Caught a chinook last weekend and when I opened her up she had these white egg shaped sacs full of a white'ish liquid. There must have been about 50 of them.

Anyone have an idea what they are and if the fish is edible? It is in the freezer and I will not eat it as it turned my stomach, but I am curious what everyone thinks.

In this pic you can see 3 full and 1 popped above the knife and two full below the knife.



Here is a close up of one that I pulled out.

Looks like Henneguya salmincola (a myxozoan parasite). My literature says it doesn't affect the flavor, texture, or safety of the meat, but it sure doesn't look very appetizing. The parasite is also found in rockfish and flatfish.

The other possibility is Kudoa spp. which is also a myxozoan parasite. It forms large white patches or streaks in the flesh and will cause the meat to breakdown if even it meat is smoked.

Hmmmmmm.

Parasites, there whats for dinner.

This comes up every year but I haven't had the pleasure yet. Looks like you need a new knife too.

Now *THOSE*, are some offensive photos.

Isn't that what you make hummus out of?

I don't think I would eat a chinook that had the color of that one.. EEEEWWW!

I just want to say that dont lok good,If i caught on with that in it i would'nt feed it to my family of 7 no way!!!

I feel sick

It's acne. Let me guess, the fish was in the teens.

Looks like a hack job done on a tule.Like said above the color of the meat alone makes me ill.Look's like fertilizer to me.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

just pretend they're cadbury creme eggs and you should be ok

Ah, I don't hink he asked for commentary on filleting or the fact its a typical fall coastal fish ... thanks anyways fellas

Thanks to those that provided the requested info.

Bushbear has it right ..... YUCKY Henneguya salmincola.
I have caught a few rockfish like that also.Just kills me to toss a good fish but when in dought toss it out.

I found a few of those in one of the B-10 kings I filleted this weekend. Unlike the gooey Tapioca disease, these were more solid, and shaped very much like a chicken egg... only they were just 3/8ths inch in the longest dimension. I found them in the "shoulder" section of the fish close to the spine. Just squeezed them like a pumpkin seed and they popped out of the flesh whole. Fish cooked up just fine. Tapioca disease causes proteolysis of the muscle fibers even after cooking/smoking, leaving wet liquefied pockets in the meat.... YUCK!

THE COLOR OF THE MEAT!!! have any of you ever heard of a white king!?!?! they are the best tastin out there!!!

i have caught a hatchery king one time with those little balls, we called them cancer sacs, i have no clue what they are, but i think we just chunked up the meat that wasnt affected and canned it.....just a way to save some valuable king meat

Dam you guys are snobs. Let the man enjoy his tule. Or at least enjoy the memory of catching that fish. I'm not sure I would actually eat it. I might feed it to Rory on a good day though.

I took a friend out last season on the Cow. He brought in this tailhooked boot. He never saw a fish that big before. You'd thought he just landed a permit on a flyrod. And I would have been a jackass to rain on his parade.

Fish snobbery is not attractive.

Thanks for the info and positive feed back.

The negative posts don't surprise me. Everyone is quick to jump to conclusions or spout opinions.

This was an 18 lb hen, one of two fish I caught that day on the Sound.
The meat was actually orange, I didn't color corect the digital image to keep the image size down and 'cause I was in a hurry to get answers.
I have now posted the corrected image, this was an "instant fix" and not a change in hue/sat or color replacement. Just the instant fix that most digital photos require.
The "hack" fillet job was after washing, slicing and picking and pulling at the white balls.
The knife was sharp, just haven't figured out how to perform surgeries yet.

BTW.
It was used as crab bait and the Dungies loved it.