Worms in tullies

[Feathers Rainin]

My buddy and I went up to the big v and caught a pile of tullibees for the smoker yesterday. Unfortunately when we got home we realized they all had worms. Is this normal for the lake? Do the perch have them too? We caught one whitefish and it did not have worms.

[JBMasterAngler]

I don't know whether it's specifically common to vermilion, but it's not out of the ordinary for tullibees to have worms. They are harmless as long as you cook them thoroughly.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The grubs in tullibees on Vermilion is common.

Most of the deep water perch that I catch are usually clean, not so for perch caught in weedy areas! The grubs are the larvae of snails, which are found in the shallow weedy bays.

White fish seem to be immune to these grubs for some reason. Same with Pike!

Cliff

[rtkrea[er]

That's why we quit fishing tullibees in Vermillion. So full of grubs they are gross. No way could we smoke em up. Ended up throwing them all away. Rory

[otterman91105]

Yea i don't think i could eat them either knowing that they were full of worms.

[eyeguy 54]

freeze for 10 days then smoke. extra protein.

[Feathers Rainin]

I've caught tullies in several lakes in MN and the only other lake I found some that had worms was LOTW and only some of the fish had them. I know they are safe to eat, I just can't get myself to eat wormy fish.

[MN Shutterbug]

Can't you cut the worms out and use them for bait?

[fsnrod]

I have seen walleyes on vermillion with the grubs in them.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I have seen walleyes on vermillion with the grubs in them.

Me too!

They show up once in a while in walleyes but usually only one or two grubs at a time. I just pop them out with my knife point from the fillets when I clean the fish.

On a rare occasion I have found a walleye with so many grubs in it that I discard that fish! I think those rare walleyes probably spent a lot of time in weedy bays feeding before they moved out into deeper water.

Cliff

[Deet]

The grubs in tullibees on Vermilion is common.

The grubs are the larvae of snails, which are found in the shallow weedy bays.

Are you saying that certain snails spend part of their life cycle as a parasite? Not arguing, just looking for clarification. It does seem really odd to me, though.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Yes. The grubs are the larval(parasite) stage of a snail. Sorry, I can not remember what type of snail though.

Cliff

[laker1]

The worms in the tullibee your referring to is usually very common along the top of the back in the flesh and is a yellow-white color and looks like a small white grub. It is found statewide in the fish and is actually quite rare not to find a lake without them.

It has various larvae stages and part of that life is in a snail. These larvae than migrate into the flesh of the host(tullie) and still in a larvae stage wait to eaten by a bigger predator like a northern pike. There they will grow to a adult stage into a tapeworm in the stomach-intestinal area of northern pike or walleye. They believe with pretty good confidence they will not live in humans. Just cook or fry completely. I still eat and smoke them with confidence.

Another larvae that lives in tullibee that I have not seen personally is a tapeworm larvae which lives in fish and when raw fish are eaten by humans will grow into a 35 foot tapeworm in humans.

This was brought over from individuals from some of northern European countries who ate raw fish. That parasite was introduced to some waters in northeastern Minnesota. How common is it,I am unsure,but don't think it is real common. I know tullibees and northern pike can carry this larvae. This tapeworm is not native to this country.