Post By: great american fisherman Posted: 8/6/2012 5:39:57 PM Points: 0
i went fishing at dowdy today and i caught 2 rainbows that looked like they had worms growing out of the side of them. They also had big sores all over the side of them. Does anyone know what this is???
welcome to the site ,and thanks for the post,..as for the fish that you caught ,ive never seen anything like that myself, but may be some other members will see this post and have more info for you.
Sounds like a very excited male Rainbow that has been with a few too many females, hence all the sores.. Had that happen to a buddy in college.. Should have given it some Penicillin and released it... Tell it not to scratch or pick at it.
"Had that happen to a buddy in college.. Should have given it some Penicillin and released it... Tell it not to scratch or pick at it." Sounds like one of those "a friend of mine" stories
I'm not sure where all the slurry drops were, nor where the fire line was located. Slurry contains a high concentration of Nitrogen. So they could be chemical burns from the run off. It's good to hear they are still alive. Hopefully they'll recover soon with all the rain.
Reply by: tptools Posted: 8/8/2012 10:52:01 AM Points: 0
These sores are known to be caused by "copepod's", and are a type of parasite. A friend and myself were fishing there on 8/7 (yesterday), and caught approx. 8 Rainbow Trout. ALL had the sores (some worse that others), and if you looked in the gills and near some fin or sores you could actually see the copepods. Word has it, that the copepods do not affect the quality of the fish meat and are just fine to eat. It was a visual thing to me though and there is NO WAY! I would eat a fish that looked the way that these do.. I had to stomach it up just enough to touch them for release... Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done to rid the trout of these parasites without killing the fish themselves. This is bad for Dowdy and Red Feather Lakes for business and comes at a very bad time after the High Park fire and all..
Reply by: Milehighfishing Posted: 8/8/2012 11:31:18 AM Points: 140
I was up there this last weekend. We landed over 30 bows on west lake and all looked like you standard healthy stocker. I fished a little on Dowdy, Sunday morning, and landed 3 trout ( 2 bows and a brown ) but didn't notice any sores that you described.
Reply by: great american fisherman Posted: 8/8/2012 2:22:19 PM Points: 0
@tptools That is exactly what they looked like! Except i caught one that was completely covered in them. By the way, thanks for telling me what they were
Reply by: tptools Posted: 8/9/2012 10:56:19 AM Points: 0
Milehighfishing: I was also there (dowdy) the weekend before and, you are correct. None of the 15 plus fish we caught then, had any sores what-so-ever (Zero Copeods)... This copepod infest, was the following weekend that ALL of our fish had them, so this infest is very recent.. These ARE Copepods, no doubt about it. Anyone can look them up or google them.. They are prominant and usually only found in stocked rainbows or steelhead, and in a lake that has some above average water temps too (warmer than usual water temp) .
Also: the above PICS were actual fish we caught at Dowdy on 8/7/2012.. Those were the last 2 we caught, and weren't necessarily the worst ones.. Hopefully next year Dowdy will be back to normal fish, and cooler water..
Just got back from Dowdy camping trip. The lake has apparently recieved a shipment of fish infested with anchor worms. This by the Game warden. Looking at the sores on the fish you can clearly see the worm, which looks like a black hair, protruding from the center. I was told that the fish are perfectly safe to eat after scraping away the infected flesh, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. They look awfull. We did catch a nice brown though.
