Donegal Bay, 29/30 Oct 2011 with doggy pic just for Creep

[johnwest]

People:Me

Duration:20 m ins on 29th, 5hrs 30 mins on 30th

Tide:High water @ 8.00pm approx.

Weather:Very windy, mild, some rain.

Bait:Lug, mackerel, squid.

Rigs:2 and 3 hook flappers over sand, single hook in rough.

Results:1 27cm flounder on 29th, 6 small pouting, 6 dogfish, 1 flounder(22cm) and 2 whiting on 30th.




Report:
29th Oct. A 20 min session? There was a pretty big swell running and the waves and swells were threatening to swamp me so discretion and valour...... I didn't get a pic of the flounder as I didn't want to risk the camera getting a cold, salt shower.
30th Oct. The following day the swell had eased enough to allow a safe session. As I was setting up it was nice to see a few porpoises showing very close in to the shore, they couldn't have been in more than 10ft of water. In close in the rough, I was tormented by lots of bites from what I think were tiny pouting; impressive bites but very few hook-ups. The one's I did get were all around the 13cm size. At distance the doggies were more obliging and half a dozen weighed in including a PB of 3lb 8oz, a specimen I think. I noticed they were all female, a bit of a hen party going on? I've included a pic of a double shot for Creep as he likes them. It then went very quiet for a while before a couple of whiting showed up, one of which was very skinny, probably due to the gill parasite which was very conspicuous. It weighed a mere 3oz compared to the 6oz which the fish weight-length chart suggests. I find quite a few of the whiting I get over here are seriously anorexic and many show gill parasites. I've included another whiting pic from early in the year which has what seems to be a different type of gill parasite. Any parasitologists out there?

[youonlythevinegar123]

Sounds like a nice little session, nice pictures!

[flyno]

Nice session john, nice pictures, especially the doggies..

[willie bendit]

yep...luv dem doggies

[chuckaroo]

decent session johnwest. nice report.
would have been great to have seen those porpoises. great pictures of the doggies indeed, and those parasites look like ugly wee gets

[Creep]

John , THANK YOU great shot of the doggies!! been noticing various parasites on fish these last few months, anybody else seeing a rise in parasites on thier catches?

[Al and Jordan]

great pics man. the doggies are class . never seen those gill parasites before but they look very uncomfortable for the poor fish.

[fishy1987]

congrats on the speciemen! your right their some starved looking whiting allright good going bice flattie aswell
tightlines
ferg

[Creep]

John I have to say that is my favorite Picture of the Dog Fishessssss Well done!! (I keep coming back to look at them !! )


As for the Gill Parasite been looking them up online and I cant find out what that one was BUT I found one that is very nasty that kills the tongue of the fish and replaces it with itself it enters the fish through its gills, i wonder if marine biologist are doing any research on this?? As it would be a very important issue for fish stocks

[dave mc gregor]

great shot of the doggies

[EricH]

Have noticed a lot of whiting with those parasites on them. Not sure what to do about them. Would cutting the off close to the gill help I wonder?

[FisherKing]

Another good session john & great pics strange parasite haven't seen any on the fish down this way apart from alot of sea lice on the Wrasse during the summer!!

[johnwest]

decent session johnwest. nice report.
would have been great to have seen those porpoises. great pictures of the doggies indeed, and those parasites look like ugly wee gets

I've been lucky with marine mammals this year, saw a minke whale while out in my boat and had a visit from a seal pup which came to the boat, swam around and I just couldn't resist those puppy eyes; he got a couple of mackerel which he thoroughly enjoyed. I suppose someone will tell me I shouldn't do that!
I just find the whole concept of parasitism repulsive, this one is Lacoernara branchialis and is fairly specific to whiting and is fatal as the fish just wastes away as the parasite feeds on the blood and produces masses of eggs. I found an interesting article in Mike Ladle's fishing diary ( sorry, couldn't upload the link) about fish parasites including this one.

[johnwest]

Have noticed a lot of whiting with those parasites on them. Not sure what to do about them. Would cutting the off close to the gill help I wonder?

Hi EricH, I don't know, if you don't, the fish is doomed anyway and the parasite keeps producing eggs while the fish lasts. If you do remove it as you suggest the fish may die from blood loss but there will be fewer parasite eggs produced.

[chuckaroo]

Have noticed a lot of whiting with those parasites on them. Not sure what to do about them. Would cutting the off close to the gill help I wonder?

Hi EricH, I don't know, if you don't, the fish is doomed anyway and the parasite keeps producing eggs while the fish lasts. If you do remove it as you suggest the fish may die from blood loss but there will be fewer parasite eggs produced.

IMHO i reckon the easiest thing to do is just to leave nature to its course... its just another part of the big 'circle'.
i would just put the fish back into the water, parasite 'n all. unless i thought that the fish was close to death..

BUT I found one that is very nasty that kills the tongue of the fish and replaces it with itself it enters the fish through its gills, i wonder if marine biologist are doing any research on this

is this the guy you are talking about creep!?

parasite_fish_tongue.jpg

its called the Cymothoa exigua parasite - a particularly ugly wee sh1te!
plenty of info about it online
(and i think that this picture has appeared in the forum before..)

[dan belfast]

reminds me of my mother in law

[cathalger]

Charlie that thing is seriously alien looking, horrible, whered you get that pic?

I saw one of those gill parasites on a decent sized pollack once, I have some pics, I wonder if its the same species as on your whiting Johnwest? Its been IDed on the Marine Life Info Network(MarLIN), must go and get the scientific name here now. The thing was so well imbedded in the fish it would have made a pretty serious wound, probably fatal, if Id tried to take it off. The fish was kept and the parasite only discovered back at the house anyway.

EDIT, heres this thing in the pollack gills, I think the people at Marlin IDed it to be the same thing. The title of the pic is how they described it anyway...

Love the dogfish pic too.

[chuckaroo]

Charlie that thing is seriously alien looking, horrible, whered you get that pic?

Have seen this photo before, just found it easily again on the internet. The Cymothoa exigua fish parasite apparently grabs onto the fish’s tongue and slowly eats away at it until only a stub is left. It then latches onto the stub and becomes the fish’s 'replacement tongue', it feeds off the fishes diet. They are usually found off the coast of California. Plenty more pics and info about it online..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAlEfrwr8aU

[johnwest]

Charlie that thing is seriously alien looking, horrible, whered you get that pic?

I saw one of those gill parasites on a decent sized pollack once, I have some pics, I wonder if its the same species as on your whiting Johnwest? Its been IDed on the Marine Life Info Network(MarLIN), must go and get the scientific name here now. The thing was so well imbedded in the fish it would have made a pretty serious wound, probably fatal, if Id tried to take it off. The fish was kept and the parasite only discovered back at the house anyway.

EDIT, heres this thing in the pollack gills, I think the people at Marlin IDed it to be the same thing. The title of the pic is how they described it anyway...

Love the dogfish pic too.

Yep, that's him, or should I say her; the male parasite dies after mating.

[johnwest]

reminds me of my mother in law

Mother-in-law meets Alien?