While reading through a couple of Maumee River walleye run pages, I came across a post where anglers reported finding white flat worms and red camallanus worms in the fish they had caught.
I have had the pleasure (ahem) of dealing with parasitic worms in fish that I have caught or cleaned myself over the years, and I have read that, despite the gross factor, they are harmless.
You can either move on, eat the fish, and enjoy yourself, or… er… don’t. One such angler discovered so many in a fish that he said it was simply too much and “not worth the risk.” He had previously stated that he knew they were harmless. That is the gross factor.
According to Matthew Faust, an Ohio Division of Wildlife fisheries biologist, the division lacks a reliable method for determining whether the parasitic load in walleye (or any other species of fish) is high or low in a given year.
“Given higher densities of walleye in recent years, it is expected [we would] see more parasites in harvested fish,” he told me by email. “I am most familiar with tapeworms, and we see those routinely while processing fish.”
The DOW emailed me a draft document titled “Walleye: Is This Fish Safe to Eat?” That covered parasites, infections, and viruses, and it stated that tapeworms are common and harmless, but it was never released.
Sarah Schott, ODNR wildlife communications specialist, agreed, but added that the DOW always encourages people to fully cook fish to kill parasites. The recommended minimum internal temperature is 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
“I always tell people to go with their gut instinct,” she wrote in an email to me. “If something seems very off [color, texture, smell, etc.] with the fillet, it is better to err on the side of caution and discard the meat.”
Two abnormalities to look for in fish flesh are a blotchy white/opaque, milky appearance or something that resembles freezer burn in muscle, which could be parasite spores from a condition known as heterosporis. The other is a condition known as sandy flesh, which causes meat to have a coarse, granular texture and appear yellowish-brown when frozen. Muscular degeneration is caused by a viral infection.
In both cases, the fish should not be eaten, but there is no evidence that they will harm humans, according to the report.
According to an ODNR Division of Wildlife news release, turkey hunters harvested 4,281 birds on the first weekend of the regular spring season (April 19).
It was a slight 2% decrease from 2024, when 4,367 were harvested.
There were 1,740 turkeys checked in over the youth-only weekend of April 12-13.
As usual, the southwestern-central-western counties of Ohio led the state in kills: Belmont had 148, followed by Meigs (136), Guernsey (135), Monroe (134), and Carroll (122).
Northwest Ohio’s top counties over the first weekend were Williams (67), Defiance (60), Fulton (30), Seneca (28), and Huron (22). Hunters in Lucas and Paulding counties reported 19 birds.
The late season in the northeast zone (Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull) begins on May 1.
Visit wildohio.gov for more information on hunting hours, licenses, and turkey inspection procedures.
Hunters are allowed one bearded turkey.
More information about another adventure from our crew of Toledo-area anglers deep-sea fishing in the Atlantic Ocean off Lighthouse Point, Fla., is on its way.
Capt. Tom Dudderar and Dave Jensen of Jensen Jewelers joined boat owner Chris Nelms and Florida Capt. Ryan Goldman on a 100-mile trip to the Grand Bahamas to fish for big-eyed tuna, blackfins, and mahi-mahi.
Using a running and gunning radar fishing technique on diving birds, they were able to find prime deep canyons in the sea.
“Trolling rigged baits and lures at 10 mph, it did not take long to hook up a double header then a triple header on big eye tuna,” according to Dudderar. “Their aggressive strikes and speedy runs made the multiple hookups a rush of excitement throughout the day.”
They added some mahi-mahi to the fish box, as well as more tuna from another productive area, but the most spectacular moment came later when a 25-foot whale shark “swam right by the boat twice within arms reach.”
“The sight of it was completely surreal in the crystal-clear Bahamas,” he told me.
However, their offshore experience was further enhanced when the yellowfin tuna that followed in behind the whale shark were “taxed” by dusky sharks once the anglers had the yellowfins on their lines.
“[It] was a true display of the food chain like something out of National Geographic,” Dudderar Added.
