[chefchris401]

So in the past two weeks my fishing buudies and I have been seeing adult bunker with these long worm like things hanging out of them. They are absoluetly gross, some fish only have 1 or 2, most have had about 6 to 8, but this fish had 21!

All the bunker we snagged, had these worms on them.

Ive observed the bunker rubbing themselves along the bottom very aggresively, which is one way they try and remove thses things.

They appear to be anchor worms, or ribbon louse. heres some info on them:

"Anchor worms are parasites that infect fish and one of the main problems with them is that they increase the risk of attracting other diseases. The anchor worms can cause serious damage to a fish and can eventual kill the fish themselves, but anchor worms are only seldom the cause of death in fish with anchor worm since the damage weakens the fish and opens it up for other diseases that end up killing the fish.

Anchor worms are in fact small crustaceans. These crustaceans start out their life as free swimming and find a fish to burrow their way into. They burrow themselves too far into the fish to allow for safe removal. When they have buried themselves into the fish they move themselves into the muscles where they live for several months while developing. They then make their way out of the fish, a process that often leaves ugly wounds, and releases their eggs before dying. The circle will then start over again.

The wound caused by the crustaceans often gets infected which is one of the main reason this disease can invite so many other diseases to infect the sick fish. The long time the crustaceans spend in the fish also makes it hard to know where this disease was introduced. "

Is one of the causes of low bunker population?

Ive never seen these before in my life and either has my pops who has been fishing his whole life. Ive also noticed some on the mullet that have been around.

Check out the first pic, you can actually see the foot or anchor of them.