Parasites in perch?

[beemertom]

We went crappie fishing Saturday in Kab. Bay but ran into some nice jumbo perch. We brought a mess of them back to the cabin and when cleaning them we noticed small white spots or cysts throughout the meat on all of the fish. Does anyone know what this is?

[AJ]

There are 2 different visible (and white) parasites in Leech Lake perch that I know of. One is a "worm" and is small, about the size of a rice grain. If there are just few white specs, I have no problem cooking and eating these fish. Shingobee Bay perch seem to have this a lot. They really get the black specks on the outside as well.<BR>The second type turns larger patches of meat white (you can only see them once you have filleted the fish) almost like you have cooked it. It's firmer and makes the raw fillet much less opaque. DNR says cut off the white patches and cook as usual. I have been eating these for three years with no problems or taste issues. The bummer is that nobody knows exactly what the parasite is and why it is there. I may be wrong but they have seen it in other clear walleye lakes as well (maybe Winnie, Gull,?). There was a blurb in the Star Trib about this a few years ago. I have noticed that the condition affects about 20% of the perch I catch in Leech. <BR>

[Guest]

The DNR has identied the parasite as Heterosporis. They say that it is ok to eat the infected meat, but I tend to cut out the affected area. The good news is that the samples taken last year showed that 10.9% of the perch were affected and this years samples show only 3.2% of the perch are affected. <P>------------------<BR><B>Big Rock Guide Service</B><BR><A HREF="http://bigrockresort.com/guides.html" TARGET=_blank>http://bigrockresort.com/guides.html</A><BR>E-mail: [email protected]<BR>Call Toll Free: 1-800-827-7106

[beemertom]

Our 20 Perch were 100% infected. We looked.