Parasites on Kokes?

[chukardave1]

I was fishing a LBC this weekend and caught several kokanee that had thse parasitic things, looks like little stubby white worms, on their sides and at the base of their lower fins. I kept one and filleted it out to see if they were embedded in the meat and it did not appear they were. Still threw them back though. Any thoughts? Has this been discussed, I am sure it has. I will try a search and see.

[chukardave1]

Should have started with the search, but that would make too much sense. The thread I found was from '06 and Moknots mentioned that kokes in LBC and Simtustus had these. Calling them copapods. Not suppose to affect the meat quality. Come from warm water. We were in the Metolius arm and water was around 60. Guess that is warm enough. I guess I am surprised to see them this early. The water is just starting to warm and the Metolius stays cooler than the rest of the lake, especially up high.

On a side note heading to paulina to get some non-parasitic kokanee this PM. Will let you know what we find.

[FallRiverGuy]

They are Parasitic Copepoda (http://web.viu.ca/goatert/PARASITE/PARACOP.HTM). As far as I know they do not infect the meat and the fish are safe to eat. At least I have had no ill effects from eating Kokanee infected with them.

[nwsoftball]

How was the fishing??? I'm hitting LBC on Monday with a buddy for some kokanee/bass action and wondered how it was doing.

[chukardave1]

Fishing was good on the Metolius arm. A few trolling and more on jigs.