Mille Lacs Smallie Sores

I have fished Mille Lacs for smallies for years. This weekend I was somewhat shocked to see so many sores on the fish. I expect to see the normal wear and tear scars and sores from rooting in the rocks for Crayfish but the sores the fish have on them now are nasty. In general the sores are White, I am used to pink. The sores are raised from the surface of the skin and look really gross, cracks, blood, flaps of tissue. Some were about 3″ in diameter and raised nearly 1/2″.
The sores really make the fish standout in the water. Are the sharp zebra muscles creating larger sores when bass are feeding in rocks? are the sores becoming infected?
Good news is I am pretty certian NON ONE would want to keep these fish. just gross.

My guess is Tribal Gillnets.

-J.

Weird. I was up there fishing smallies this weekend as well. Every fish we caught was super clean…no marks, sores, whatsoever. What part of the lake were you fishing?

Do you have any pictures of these babies?

I haven’t been up there in a bit and miss those toads.

We fished the entire West side. Found Fish with the sores in all bays and up by Myr Mar. Sorry no pictures. My phone is internet accessed, I did not want any viruses…..
I think I only caught a few that did not have the sores. In fact I saw schools of bass and the only reason I saw them, based on existing light, was due to the sores. Like watching golf balls swim around.

I have seen fish with these things on them-easy to spot from a long distance…although I have only seen them on panfish. And the fish that have them NEVER bite….

I pretty much stuck to the East side…Here’s one of the better ones that I got a photo of. Not crazy action for us, but some nice fish showed themselves. Smaller fish were on top of the rocks. Bigger ones were off the edge a bit.

I was up last Wensday and got quiet a few that had pink sores on there backs.I figured it was from rooting around in the rocks as all were on there heads and backs.

I know in WI there are a few lakes in Polk County that are showing sarcoma (specically Bone Lake). It affects mainly crappies and they have sores that are roughly the size of a half dollar and [censored], white,reddish, or pink. Raised up a bit as well. Not sure if it is the same or not? Sarcoma is a cancerous growth generally speaking so I wouldn’t eat them either! Ish. Page 5 of the following link has some info on it and a pic.
Crappie Sarcoma

We fished the South end over the weekend and didn’t see the scars you saw along the West shore…I did see the typical red abrasions from rooting in the rocks looking for crayfish.

Similar to what someone said also true for us…smaller fish on top of rocks and bigger fish a little deeper (6′ to 8′) for us. Our first trip in a while we didn’t get one at least 20″ (biggest 19 3/4″).

Fished areas around Garrison last weekend on a launch and the guide said the sores were fish lice….