Silent Partner couldn't those deformities have been a result of being caught before and a bad release or thrown the hook and tore the jaw off?
Cal

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This disease causes cranial deformities IE;no upper
jaw, as well as other skeletal deformities on two
of our outings this past season we caught a juvenile
salmon IE;12 to 14" that indeed had this deformitie
in the cranial area, both of these fish had no upper jaw it was recessed and they had a pronounced forehead
with a hair-lip if you will. It has beed my thought
that theses fish maybe responsible for the increased
number of ghost releases in the past few years.

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Before the deformity is accepted as whirling disease, maybe one should ask--if rainbows and salmon are much more suseptible to the disease than lakers, why is it that it so far it has only exhibited itself in lakers.
Has anyone seen this in bows and salmon/
Cal

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I did a little more digging on the subject of whirling disease. I found this link to a USGS site on a study of whirling disease in salmonids:

http://www.lsc.usgs.gov/SPN.asp?StudyPlanNum=01109

First, there is a lot of information out there that suggests that lake trout are either resistant to whirling disease or that they simply can't get the disease... However, we have the obvious -- that is Salty / Grey Ghost's encounter with the sick laker that appeared to have whirling disease (several others posted they had run into similar sick and deformed lakers). I would go so far as to say Grey Ghost's picture shows a classic case of whirling disease. So, not only can lakers get whirling disease, they've got it in Winni.

I was curious about the latest known information concerning whirling disease in lake trout. The above link to a USGS project is very interesting. What they discovered is that despite finding no "Myxbolus cerebralis" (whirling disease parasite) spores in lakers that had been exposed to the infectious life stage of the parasite, all of the lakers exposed to Myxbolus cerebralis tested positive for the parasite by PCR (a DNA fingerprinting technique). What this tells me is that while lakers are more resistant, they can and do get infected. The discrepancy between the PCR (DNA) results and the lack of observed spores suggest that it simply takes a longer time for the parasite to establish itself in lakers vs. other salmonids.

No matter what, the presence of whirling disease in Winni lake trout should be a real concern, and we should do our best to keep on top of this through the board and hopefully with some help from John Viar's group. I strongly urge all fishermen and women to "remove" all diseased / deformed fish (regardless of size), place them in a zip lock bag and get them to a NH fisheries biologist. Spores can spread from diseased fish many ways, including by close contact (schooling?) with other fish, by being eaten by larger fish. The spores are released to the water / sediment when the fish dies. Rainbows and salmon are reportedly more susceptible to this disease than lakers, so finding whirling disease in lakers should be a real wake up call for the Winni fishery. We need to get any diseased fish caught into the biologists to check them out.

Eric H.

That was my first thought, but after more
research its my opinion that indeed these fish
have classic signs of this horrible disease
known as whirling disease.

Hence my concerns. Grey Ghost's pic is spot on for whirling disease. I know its weird, and perhaps unheard of in lakers, but it is what it is. I'm not happy about it either. Lets do what we can to investigate this further. White Cap -- you and all the other RFPs and the pros and other serious amateurs are the real eyes and ears of Winni and your observations out on the lake will be invaluable. I might be able to do some lab work here at my shop, but I think the first line of attack is to get diseased / deformed fish examined by NH fisheries biologists.

i remember reading that whirling disease isnt much of a problem for new england, something about the acidity of our water. i could be wrong, but are we experiencing it here.

Sites I have found show all New England states except ME and RI. Has been found in lower Merrimack River in NH for quite some time.

Hey there Fishlessman, How did ya do on the last weekend up at Sebago????? P.S. can you Ice Fish on Sebago in the winter????? Talk Soon, Take Care God Bless and Good Hunting LOL Dave From up North

one small salmon, one nice one about 4 pounds, maybe a little less. if sebago freezes you can go after the lakers. havent tried it yet since im a little new to the area, and last year i wasnt too comfortable with the ice. been reading that hancock pond down the road is managed only for browns and that long lake produces well.