one of the cycle for the yellow grub that is very common.

The life cycle begins as fertile eggs (2) produced by adult flukes (1) which live in the mouth of the heron (7). The eggs are shed to open water as the heron feeds. The first stage larvae, called miracidia (3), emerge from the eggs and penetrate a suitable snail host (4). Within the snail, miracidia undergo numerous cycles of asexual reproduction in various developmental phases after which second stage larvae, called cercariae (5), emerge from the snail and swim about in search of a suitable fish host, such as the yellow perch (6). Cercariae penetrate the fish and encyst to assume the third larval stage - metacercariae (6), also known as grubs. When the infested fish is consumed by the heron, the metacercariae excyst (come out of the cyst) and become adult flukes (1) in the mouth of the heron, thus completing the cycle.

[surflizard]

Outstanding post Dylan, thats the diagram that all of the wormy fish posts needed, Well Done !