Bleeding Vent

[doublehooked]

On my local waters Isla/Ericht, The fish can be brand spanking new from the tide(licers)but the vent is swollen and red bleeding , this does not seem to effect the fish in any way whatsoever?. Or does it?.
I am sure other catchers will back me up in there river system but i was thinking is it the same on all our Rivers.

Regards

[fishingd0]

Have seen this in a number of fish this year on the Ness, Conon and Helmsdale.

I was told by Ronald Sutherland that it is a parasite (of a worm variety). It is picked up on the sea bed (amongst weed), and lives in the gut. When the fish hits freshwater, the worm tries to leave the fish via the vent and gives it this look.

I don’t know if it does any long term damage. Let’s hope not.

Gordon

[sagecaster]

fishingd0 said:

Have seen this in a number of fish this year on the Ness, Conon and Helmsdale.

Findhorn too apparently.

[macd]

same on the dee

[billytheghillie]

same on lower tweed

[macd]

looks damn sore definite job for germaloids ;D

[greenbanks]

Seen in the last week over 30 fish all suffering from this condition.
I was wondering if the irritation caused to the fish is making them more aggressive or agitated as they are certainly taking well just now.

[Bogyoch]

Fishing the Avon this week, and 3 of the fish have had this condition.

[greenbanks]

Interesting thread this one that really shows the value of shared information. I note that the scale of this problem is very widespread and hope that it is not detrimental to the fish's ability to spawn later.I must add I am lucky to have seen a lot of rod caught fish of late and have specifically been looking to see this and worryingly I say that virtually all the fish I have seen in the last fortnight has this painful looking condition.Perhaps this should be flagged up to Sepa or someone (if anyone knows of a river scientist perhaps you could bring it to their attention for an opinion).I urge you all to look closely at your catches to inspect for this condition as it could potentially be disastrous if there are fatal consequences to the fish suffering from this.It looks very nasty by the way.

[webbie]

Don fish are the same, some skinny grilse also appearing again.

[salmonshrimp]

Found this on google perhaps this should be brought to the attention of all water bailiffs and information passed to the relevant people.
news.rivertweed.org.uk/blog/_archives/2007/8/3/3137596.html

[Bogyoch]

Adding to my earlier post, four of our twelve fish for the week had this condition, and it wasn't exclusive to the clean fish. I had a cock salmon of about 7lb with a swollen and bleeding vent: this fish had been in the river for 3 or 4 weeks judging by its colour. Otherwise it was fighting fit, having torn line off like a thing possessed.

[billytheghillie]

our biologist has e-mailed all the ghillies to obtain sample fish, so at least they seem to be alert to this.

[williegunn]

greenbanks said:

Perhaps this should be flagged up to Sepa or someone (if anyone knows of a river scientist perhaps you could bring it to their attention for an opinion).

The scientists at Faskally Fish Laboratory,Pitlochry are already looking into this, and ahve dismissed the worm theory.

[sagecaster]

williegunn said:

greenbanks said:

Perhaps this should be flagged up to Sepa or someone (if anyone knows of a river scientist perhaps you could bring it to their attention for an opinion).

The scientists at Faskally Fish Laboratory,Pitlochry are already looking into this, and ahve dismissed the worm theory.

Will you let us know their findings if they do work out what the problem is?

[donnieW]

I spoke to one of the scientists from Faskally on Saturday night and he confirmed the worm theory. It's something they have been looking into for a few years and know a lot about. The whole vent of the fish has to be cut out immediately and soaked in alcohol in order for the scientists to get any information worth having. (Cue - some wise cracks about the alcohol :

[tyneandrew]

I personally find it quite amazing that the exact prognosis of this condition has not yet been determined, given how advanced science and research is these days and the contribution of the salmon to the Scottish economy (and the potential risk of a condition that could escalate into something serious).

Especially now it has been going on for well in excess of a year?

[donnieW]

tyneandrew said:

I personally find it quite amazing that the exact prognosis of this condition has not yet been determined, given how advanced science and research is these days and the contribution of the salmon to the Scottish economy (and the potential risk of a condition that could escalate into something serious).

Especially now it has been going on for well in excess of a year?

I'm sure that the exact prognosis has been determined and the scientist I spoke to said that they were not concerned about it. I hope they know what they are doing, though - there seems to be a lot of fish carrying it this year.

[larkspur]

Just logged on.
Deveron the same, thought we were alone. Photo's and samples taken and sent off for analysis.

[fenton]

tyneandrew said:

I personally find it quite amazing that the exact prognosis of this condition has not yet been determined, given how advanced science and research is these days and the contribution of the salmon to the Scottish economy (and the potential risk of a condition that could escalate into something serious).

Especially now it has been going on for well in excess of a year?

If you have ever spent anytime in academia, this would come as no surprise..............

A conservative estimate would suggest that......

It takes 1 year for an academic to decide that a topic needs researching,

It takes him a further year to design a project and apply for funding,

It takes another two years to reapply for funding having been turned down...

It then takes about three years (conservative estimate!) to collect the data,

Another couple to analyse the data

Another few years to write it up.......


If we are any further forward with this in the next 5 years I'll be gob smacked!


Having said all of that, I bet that there is a talented individual somewhere (probably not an academic!) who works out the answers soon!

Lets just hope that he or she shares their insight on here!

cheers
F