Any of you noticing higher numbers of fish with scars on them this winter? I am. I recently landed my 6th winter fish in a row that was covered with seal/sea lion marks. These fish are typcial 5-7 lb hatchery fish that most have been caught outta the Washougal River and 1 outta the EF Lewis. They are all sporting huge scars from about mid-body to the tail. 2 have had chunks of tail missing. Typically there are 2-4 scars about 1" apart, running alongside the fish with scales missing down to the fishes skin and sometimes into the fish muscle/meat. Typical mammal type of scars. Others that I have seen caught recently (Since 1/1/01) show similiar scarring.
Looking around the Camas slough off Hwy 14 I have not noticed any seals since summer. I have not been that far down the Columbia Rvr in recent weeks to see how many seals are out there.
Need a seal recipe...
x

Seal recipe......12 gauge 3"mag 4# buck ,allow it's bloated carcass to dry in the sun...ummmmm good

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Row Quietly and fish a Cataraft
Release all Wild Fish----<'))>>{

What type of secret sauce would you use on that meal O's.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I've noticed the same thing on green river fish. Half the fish I've got this year have had a scar or a rip of tail. They need to do something about those things. Several times while fishing at Illwaco for salmon we had seals follow and try to take the fish. A couple years ago a when you had to turn kings loose. A seal came all the way up to the net while the fish was in it. We had to motor away to get away from the seal.

Saw a seal off St Helens today. I thought it was a little early for them to be this far up the river.

extreme, I have had the same experience on the river that we fish. Two this year and one last year with part of the tail missing. I asked my biology professor. She said the scars could be from manna rays out in the ocean, as well as seals.
Fishing has been tough for me lately. Guess I need to be summer (low water) minded !

I was driving West of Longview the other day,
along the Columbia River. I noticed there was a few sea lions and seals out there...I think I counted about 6 just driving by. They are looking for the smelt run and are probably damn hungry so a Steelhead looks like prime rib! Saw one up at Bonneville Dam last spring, right below the fish ladder. I must have seen him come up with twenty Spring Chinook, in the 10 minutes that I was watching. Pretty discusting thing to watch. It made me too sick....I couldn't watch anymore.

addict,

I'd tell your prof to stick with biology. Manta rays feed mostly on plankton, and some small bony fish. I doubt salmon compose any of their diet. The scars you most often see on fish are unmistakably made by the claws of a pinniped that took a swipe at the fish.

Fish on........

We need to use the Alaskan
entality on this over abundance of seals and sea lions and just start wackin em' screw nmfs and the other federal agencies, they have already proved themselves as useless as a cub bear playing with itself.
Good medicine would be a 223 varmit rifle with a 6 to 20 leupold on it and just start picking them off from a good 2 to 300 yards away that way, they cant figure out were the shots are coming from and you can get 5 or 10 of them before they dee dee out of there.
Peace Superfly

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Was on the Eloc. today on the way home I saw 9 seals at the mouth of a local creek . They were probobly after smelt but they eat way more than there share of ironheads. I still carry a couple of seal bombs in my vest just in case I find them in the tidewaters of local rivers .

Anchored at the mouth of the Cowlitz a week ago. We saw half a dozen seals. WE caught no steelhead...can't say the same for them!

every hatchery fish even wild ones that i have caught on the snohomish have had some kind of scar or mark on them. Pretty sick Huh.

Save A Steelhead...Bonk a Seal

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Row Quietly and fish a Cataraft
Release all Wild Fish----<'))>>{

I've caught a couple in the Elwha that looked like they were 3/4 the way in.... I've seen lots of others this year too.

How about all of the gillnet marks on steelhead. Our last trip on the Bogie, we boated 6 and 5 had very recent net marks. This concerns me way more than some seals and sea lions. Put your activism where it counts, fight the nets, pollutors, logging near streams, and maybe remove a dam or two. Peace and save wild steelhead. fava