Worms in Crappie?!

Hey y’all.. I wrote about this awhile back, but seems to be a recurring theme lately. I want to get others opinions and experiences. The last couple months, I’ve been pulling fish out of Granbury that have a worm in the meat. Sometimes a red one, sometimes a white one. It is becoming common enough that I have found one each trip lately.

I am examining the fish very closely because of this and consistently finding one in each batch of fish. We are looking at a 1 in 4 ratio in my opinion of good fish to contaminated fish.

I love eating crappie and have read that if you freeze the meat and fully cook, you could never possibly be infected but something about how common it is starting to rub me the wrong way.

Has this ever happened to y’all? Hope y’all have a great Thanksgiving! Here’s a couple slab photos from the last few weeks..


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I found this…

Worms in Crappies: The Nematodes Parasitic Worms

And this…

https://www.crappie.com/crappie/main...worms-crappie/

There is a reason why you don't eat raw river fish. The fish you are seeing the red or white parasites are no different from the ones that you don't. They are there regardless. If it bothers you pick the ones out that you can see.

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The crappie in the Caney Fork River have worms. Since I filet the crappie they are easy to spot. I just pick them out with the tip of filet knife. It is usually only a couple in each fish. And what I might miss are more than taken care of when the filets hit that 365 degree grease. The fish above the dam have no worms…below the dam they do. Go figure.

Regards


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Never caught a crappie with worms to my knowledge but I use to see them all the time when I would in the gulf of Mexico. If I catch any crappie with a open wound (bird or fish) I released them.

Some of the fish on the Gulf were loaded with them

I don’t see them in the crappies in my area lakes. I’ve seen them in the bluegills from area pond’s though

Yes, Pearl River fish of most species have them on one side or the other. Now the Crappie caught out of the Mississippi Gulf Coast rivers only have about 10% of the worms the Pearl has. The Pearl flows about 450 miles total so who knows what's been dumped in it. The City of Jackson routinely has sewerage overflow into it the last couple of years. Seems here the shorter "Run-off" type rivers are much cleaner water and fish. The red worms are easy to remove but if a fillet is full of the big white ones the barn cats eat well.

They occur frequently in lots of places . See them often in some ponds , red ears help control them . We drained a pond while building another and the sediment was full of the red ones . There are black dot things and black worms and seen some kinda white things too.
Drought and extreme low water conditions in these parts seem to make them more prevalent, no worries they ain’t something that can survive 375 degrees …:crazy:

Btw , you been way way “upriver” lately ……:dono
Hint hint bro …..:Rofl

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

Btw , you been way way “upriver� lately ……:dono
Hint hint bro …..:Rofl

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I haven’t been up that way in a year or so. Need to get up there by OTS and see what I can pull out. Hoping the fish up that way are worm free lol. Im finding em constantly by the dam and midtown. Worried the entire water body is contaminated (yikes)!


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slab Apprentice

I haven’t been up that way in a year or so. Need to get up there by OTS and see what I can pull out. Hoping the fish up that way are worm free lol. Im finding em constantly by the dam and midtown. Worried the entire water body is contaminated (yikes)!


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Likely due to this drought, seems low water conditions for extended times creates this issue in some areas :dono

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

Likely due to this drought, seems low water conditions for extended times creates this issue in some areas :dono

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I think you’re right. We aren’t getting enough water flowing into the lake and downstream. I remember 10+ years ago when it was drought about like this we had that big golden algae bloom that killed off most of the fish. I’m sure it was related to to lack of water flowing in and out


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Its gets so dry here the fish have ticks! :Rofl