rainbow trout with parasites?

i went to one of the popular stocker lakes in our region this last weekend, and several fish caught had little whitish parasites attached to them.  some fish were completely covered with them and it was quite gross.  I havent seen this in the past, and was wondereing if anyone new what it was, and what we should do when we encounter such a site.  the ones with lots of them , i didnt want to even touch- YUCK!

What lake were you fishing at?

Beehive reservoir, in Chelan county, WA

I have picked up 2 like that in Oregon.  When I cleaned then there were no viable parasites in the meat.

I kept a couple that were not as badly covered, and the parasite seemed to rince off with a little coercion (sp?) from my finger, with nothing appearing to in the flesh below, so i don't know.  I sent an email to the WDFW in case this is something they monitor, and may need to address.

Sounds like sea lice, I've never seen it in freshwater though.

Probably copapods. They are common on trout from Lost Creek Lake here in Southern Oregon. ODFW says they are not a threat to human health, but they sure can be offputting ...

Offputting? reminded me of this guy: pustule covered Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from the movie DUNE
 http://themostbeautifulfraudintheworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-10-favourite-things-about-david.html

Probably copapods. They are common on trout from Lost Creek Lake here in Southern Oregon. ODFW says they are not a threat to human health, but they sure can be offputting ...

Yea parasitic copepods can just cover stocked rainbows. I caught a little rainbow that was covered in cream/white colored copepods and had a few larger and flat black parasites (~1-2cm) hanging off it. Looked like another parasitic arthopod of some sort.

Take at look at these parasitic copepods, yum?