Fish Worm in Winter Perch TOO?!

[young_one]

Went out Simcoe today, caught a few decent size perch. They all had worms in them avg 8 in each fish.

 

Always thought its only summer time perch and bass have worms in them.

 

Should I fry up the extra protein? cut them out and eat the meat? or don't bother bring fish back home?

 

ps. wow those perch are alive! 4hr on ice, 1 hr in car, 4 hr in refrigerator, still moving when I try to fillet.

But long live the worm! Probably still kicking in the trash bin.

 

[BillM]

Those fish would be dead in 30mins, you were just seeing muscle reflexes

[Sinker]

They're harmless, but I still remove any I see!

 

Sinker

[Ramble]

Just press down with the knife point on them, and they slide right out. Don't worry about a few if you cook them.....all they have been eating is perch lol.

 

As for still flopping...they do that all the time. I have had some one ice over 8 hours that thawed out and flopped all over the basement lol. Some manage to survive.....its pretty impressive. Last year we had some walleye with the hearts still beating after being on the ice over 4 hours...and after i cut them out!

 

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9JNsZi_wG0E

 

-Dave

[BassAsin]

Just press down with the knife point on them, and they slide right out. Don't worry about a few if you cook them.....all they have been eating is perch lol.

 

As for still flopping...they do that all the time. I have had some one ice over 8 hours that thawed out and flopped all over the basement lol. Some manage to survive.....its pretty impressive. Last year we had some walleye with the hearts still beating after being on the ice over 4 hours...and after i cut them out!

 

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9JNsZi_wG0E

 

-Dave

i just pop em out as well Dave 95% of the ones i catch on some of "my" smaller lakes have worms theses two did

[centerpin_drift]

if i see anything like that on georgian i wouldnt' eat it. nope. not even try it.

[bigugli]

Totally harmless. Part of the normal lake cycle. Harmless to humans when cooked.

[smbhunter]

They are completely harmless to both humans and fish. That is called the yellow grub, which only affects the great blue heron, but even then it's relatively harmless. All they do, is climb from the stomach, up the esophagus and hang from the back of the throat. There has been a couple of extremely rare cases where the herons were so heavily infested with these grubs, they couldn't swallow and of course died.

Generally this harmless parasite is found in perch, some minnow species, sometimes bass, basically any species of fish the heron may encounter and consume in the warm shallow water where it wades. This is why the grub doesn't show up very often in larger gamefish like pike and walleye. Once an infested fish is consumed by another fish, the life cycle is over.

I still take out any grub that I happen to find in my fillets. I just can't bring myself to knowingly consuming them.

[smbhunter]

Harmless to humans when cooked.

 

 

Even raw.

[kingofthesteelhead]

These yellow worms are also found in the occasional walleye. I fish in the Kawarthas and you do find them in the flesh to a smaller extent. As so they do not affect the table quality of the fish.