Yellow sacs inside gills? Anyone?

[Leftcoaster]

Pulled a little 33cm flattie at Brighton last night and found it had small yellow sacs under the gill flaps. There was at least twenty of them, about 5mmx3mm, that had to be cut off when cleaning it.
Is this common? I haven't caught one in a while, but I never remember seeing them before. Anyone seen them before? Any idea what they are?
Cheers!

[rixter]

Sounds like a flathead with a bad case of pimples ! ..lol . On a serious not though , i've never seen that before on a flatty, half way through reading i was expecting chunks out the gill or mouth / usualy from reeling fish up to fast from a deep depth ( the bendz , spit the stomach up ). But i have never heard of lumps like that on flattys around the gills , probably some kind of 'sea lice' feeding off the gills and ready to hatch off the fish ? .

[CremeDeLaCreme]

did you take a photo of these yellow sacs?

[Leftcoaster]

@rixter Definitely not the swim bladder. I've seen that a bunch of times out on the boat. I think you might be on to it with some sort of parasite though. They were really stuck on there, but once they were cut free there was no bleeding or even sign they'd been there.

@Creme No I didn't take one of them 'in situ' so to speak but I keep the guts to make berley with so I'll dig the container out of the freezer and get one up this arvo after work.

[frozenpod]

I have heard about it before but I have only seen it one flathead I have caught in the last couple of years.

Not sure if it is a problem or becoming one.

[MattypVic]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1359937494.793427.jpg (37.81 KiB) Viewed 3008 times

I pulled this out of a leather jacket a few months ago anyone know what it is?

[fishingvic]

Sea lice
Sea lice are parasites commonly found on fishes, clinging tightly on the fishes' body with their powerful hook-like grip. You may sometimes find them inside the fishes' mouth, gripping on their tongue.

Also very common in Silver Trevally's mouths

[MattypVic]

Thanks I'm guessing this one must of been in there for a while because of the size. Is this the same as the little white ones that u find pinching your bait?

[cdrolly]

Thanks I'm guessing this one must of been in there for a while because of the size. Is this the same as the little white ones that u find pinching your bait?

One and the same man... Hate the buggers especially when they plague your bait off...

[Scarecrow]

G'day Leftcoaster,

I recall catching a large rock flathead in Port Phillip Bay, it's gills too were covered in the orange/yellow globules. Sadly I didn't discover them till I was cleaning the fish, otherwise I would have released it. Tried searching through text books and on the net for Flathead parasites, but guessed it may be some reaction to pollution, so I ended up throwing the whole fish away, was too scared to eat it, nor feed it to a pet, nor use it as berley in case I may introduce a parasite to other virgin waters.

I just checked the net again and have discovered the following parasite which occurs overseas on other fish, the orange globules look exactly the same. Maybe it's another overseas invader?

The parasite is called 'Didymozoid digeneans', a parasitic flatworm from Asia that form capsules or cysts on the gills of the host fish.

Check the link out:

http://rfdp.seafdec.org.ph/publication/ ... pter4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tight Lines
Rob