Perch Filet question

[fisher]

First time out ice fishing this year and we went out with Love to Fish Simcoe yesterday on Cooks Bay.

 

My buddy and I caught over 100 perch, kept about 1/2 with some big perch, not many though. We fished with a plain line, hook and minnow, with a sinker on the bottom. Action was good all day from 7 am to about 2:00 pm.

 

Anyway, I fileted them last night and noticed some small orange ball-like things in the meat. Does anyone know what these are?Not many of the fish had them, only about 2 or three.

 

Thanks for reading.

[huntervasili]

might be what is called a "fleck" if I am not mistaken... I have seen black and white ones in bass and perch but havent heard of the red ones... the black and white flecks are not harmful to eat, the only thing they do is make the fish look somewhat unpleasant in the flesh... Should be ok though as long as it is cooked... but if it is only 2 of 50 i would have tossed em....

[fisher]

I agree, I did them aside but I am asking in case I missed any others. They were orangey coloured round specks.

[Jacques]

My guess is that they were errant bits of roe...

[Big Cliff]

Could this be what you saw?

 

Worms in perch

 

They are not always stretched out and can apear as a small dot in the flesh.

[keram]

Or this ?

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http...VXA:en%26sa%3DN

[JustinHoffman]

Those would be the roe, or eggs. Your knife probably pierced the egg sac when filleting, hence the eggs found in the flesh. About the size of a pin head, and orangy-yellow..

 

Good Fishing,

Justin

[fisher]

Definitely not row.

 

Definitely not what Big Cliff posted - what I saw was much smaller - unless what i saw was just starting to grow.

 

It was more like the grub posted by Keram, description is of the same size (only a few milimeters round), although I only noticed it within the filet (it was embedded on the meat) and not on the skin.

 

Thanks everyone for your posts.