PEPPERED BLUEGILLS

[FRESHWATER PETIE]

I,ve been on spectacle lake catching some nice sized blue gills,real fun to catch in shallow water. They all had alot of black spots all over.So only catch and release there. Spec. is such a clear water lake I don't know why the bluegills are so peppered?

[Bobb-o]

those bluegills are plenty fine to eat with the salt and pepper in the skin, just make sure you cook them all the way.

[Tyler Holm]

Do a search on FM for Black Spots.

We've discussed the issue several times in the Rochester forums. See below for more details

Black Spotted Fillets

[FRESHWATER PETIE]

Thanks for the information, trouble is I got three little kids that love eating fish. But they don't eat them if they see any black spots or anything else unusual. I used to fillet fish and scale them and leave the skin on, I liked them that way. But when my kids turned over the fillet they won't touch them. So I'll plan on catching those big bull bluegill on Spectacle, and gladly release em'.

[fishin789]

Tell the kids them black spots are pepper.worked for me.

[RonZych]

Look in the 2006 regulations. It tells all about the bacteria and worms that are in fish. Pretty interesting.

Ron

[The Grebe]

Something I was reading, maybe the Minnesota Volunteer, had an article on the fish parasites and it said that pickling doesn't kill some of the buggers, like tapeworm larvae and they could infest a new host upon ingestion, so I won't be pickling any Pike anymore! Didn't like em that much anyways!

[RonZych]

Grebe you are right, It was the current volunteer I was reading about it. Pretty good information in there about it.

Ron