Weird Steelhead Skeins

[idn713]

Anyone ever see a trout skien look like this? Fish seemed super healthy and loaded with eggs, so I kept her and got this mess! Her meat is pristine so is it just a disease in the formation of the eggs?

 

 

[TyeeTanic]

Are you referring to the black stuff all over it?

[idn713]

Yes that is correct. It’s not blood. But it’s several small black (almost deflated eggs) throughout the skien 

[Slack High Sportfishing]

It's not uncommon to see trout with malformed eggs. Typically, they will look watery or have a white spot on them. Often, only a portion of the eggs will be affected. I personally have never seen black collapsed eggs like those in your picture. I would love to see a close up of those, the picture gets fuzzy when I zoom in. Some fish also have issues dropping or reabsorbing old eggs, and this condition can even lead to the death of the fish.

[TyeeTanic]

Yeah I've never seen that ... could it be eggs that are still developing?  Maybe they are small and still developing?

[Tyee II]

Here's some that I found in a Brown in 2017. The mature eggs looked like they had eyed inside the fish, and there were tiny immature eggs mixed in. Also, there were several white chunks inside the skein that looked like little pieces of garlic to me.

[RUNNIN REBEL]

I have sent common images to be forwarded to DEC fish pathologist all threw the summer and it was little concern since they do not see much of this at the hatchery or on many lake specimens.        PLEASE POST any and all images you guys come across on LOU Thanks.

 

Jerry

RUNNIN REBEL


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Edited October 27, 2018 by RUNNIN REBEL

[RUNNIN REBEL]

.

More samples of situations forwarded to me threw out the year..

 

Jerry.

RUNNIN REBEL


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Edited October 27, 2018 by RUNNIN REBEL

[Lucky13]

I caught a brown trout in Hemlock Lake a few years back that had the strangest color markings I had ever seen.  I thought maybe it was a tiger trout, a brown brook hybrid.  I sketched it as I did not have a camera.  The DEC biologist with whom I spoke said they see all kinds of strange pigmentation.  He also said that, just like with people, in any large population, some individuals will develop diseases.  Maybe (and lets hope) that is what is showing here, not the beginnings of some new disease from somewhere else that came in on a boat, or in some of that “harmless” bait people think it is all right to haul from the Atlantic or down south.  But I agree that it is important to document this stuff, and communicate it, as if it is problematic, the biologists have the heads up earlier rather than later.