Hi Pondmeisters,
Yesterday I upheld my tradition of fishing and putting fresh fish on the table for the first day of lent. I got a nice little haul of bluegill. While cleaning them I saw something I have never seen. One fish of the 15 I kept and cleaned had what at first I thought was a long, thin, red blood vessel. It stuck to my fingers and I flicked it into the offal bucket with he head guts and scales. It clung to the side of the white plastic bucket. Out of the corner of my I noticed it moved! On looking I found one more. I wonder what these are? Are they anything to be concerned about either for my pond or fish population? I tried to take some pictures because I knew I would be writing this right away but the camera yesterday to fail me. They were about 2 - 4 inches long and as thin as a sharp pencil line. I've cleaned a lot of fish and never seen anything like this, maybe I've been blind to them for the past half century but right now I have a low level of concern and a big case of curious. Thanks for your response.
BTW how does one get that little "I subscribe" logo to put at the end of my posts? I have subscribed for several years but never got one in my welcome aboard. I tried to copy and paste someone elses and I could copy anything else on the page I wanted but not that little fish.

Kru
Powhatan, Va.