Strange looking pike.......Help

[valley_boy]

I always assumed it was some sort of infection that had got into a wound. Pike, especially snot rockets, live in some of the most bacterial filled spots on earth. Shallow weedy areas with lots of warm water, dying vegetation, fish etc. If they get a cut its no wonder it would get infected. I know the water is warmer in the summer, but judging by the sixze of that sore, it has likely been there since then. I have seen this similar sort of thing on panfish as well, but they dont seem to swell up as much.

[plncrzy]

caught a 2-3 pounder in Muskrat lake that had that. Didnt know what it was, so I put him back in.

[CityIt]

Well I think that anyone who catches a fish that has this 'disease' that they should keep it and throw it out....not throw it back...whether the fish in question is in season or not!!! It's a matter of sustaining a good HEALTHY fishery for years to come!!!!!

[RJ]

Fellas.....do a bit of reading before you just start throwing fish on the bank because you think it has a disease.....we are not biologists.....

As I said....I've caught several muskies in the Kawarthas with different stages of it....had I thrown them on the bank because I thought they were diseased I'd be tarred and feathered....

RJ

[Relic]

Where is our resident biologist??? Maybe he can clear this up.

Paging... rfunfarm

Throw them all out??? Yep and ban ice fishing too???

Come on guy's get a grip


I have yet to catch a muskie with it, pike on the other hand, there has been more than a couple.

[RJ]

Took me awhile to dig this one up....you can see the scar from a tumor that had fallen off and had nearly healed right up....it was a perfect circle...



The fish is perfectly healthy and destroyed my favorite bucktail...

RJ

[Walleye kid]

if i cought something like that i would just throw it back...or cut the line i would'nt want to get near that thing

[Ron Reyns]

What you saw could have been a lymphosarcoma tumour. The tumours can be fairly common in pike and muskie populations infecting up to 16% of the individuals. It's contagious between fish (pike and muskies) but not to humans.

"Lymphosarcoma is a malignant blood cancer which is highly contagious. The disease is associated with the skin and is manifested by skin lesions and tumours (Figures 7 and . Although some superficial lesions may regress, the tumour usually results in the death of the fish. Sonstegard and Hnath (1978) reported that lymphosarcoma may infect as high as 16% of feral populations of muskellunge."

-Kerr 2004

For images of later stages see page 16

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/228126.pdf

You hit the nail on the head on this one. The question is, does the MNR know about this in that lake?

[lhousesoccer]

Yep. As a fisheries biologist, I can definitely tell you it is Esocid Lymphosarcoma. It's a viral infection of the dermal layer. Transferred from fish to fish by direct contact. Not associated with stagnant waters, pollution or chemicals. Tumours will get reabsorbed eventually, but you can usually see where one was - the scales where the tumour was appear "blurry". It doesn't have much of an impact on northern pike populations, but it can kick the crap out of muskie populations.

Here's a good fact sheet on the infection.

http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/librar ... arcoma.pdf

[CityIt]

Yep. As a fisheries biologist, I can definitely tell you it is Esocid Lymphosarcoma. It's a viral infection of the dermal layer. Transferred from fish to fish by direct contact. Not associated with stagnant waters, pollution or chemicals. Tumours will get reabsorbed eventually, but you can usually see where one was - the scales where the tumour was appear "blurry". It doesn't have much of an impact on northern pike populations, but it can kick the crap out of muskie populations.

Here's a good fact sheet on the infection.

http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/librar ... arcoma.pdf

So what is the right thing to do.....throw fish back or keep it....??

[mattdbz29]

Yes, and the hardwater leak at the reactor up river of course has nothing to do with such ailments within the fish population.

I am sure these sorts of things occur naturally, but lets face it, the mighty Ottawa has had a lot horrible stuff dumped in it as of late. I am not talking about what gets left on the ice at Petrie either. Lol There is no way I will ever be convinced that industrial pollutants leaching into our water ways do not effect the species inhabiting them.

Ab

Ya its always nice fishing the 25 miles UPSTREAM from the reactor....eatin lots of mercury pickeral from up there

[lhousesoccer]

So what is the right thing to do.....throw fish back or keep it....??

Treat it no different than any other pike. Keep it if you want to eat it (yes, despite the awful appearance, the infection is dermal and doesn't impact the flesh, and the virus is non-transmissable to humans). Throw it back if you don't want to eat it.

Anglers removing infected fish from the population would almost certainly have no measureable impact to the incidence or prevalence of the disease in a lake.

[Homer Is King]

It kind of looks like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS). I saw an article on the MNR website about it.(http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Le ... 66029.html). Just a guess...

[lhousesoccer]

It kind of looks like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS).

Definitely not VHS.

[adempsey]

Best guess is Esocid Lymphosarcoma. I believe it is transmitted by a retrovirus.

http://www.fishingvermont.net/Articles/Lymp-sarco.htm
http://maine.gov/ifw/fishing/health/vol4issue12.htm