A worm I found in a fishes belly

[Erik]

A steelhead I cleaned the other day had a little red worm like creature in his belly. It was about an inch long, and it's body resembled something like a centipede only it was very small, 1 inch long by about 1/32 of an inch wide, and was red in color. Anyone care to make a guess at what it was? I'm just curious.

[gunrod]

Erik, did it look anything like a wiggler?

[Jackster1]

May be a hellgramite.

[Erik]

Definitely not a wiggler or hellgramite. I was looking at some pics and it kind of resembles a blood worm. Problem is the book doesn't say how big blood worms usaully are or where they are found.
Has anyone here ever seen a blood worm?

[Shoeman]

I used to see that in fish out of the Au Sable. I showed the worms to several Old Timers for identification purposes.
A few of them thought they were the larvae of the lamprey, but we never did get a positive identification.

Kinda makes you want to try some San Juan Worms

[gomer]

blood worms are about the size of a nightcrawler and are used for bait in salt water.

[Erik]

Definitely not a blood worm then.
shoeman, it was a little smaller than most san jaun worms I've seen tied.
It had a little tiny head with two pointy things that resembled horns, and at the tail it had two pointy things that resembled whiskers. The body was sectioned off like the sections of a tape worm. It had no legs that I could see. And it was very red in color. About an inch long, by 1/32 of an inch wide which isn't very big. It was about twice as long and a little thicker than a caddis larvea.
I have never seen anything like it before, other than like a centipede. But centipedes are bigger, and have legs.
I'll keep investigating and I'm sure one day I will figure it out. At any rate I don't think I'll be trying to match the hatch with them or anything. If I start to see lots of them in the fish that I keep then I may change my mind. Untill then I'm sold on those green caddis!

[quix20]

maybe some type of midge larva??? i know that some midges are tied using red thread/floss for a body, or even beads. i have never seen one alive though, just the flies. i dont know if midges actually get that big, but by the way you described it, it kinda sounds like that, maybe????

[Shoeman]

Quix, these things are much bigger than an adult midge.

1" long

[quix20]

gee, it was just a thought, i dont know my bugs yet so i guess i am not a true fly fisher. i dont usually use any other type of fly besides terrestrials.

[gunrod]

I was thinking the same thing Quix but midge larvae are maybe half of an average caddis so it would probably be too small.

[steelslam]

im off to the fly vise to tie me up some of those red worms. you didnt say what color that head was an how long those horns were an the color. an how long were those whiskers at the tail an color of them. an inch long an 1/32 of an inch wide. going to make an attempt to tie a few by that discription.

[Erik]

Okay I found this pic in one of my books. I can not find a referance to it except that the picture is incaptioned with in another larger picture of the "great diving beetle". There is a referance to the great diving beetle as being "relished" by early season trout while in it's nymphal stage. So I am guessing that this would then be a picture of the great diving beetle in it's nymphal form. I relize the picture looks a bit more orange than red, but it does look very simaler in all other aspects. It could be the reason the one I observed as being red was actually orange and the blood from cleaning the fish made it appear more red. And it's also quite possible that the legs may have already been digested and thats why I did not see any legs on my specimen. Does that make sense? Are Great Diving Beetles found in great lakes waters? This bug sure looks like what I observed.