Hey Guys, I went snapper fishing over the weekend, and caught one little over 22 lbs. Got it on ice immediately and cleaned late yesterday. Today I'm just cutting into smaller filets and saw a bunch of these little brown dots. Looks like brown pieces of rice. My wife happend to see me picking one out and now she doesn't want to eat any of this.

What are they, and is the meat bad?

Parasites of some type - flukes, perhaps?

Not harmful if you cook the fish thoroughly, but still has a certain "ewwww, gross" factor. I'll take the time to cut them out if I see a few. If the fillet is riddled with them, I toss it.

Thanks. Its not riddled with them, just here and there. I've cut quite a few out, but since the fillets are pretty thick, its hard to see or get all of them without butchering the whole dang thing.

I've never seen anything in snapper (but only go snapper fishing once, maybe twice a year). Heck, for all I know, maybe they've always been there and I've just now noticed?

I've seen worms from time to time in larger redfish or drums before and usually just toss the whole thing if I do. But this is a much larger fish, so there is just a LOT of meat i'd be tossing - which I don't want to unless I have to.

Every fish you catch has parasites, some are more prevalent than others, some have large parasites, some have microscopic.

As David said, every fish has parasites in it. Don't toss a big fish simply because it has a few visible worms. You have been eating the fillets with microscopic worms and just didn't know it. Cut out the worms and the rest of the meat is perfectly good.

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