Are spaghetti worms in speckled trout dangerous?

Worms in speckled trout are a common occurrence, yet budding inshore anglers often inquire about them: are they harmful to humans? Is it unsafe to even touch them?

Well, the short answer is "no". Take it from someone who's been eating speckled trout for over 30 years: it is perfectly fine to handle these parasites — even to eat them raw — because they are not harmful to humans in the least bit. But if you want to learn more about worms in speckled trout, then keep scrolling.

What are those worms in speckled trout?

Commonly known as "spaghetti worms", these parasitic tapeworms are scientifically referred to as Pseudogrillotia pIeistacantha. They are known to infect sharks and merely use speckled trout (as well as black drum and other inshore species) as intermediary hosts.

Adult spaghetti worms live in the intestines of sharks and are about eight inches long. It's there they produce eggs that are pooped out by the shark into the surrounding seawater, where they are eaten by tiny crustaceans such as juvenile white shrimp.

It's theorized that spaghetti worms work their way through the food chain, with those small crustaceans being eaten by bait fish which are in turn eaten by popular game fish. That's how you get worms in speckled trout. Then those game fish are eaten by sharks and the cycle starts all over again.

Are spaghetti worms harmful to humans?

Absolutely not. There are clips on social media and across YouTube showing people eating fish infected with pseudogrillotia pIeistacantha and they're fine. I've also been eating fish fillets with these worms for years and haven't experienced any consequences to my health.

These parasites are not to be confused with tapeworms that are actually harmful to humans, like those found in beef and pork.

How do you kill worms in speckled trout?

While these worms are not harmful to humans, it may make you feel better to know that cooking infected fish fillets to temperature kills the worm. Also, once the worms are cooked, you cannot find them. It's as if they disappear, so you don't have to worry about them ruining your culinary experience.

After that, freezing fillets also kills worms in speckled trout or any other parasite in the fish flesh.

How do you remove worms in speckled trout?

While it's not necessary to remove spaghetti worms, you may find yourself wanting to. Removing them is as easy as cutting out one end of the worm from the meat, grabbing it and pulling it out. Just using your thumb and forefinger to do this works, but tweezers could be more helpful.

However, this will be an exercise in futility, especially if you plan on catching a bunch of speckled trout. Consider the below dock shot of customers I took fishing to Breton Sound in 2012. That's one hundred fish, and removing worms in speckled trout by hand for every single one of them (or even half of them) would have taken me all day and night.

If spaghetti worms in speckled trout make you a little squeamish, then all I can say is "welcome to eating wild game". You'll eventually get over it. Give it time and you won't notice them anymore.

Is there a way to target speckled trout that don't have spaghetti worms?

I've noticed that speckled trout living in lower salinity waters tend to have fewer worms, and that trout living in high salinity waters tend to have more. That's because this specific parasite survives in saltier water. But never have I filleted speckled trout caught on the fresh-end of an estuary and observed zero occurrences of these parasitic tapeworms. Catching speckled trout is hard enough, especially after The Freshening, that I'm not going to get caught in the completely futile effort of trying to catch speckled trout that don't have worms.

I think the best approach to worms in speckled trout is simply to accept it and enjoy your parasite-laden trout fillets. Yes, that sounds crazy, but it's true.

Where can I catch more speckled trout?

This is the million dollar question to which I have the million dollar answer: you can catch more worms in speckled trout...err, I mean...just plain old "trout", by planning your fishing trips according to the wind and find fishing spots that are loaded with feeding fish.

That's right: if you can find biting fish in the first place — arguably the hardest thing to do on any fishing trip — then you will have no problems consistently catching fish over the long term.

But there's more: you will want to learn how to get your lure in front of them, for which I recommend this free video course that's about nineteen minutes long.

After that, you'll want to identify water that's safe to run your boat in, like I do in this guide explaining why Delacroix is so shallow, and avoid hazards to navigation like this one in Pointe aux Chenes.

Or you can get it all in one spot...

The resources above are valuable and worth your time to review, but they do not entail everything I have to share. Imagine if you and I could sit down and detail everything you need to do in order to plan successful fishing trips! That's what you'll find inside my flagship course, Inshore Fishing 101.

After that, you will want to get support from like-minded anglers, and that's why I created the LAFB Elite Community. It's there you can get help planning your next fishing trip, post & read fishing reports and generally enjoy the camaraderie of fellow anglers who are serious about inshore fishing. Access is granted to members only.

In fact, if you're a member, then mosey on over to the Community to chime in on this post about how members are handling worms in speckled trout.

How do you handle spaghetti worms in speckled trout?

While worms in speckled trout are not dangerous to humans, everybody has their own way of handling them. So what do you do? Do you remove them or "release into grease"?

Chime in in the comments below!

Tight lines, and thanks for visiting!