Anyone Know What Kind Of Fish These Are?

[Al Agnew]

About the yellow grubs...spotted bass in the streams of the Meramec Basin seem to be especially susceptible to them. The infestations on spots in Big River can be incredible. Even though they are harmless when cooked, I've caught and tried to clean a lot of spots from Big River that had so many you'd be getting a dozen or more in each bite! If they are only mildly infested, like a half dozen or less per fillet, it's pretty easy to pick them out with the point of a fillet knife. But it would be more trouble than it was worth to pick them out when there are so many of them. Those fish always get tossed into the brush for the raccoons.

As for black spot parasites, I don't worry about them because they are so small that I can pretend they're pepper. You can't see the parasite itself, just the black spot. Those yellow grubs can get up to a quarter inch long and they wiggle when you pick them out. Not very appetizing.