Dumb question: Larva worms in walleye mouth

[Ruff Fish]

I know this will sound like a dumb question. I was up fishing on the TFF this past Saturday, June 14th. The north end of the flowage, right where the flowage opens up. I was get a lot of bites in 12 FOW. Caught a few walleye, perch, and a crappie. (On Memorial Weekend they were just biting non-stop in this spot.) Saturday, I looked into the mouth of one of the walleye that I caught and there were 8 - 10 little gray worms/larva on the roof of his mouth, and a few on his tongue. I lost a fish later, and pulled up my minnow/jig, and there were a couple of the same worms/larvae on the minnow. I thought that they would be mayfly larva, but they don't match up to pictures of mayfly larva that I've seen when I did a Google search when I got home.

Grayish in color, about 1/4 - 1/2 inch range, no legs or anything - pretty smooth body, wiggling around....

So, what were the fish eating? They were eating a bunch of them. I assumed they were mayfly larvae...

[skywalker11]

They might be baby leeches. It sounds weird, but the mom leeches carry them attached to her stomach in bunches, Maybe the eyes were eating leeches? I think Ive seen what youre describing, attached to different aquatic organisms like frogs feet, and I always thought they were groups of baby leeches but I could be wrong.

[mooselegs]

RF:

I remember these same little critters in walleye that I caught on the TFF a few years back. Never did figure out what they were....

[George]

Attachment 22141

This life cycle of the leech might help.