Tactics to avoiding sea lions stealing your catch?
 

I went out on Friday and my first yellow of the day was stolen by 3 sea lions. I had fought with the yellow in the kelp for a few minutes already when the sea lions showed up. They pretty much circled on top of the water waiting for me to break it free and then grabbed it once I did.

Is there anything that one can do in this type of situation to prevent them from stealing your catch?
Thinking back I'm wondering if I should have just kept some tension on the line but not tried to free it from the kelp and see if the lions would eventually leave and then break the fish free from the kelp?

That's like asking which way should you move if someone shoots a gun at you. I would have probably just left the fish in the kelp and waited for the seals to go away but even if they did go away there is a chance that the fish may have busted off.

I had some similar issues this weekend, for at least 20-30 minutes I just sat on my kayak and just watched as a seal circled my kayak about 10' below waiting for me to drop some bait in the water. Whenever the seal needed to come up for air it would swim a few yards away from me, come up, look for me, head back my way and circle me again. SEALS SUCK!!

Generally freespool with some thumb tension to prevent backlash. But in the kelp there is not much you can do. I did see a guy on a skiff throw a Bonito over the side after he hooked up to keep the Sealions occupied. Probably could do the same thing with your dead baits if you hold on to them. Or even the scraps from your last fish cleaning?

Seal Bombs http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v5/173...bombs.summ.jpg :the_finger:

We used to always say that if you submerged as much of your bent rod in the water as you could it seemed to trick them into moving on. Havnt tried it in at least 5 years though.

Did you try yelling at them?

Yep. They're smart. Don't let them see the bend in your rod. Play it cool

When I get a bait bitten in half the dogs will often come up under the yak and wait for the head to get thrown over. I usually toss the heads in the foot well. After loosing a bait I'll chill for a while before dropping another bait back(obviously). Some times you can lob a surface iron around. They think its a bait and will run toward the splash. After a few times they move on. As for saving a hooked fish, the best technique I know of is to use about the heaviest line the fish will bite and get the fish in the boat. Mike

Dang I had to do a triple take on your avatar. We don't have to look at that zombie face anymore? The only thing that will make this day better is if the chargers put the beating on these cardinals .

As far as the seals, well usually if I have a dog on me while fishing I pedal towards the nearest kayaker or PB and sort of pawn off my problem to them. Then pedal back to my spot. It works.


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I heard someone once say to take a cigarette butt or take a few puffs off one and stuff it down a bait's throat and toss it to the seals. They go to eat it and I guess they assume you got some nasty s#!t and move on. I've never tried it and don't smoke em but it could work?

time to start using habanero-infused mackerel? :the_finger:

Should work on any mammal.

BLUE FALCON! ! LOL

Recording of Orca's and a submersiable speaker!
Worked in the NW for Commercial Salmon season.

Jaws theme

The last time I was out there, I had a pair of "ducky-looking" brown birds follow me for probably 30-40 minutes and they were worse than any sea lion I've ever had to deal with. They'd continually dive under the boat looking to see if I'd dropped any bait. I had to stop fishing for almost 20 minutes and paddled away for a good bit. I actually thought they were gone, but they were just shadowing me and once I dropped a bait, one of them made a beeline for it and grabbed it. By that time, I was kind of done fishing, tho.

Rap4 t86

http://www.paintballimpact.com/paint...4-t68gen3.html

Can you have a paintball gun with you on your kayak?

If you have a fish on the line, you have a couple options. Let it run or try to muscle it in quickly. There's no easy solution I have yet found. It's very hard to get a big fish landed once a dog has it bit. The only thing that I have had limited success with is freespool with just a bit of tension, waiting for the dog to change his grip on the fish at the surface and then cranking as fast as possible while closing the gap by also peddling toward the fish. I'm sure this won't be the last time you have this problem so you should get plenty of practice at it.

Patrick

Those brown duckys would be "comeran"
There like flying seals on your bait..