Fished sunday morning in ballentine and did pretty well. Caught 14 fish and had 7 keepers. Every fish we caught was loaded with gill maggots. I was wondering if any one else has noticed them. Dnr said not to worry and that the fish were fine. I just prefer to not eat anything with parasites.
They say that the gill magots do not enter the meat so they is no harm in eating the fish with them. They say they will not kill the host but can weaken the striper. Which will probably make for a bigger fish kill if/when the oxygen levels drop.
quote:
Originally posted by striperking82 I just prefer to not eat anything with parasites.
no offense, but if you don’t want to eat anything with parasites, you might consider becoming a vegetarian. have you ever looked at ANY raw meat under a strong microscope? if you are squemish… DON’T.
Just filet 'em, skin 'em, batter 'em and fry 'em. The gill maggots aren’t in the filet as yankeeTom said.
Any reports on why we are having this parasite problem? Can’t ever remember this coming up before???Don’t remember seeing any on the fish I have been catching but really didn’t pay attention bc threw them back. Things that make ya go hmmm…
2007 TRITON CC
2007 MERC VERADO 250 “HEMI”
Rumor is the gill maggots migrate into a particular body of water from shiners and herring that are infected with them in other lakes and are brought here and sold as bait. I don’t know this for fact but have a good friend from NC that claims the gill maggots have hurt the striper population big time up there.
Hey SK82, how deep were the ones you caught? I’m planning a trip out this afternoon.
Kevin
1720 Sea Hunt w/ 90hp Yam
M’Ocean Sickness
40 foot
I’ve been catching alot of Striper up the Saluda–every fish brought in the boat has been loaded with gill maggots. I’ve heard the same about the maggots coming from herring. Hasn’t slowed my eating down any!!!
The gill maggots (Achtheres copepod) weren’t introduced like some exotic specie. They are indigenous to the lake. Something has caused their population to explode. I think its some type of predator-prey relationship that has gone out of balance and has allowed the copepod to proliferate. I asked SCE&G to include a study on the copepod as a part of their application to relicense the Lake Murray dam. They held a public information hearing on the copepod, lead by DNR fisheries biologist Ron Ahle, but then declined to do any further study. There’s no evidence that the copepod hurts the fish, but when they go belly up during low oxygen levels and have a mouth full of copepods, which was responsible? Ron agreed that my statement concerning a predator-prey relationship being out of balance was a reasonable assumption. You would think someone would try and get some understanding on this before they issue another 30 year license for the dam, but I guess not…
How are they affecting other fish?
what would be copepod’s natural predator ?
They will also utilize Largemouth bass as a host but I have only seen them on Stripers in Murray. I know blueback herring feed on them…, threadfin shad probably do as well…Ron Ahle said some of the fish they recovered from the fish kill this past Sept. had the copepod. They have occurred in both fertile and infertile waters in other reservoirs in the Southeast. Some have suggested that the proliferation may be due to stocking densities of host fish. When this was discussed for the outbreak on Smith Mountain Lake in VA, they pointed to Lake Murray as a reservoir with lots of fish and no copepod problem…Guess that needs to be re-evaluated now…