Removing sea lice...

[Gabriel Burgi]

I just saw a pic in the gallery of a SRC with some sea lice. I was just wondering if when you all catch fish in the salt, do you remove the lice? Or is it pointless because they'll come right back? I would imagine it would be good to do it provided the fish isn't kept out of the water in the process.

- Gabe:ray1:

[TomB]

sea lice are a natural part of the environment that coastal cutthroat have evolved to survive in. in BC and in some areas where there are alot of salmon farms, concentrations of them are artificially inflated, but almost everywhere else including most washington waters, they are natural, and the cutthroat can deal with them. If a fish were going to die because of them, and you removed them to make the fish survive, then you are artificially allowing bad genes to survive; something you wouldn't want to do. Furthermore, there is a good chance you could do more harm than good while removing them. I would just leave them be.
-Thomas

[chadk]

I prefer to just remove all that icky slime they get on their nice shiny scales ;)

[barbless]

I only remove them if I plan on eating the fish. I would think that handling a fish enough to "carefully" remove sea lice would cause more harm than good. Those little effers are hard to get off too...
Let nature take its course...natural selection and all of that.

barbless

[ibn]

Leave it, it comes off when they head into fresh water and doesen't harm them.

The sea lice you see on searuns is different then what you'll find on salmon.

[Gabriel Burgi]

All-

Some good info. Thanks for the replies. TomB - Very true about the 'bad genes' thing. I didn't look at it that way. Tight Lines!!

- Gabe:ray1:

[cascade kid]

Leave it, it comes off when they head into fresh water and doesen't harm them.

The sea lice you see on searuns is different then what you'll find on salmon.
That's because they're LIMPETS.:rofl:

Kidding!

[Bob Triggs]

Any deliberate manipulation of the surface slime layer on the fish can lead to disease or death. Leave them alone.

[cascade kid]

iagree

But Bob,

I just so love manipulating that slime layer! What can I manipulate now?

Kidding again!

[Sterling silver]

The gene thing. In the spirit of the season, bah! Humbug! That's spurious thinking. Sea lice would hardly be a genetic issue.

Sterling

[cascade kid]

All I can say at this time of seasonal reflection is that it's a good thing none of us have any real problems. If whether or not to pull sea lice off is the biggest issue, were doin alright!

James

[Brent Comer]

Gabriel, I don't mess with 'em. However, I've wondered if I should try to remove them.

[ibn]

I've often considered removing them, but never would, something about it being on there just makes you want to peel em off!

[Les Johnson]

The sea lice on cutthroat die and drop away almost immediately when the fish moves into fresh water. Curt Kraemer told us about this on a thread sometime last fall as I recall. I can't believe that is normal that they should become so completely covered with the little aquatic parasites. I don't remember seeing this phenomanon occuring years ago.
Good Fishing,
Les Johnson

[Bob Triggs]

I only see a few fish a year that are really covered with lice, I mean like hundreds of them of all sizes etc. Most of the cutts I see in the salt here are robust.

[Ken Hunter]

I was always under the impression that the fish frequented small estuaries along the shoreline to expose themselves to freshwater an thus ridding themselves of sea lice. This makes some sence to me as we tend to fish these areas when possible.

Ken