Conference wahoo::fishing-v2

    
    The Cod get wormy as the water gets warmer over time. In watching the
    local weather reports on the average at this time last year the weather
    was running a lot warmer. When the inland areas get warmer you will
    have to fish farther out in colder & deeper water to avoid this
    problem.
    
    
                                               Guy
    

	Noticed the worms huh ?  ;-)   They always have some worms,
	but like -1 said the warmer the water the more worms.  I've 
	been told they are parasites.   Cusk seems to be worse than
	cod.

	What I like to do is clean the fish myself and remove the
	worms I see right on the boat.  It's easier to take if you
	get home and nothing in the filets is moving.  Easier on the
	wife and kids too ;-)

	What does't have worms ?  I've been told haddock doesn't contain
	many but they are few and far between.

	According to a friend who used to filet fish in	Maine, a common 
	commercial practice is to _bleach_ the filets which whites out
	the parasites :-Q   So the worms are there when you buy cod
	filets but you don't see em.  He also said they'd have contests
	to see who could accumulate the most worms at the plant.

	At first their presence bugged me but I've gotten over it.

	Ken

    	From what I've seen, if there are worms in the fillets and you
    defrost the fillets in the frig, the worms come to the surface and you
    just pick them off. 
    
    	There are little bones that run where the lateral lines are in the
    fish. Since my kids will be eating the fish, I take extra precautions
    by cutting a small wedge out of the lateral line in the thickest part
    of the fillet. My wife is used to having me do that and typically
    doesn't bother watching. This is when I remove any worms left in the
    fillets. I make it a point not to mention if/when I find any.
    
    	Ditto on the colder water line.
    
    	RAYJ

    True on the warmer the water....although this spring the cod seem
    to be overly wormy. The worms are completely harmless but they are
    unsightly. 
    
    Bruce

        You will find some parasites in some species of freshwater fish now
    and then also....Smallmouth Bass get them in some waters...
    
        As fer the worms in Cod....you never even notice them in
    fishcakes...and the most they do in fillets is provide a little
    'crunch'...
      
        Hey, they aren't anything but protein anyhoo..people eat fried ants
    'n grasshoppers...
    
      JM

This all sounds a bit gross -- I can hardly wait t go out cod fishing next 
Monday. Hey, Frank, you gonna guarantee 'no  worm cod'?

leo

    Leo, 
    
    	That could be a possibility of a no worm cod because without 
    catching cod we wont have worms. (fishing has GUTS to pick up)

    Leo unfortunately I went out on May 4th and the fillet I brough home
    had a couple of worms, and guess who foud them, yes the wife kind of
    terned her off. She loves to eat cod so I'm sure it wont be a problem.
    
    
    Only found a couple though. As long as we catch fish I'll take the
    worms that come along with them and just be extra carefull in cleaning
    them.
    
    Frank

Well, what scares me is that I've never seen one in a cod. Now, I haven't 
set any records for the amount of cod caught, and I don't claim to know 
everything about fish, so are these things that hard to see? Have I eaten 
them and didn't know it? Sounds delicious! I jsut hope I don't find any, or 
worse, that my honey doesn't find them. She loves it when I go fishing and 
bring home freesh cod. She'd be sooooo upset to find out they had worms. 
How do I recognize thesee little devils?? 

help!!!

leo

                                   ditto

 What's worse than finding a worm in the cod you're eating ?.......







 You guessed it .......... Finding a half a worm !!!




Dave 

    	The worms are usually very visable. They look just like smaller
    versions of earthworms. The ones I've seen have been up to ~2" in
    length and about 1/32" in diameter.
    
    	RAYJ

    They are very easy to see. Hold a skinned fillet up to a light and
    look for a dark spot. That will be the worm. The worms are a parasite
    that come from seals. Most seals travel close to the shore. So cod
    caught inshore have a better chance of being wormy. 
    
    Steve 

 The worms aren't difficult to spot at all, if they are present. I haven't
seen too many more than an inch long, but they are usually pretty easy to see.
They are apparently not harmful to humans, but I'm always real careful
to pick them out so the wife doesn't see them.

 Steve is right. Part of the life cycle of these parasites is that they
are distributed by seal feces. In areas of high seal concentrations, it can
be difficult to find any worm free cod. This has been a sticking point with
some Maine fishermen, who claim that the Marine Mammals Act has worked too
well, and that there are so many seals in some areas of Maine that they can
no longer fish. The marketability of cod with worms is understandably less
than that of worm free cod, and these fishermen are crying foul.

 As marine mammals return to historic levels and in some cases exceed
historic levels, I imagine that the Marine Mammals Act will have to be
revisited. In some areas on the west coast, for example, entire docks have
been taken over by aggressive sea lions- and it's against the law to so
much as shoo them away. The problems of marine mammals and steelhead trout
and salmon are also well documented. Good luck with environmental groups,
though. Anything that can be made into a T-shirt with soft-fuzzy fur
and big mournful eyes can be a rallying point, and the facts are never a 
hindrance.

 The Doctah

	The warm water theory is very pervassive but articles I've read 
indicate that once a cod gets infected it stays infected. If this is the 
case you'll find worms all year round.
	The wormiest batch of cod I ever caught (or at least ever noticed)
was from 170' of water 35 miles offshore. That surprised me.
	I've also caught wormy fresh water bass. 
	In any case they are harmless.
Paul

	The wormiest cod I ever caught were out of Mt Desert Island
	in Maine.  Couldn't eat the stuff it was so filled...  And
	I assume the water was cold, though you never know with
	the gulf streams and all that.

	Ken
	

    I once went flounder fishing with a buddy out of Marblehead. We caught
    a bucket full each. When I went home and fileted them, there were more
    worms than meat. I was so disgusted that they ended up as fertilizer.
    
    IMHO if you want worm free fish, then buy farm raised catfish.
    Blackened catfish is now my favorite meal.
    
    8^) Rich