Niagara river, Gill lice

[1stdrift]

Hit up niagara on Monday gets a lot more interesting with a boat!

Rainbow I took home had gill lice, anyone else seeing this?

[metalbuckle]

I haven't caught any steelhead with gill lice, but a guy fishing next to me on a Lake O trib caught one that was completely infested by gill lice, the gills were almost white. Anyway the fellow kept the fish and said it has no affect on the meat.

[Longshank]

Yes, we had one the other day as well.

glad you got into them

[Fishing12345]

This happened a couple of years back on eastern tribs. Its very bad news as the fish will die as the gills turn white they cannot breathe. The lice are turning up again in the eastern tribs .Its very bad news and can/will be quite devastating.

I am not sure why we are seeing the lice again but I know its a relatively new phenomena, certainly wasn't around 10 years ago to the best of my knowledge.

[Disco]

I have been finding Gill lice in Lake Erie fish for 15-16 years so they have been around. I notice the trips I make to the U.S. side on the Erie stocked streams the fish have Gill lice most of the time. Rare to not find gill lice in their Steelhead.

In G-Bay and in Ontario streams I have seen them very very rarely but do seem them from time to time.