Pike Bay wormy perch

[Stratosman]

Any of you guys fish Pike Bay, most the perch I caught last year out of there were full of those white parasites. We made one trip there and the perch were nice sized, but when we got them home and cleaned them, they were wormy. Is that the norm there? We are planning to come up again and if so might have to stick to winnie. Then walleyes we caught had no parasites however.

[The Texan]

Just chew your food real good, no problems

Texan

[ffishman]

I fish pike a bunch, and for the most part have not found worms to be a problem. We usually look for eyes, in deeper water, and when you do come across perch, usually they are clean and cold.

[Windy City Walleye Hunter]

Hey Strato,

One of my first years up at Cass I was fishing in Allen's Bay over by some old fish cribs in Dick's Bay and I caught a mess of perch and when I got them back to Wishbone to clean they were loaded with those white parasites. My father in law told me not to keep them and just toss them in the gut bucket so that's what I did. Don't know if they would be bad for you, maybe somebody else has more knowledge on the situation. Since that time, and since coming under the leadership of Brian Jones, I have learned to fish deeper and for walleye only. Then when I do catch perch they are a little bigger and spot free. Hope this helps. Talk to you soon, Curt.

[genegodawa]

I know Texan is a good cook, so I'm going with his recommendation - it's just extra meat as far as I am concerned. Just make sure to cook them up real good. Can't even tell the worms are there if you use a good batter to fry them in. I have never had anyone even notice if they were eating a "wormy" filet.

Honestly, it can be a rather unsightly filet and is more psychological than anything while you are cleaning them. I admit some can look really wormy and take away your appetite. I think it is more important to toss out any that have discolored flesh than those that are wormy. Those with either black specks or white grubs are safe enough to eat for me. I bet those idots on Fear Factor would eat them!

[Stratosman]

I just cut them out and made sure not to tell my wife! But it was a pain in the arse and kind of gross. We were fishing shallow, but that was were the walleyes were too. Why would water depth make a difference as far as parasites in fish are concerned? Fish that are caught deep aren't deep all year and fish that are caught shallow aren't in shallow water all year? Unless there's something I'm not thinking about. Afraid to say I don't know much about parasites.

[Col Ron guide]

I talked to a State Biologist about 5 years ago about the white "grubs" in the perch meet. Never forgot what he said. The gentleman told me, you eat far worse things in a medium-rare steak than you do if you swallow a fish fillet with grubs. He told me, not to worry, they will never hurt you.

On the other hand, the last two years we have been seeing a disease (name escapes me), which turns the meat on a perch fillet white, it looks just like freezer burn-when you are cleaning the fish. If you hold it up to a light, you can't miss it. This is not good for you, throw them away. I have noticed they are increasing in numbers which is not good. This can be found in deep water perch or shallow, large and small, watch out for it! ron

[ffishman]

yea I don't know why either, but if we hit perch in shallow water they seem to have worms. But when we catch them in deeper water they, for the most part, are just fine. Go figure. Usually, we throw the shallow water perch back, rather than wait to cut them open, and dump them. A plus is, deeper perch are for the most part bigger. But, and there always is a but, a few years ago, the wind was really howling, and we were looking for a spot to get out of it. We found a protected bay and started messing around in a couple of feet of water. And, did we nail the perch, almost limited out in an hour. And, for the most part, they were clean. For the next few years that spot really produced, but last couple of times, it was kaput. Go figure.

[genegodawa]

I got 2 possible explanations for you Ffishman.

I figure either you fished out the system, or as my nephew says, "fish swim". So you never know where they'll be.

You have to be thankful for those few years when the "honey hole" was good to you.

Thanks for the confirmation, Col Ron. That discolored flesh disease is ugly-looking indeed and definitely garbage material. Only got a few like that, so I hope it doesn't keep spreading. We don't usually fish deep at all, so I don't know about the diff. I used to think that only the River fish or those in the bays were more prone to worms than those we caught out on the main lake. Either way, at least so far, we catch far more that are clean than wormy.

Nothing beats eatin' a good ole Cass Lk perch for sure.