# Finally!!!



## 1977 walleye guy (Mar 11, 2006)

Well, I haven't had the best luck out on the ice in the last month to say the least. I decided to hit a pond that's been on my mind lately. There was about 2" of slush and water lying on top of about 6 -7" of good Ice. 
raised the pucker factor to about a 6 

I drilled 12 holes, then start looking with the x67. First hole I tried, nothing 5.8 ft. second hole, 6.8 ft, cought one gill right away, then a lg.mouth about 13" long. Then the hole went dead. So on to the third hole. 6.1 ft. Lots of marks. I cought ruffly 20 or so gills, 7 crappies.....and something big that got away with one of my jammin jigs AARRRHHH.....LOL. Never left that hole.

Gotta say it was a good moral booster for me!! the pond I was fishing is a 10 sunfish limit so, I kept two crappie and 7 gills.











Now to the dishearting part........ I was cleaning those gills and every one of them looks like this. crappies were fine, What in the heck is it?











The last one I was filleting had this white worm looking thing crawling out of the flesh......what the heck??











Well I pitched the one with the white worm crawling around, but waiting to here about the black spots . I figure it's a parisitite of some type.

Jason


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## 1977 walleye guy (Mar 11, 2006)

PS,

Sorry fish were cought on Jammin jigs Bobber fry, red glow......until it was so wrongly taken then a white glow. tipped with waxies. cought fish from bottom all the way up to two ft under me. crappies seemed to respond about a foot of bottom to 3ft.


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## ohiobuck (Apr 8, 2006)

Nice mess of Fish Jason. I have seen the black spots befor but never seen the worm. Sounds and looks like you had fun.


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## 1977 walleye guy (Mar 11, 2006)

Thanks Tim


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## johnboy111711 (Apr 7, 2004)

both are fine as long as the fish is prepared properly, i usually just pop the white worms out with the knife. i dont believe either effect the flavor of the fish


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## fugarwi7 (Sep 20, 2006)

walleye guy---you are the epitome of perseverance---way to go!


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## poormanspalmbeachfishing (Feb 19, 2007)

nice job on the catch, good luck with eatin those - doesnt look too enticing to me! lol


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## billybob7059 (Mar 27, 2005)

glad to see ya do well. those crappies look pretty darn good.


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## lv2fish (Jun 23, 2005)

The pepper looking spots are actually a type of parasite, I see them out of a few ponds I fish. I called DNR about it and they told me what it was and that is was fine as long as you cooked the fish. That was 7 years ago and I eat several helpings a year of fish fillets like that. It's ok to eat them. The worms kind of gross me out, but I do what Johnboy says, pop them out. There is a lake in Canada I see them on a consistant basis. Nice catch by the way!


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## poormanspalmbeachfishing (Feb 19, 2007)

well, on second thought, ive ate fish that came out of dirtier places than a pond...*cough* ohio river *cough* im still here to talk about it, lol!


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## jmenchhofer (Jan 12, 2007)

Nice catch! I have yet to find a location where I can mark that many fish or get into action like that, but I've been having fun trying. Spring will be nice, but I'm gonna hate to see the ice go...


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## Chode2235 (Feb 5, 2007)

The fish are safe to eat provided you cook them thouroughly. The black spots are scars from small worms burrowing into the skin. The worms live in the stomachs of herons and similar birds, are spread through snails to fish, and thus back to the heron. If you want to get rid of them in your pond, kill the snails. At least thats what the MN DNR has done. The larger flesh worms can be removed, but if cooked pose no harm either (more protien!!). Even if the fish isn't cooked thouroughly, I think they are still harmless in humans. 

I was just reading about these exact same things in the Hunting and Fishing Library book "Panfish". 

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Panfish-Complete-Catching-Sunfish-Crappies/dp/0865730520"]Amazon.com: Panfish: The Complete Guide to Catching Sunfish, Crappies, White Bass and Yellow Perch (The Freshwater Angler): Creative Publishing int'l: Books[/ame]


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## 1977 walleye guy (Mar 11, 2006)

I was in Findlay today, so I stopped by district two headquarters and spoke with a fisheries Biologist today. Said darn near the same thing Chode2235 said. On that note, fry time...


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## Chode2235 (Feb 5, 2007)

1977 walleye guy said:


> I was in Findlay today, so I stopped by district two headquarters and spoke with a fisheries Biologist today. Said darn near the same thing Chode2235 said. On that note, fry time...


Wow, I knew what I was talking about. Good news.


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## jiggin'fool (Dec 18, 2005)

don't know what the black flakes are but they are always in the fish that I eat and I am still around... still real tasty too!


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## Papascott (Apr 22, 2004)

Grandpa always told me "dems just peeper, shut up and eat them before they crawl away"


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## greg3891 (Apr 19, 2004)

Dont go by Johnboy he will eat anything that dont eat him first, I think i saw him with a carp sandwich while fishing with him one day LOL


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## yonderfishin (Apr 9, 2006)

Thats probably a very good spot to catch fish since Ive only seen those parasites in the fish in ponds that are heavily populated if not overpopulated with fish. Im sure you can find them anywhere but it seems like when there are too many fish for the body of water then they spread really easily. I used to fish in a small lake that had so many largemouth bass in it that I literally caught one with every cast, and the fish seemed to be so hungry that they would take just about anything. They were so full of the worms and black spots though that I had to start catch and release only. Until the land owner politely but sternly told me not to fish there anymore.


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## Chode2235 (Feb 5, 2007)

yonderfishin said:


> Thats probably a very good spot to catch fish since Ive only seen those parasites in the fish in ponds that are heavily populated if not overpopulated with fish. Im sure you can find them anywhere but it seems like when there are too many fish for the body of water then they spread really easily. I used to fish in a small lake that had so many largemouth bass in it that I literally caught one with every cast, and the fish seemed to be so hungry that they would take just about anything. They were so full of the worms and black spots though that I had to start catch and release only. Until the land owner politely but sternly told me not to fish there anymore.


It has more to do with fishing living in the weeds. Thats where the snails are, and thats how the fish get them. They're common on bass, and sunfish more than on crappies or walleye because they spend their time in the shallow weeds with the snails.


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## TexasRigged (Feb 25, 2005)

I've always been told that those white worms come from a pond being downhill from livestock. The manure streams into the pond when it rains and causes the worms. Anyone know if there's any truth to this?


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## 1977 walleye guy (Mar 11, 2006)

Chode2235,

Yep this pond is mostly weed covered. Hit the nail of the head. Funny though how the crappies don't have it.


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## rainmaker1222 (Feb 5, 2005)

Texasrigged, That ain't true I fish a secret strip pit that is full of gills over 11 inches and they are full of them yellow worms. The closest cows are 2 miles away. It gross me out and I don't keep the fish. That is difenitly a fish ohio award every year. I only go there once a year for some fun on ultra light


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