Of all the people on the board, who would be in favor of ridding our waters of these fish eating animals?? Has anyone personally had one steal a springer chinook that you had hooked??
Keith

Yep, lost a small chinook at the mouth of the Lewis to a sea lion a couple of years ago. Man can they swim fast. I barely was able to break the 20 pound line as my reel emptied in a hurry. I'd favor thinning them out, but it ain't gonna happen in our lifetime.

stlhdr1
In relation to your post, I had a battle with a seal, this last blackmouth season. I was on a guided trip(not too cheap). I brought a friend as a gift, and they had never caught a salmon.
Well my friend did hook into a nice little 12#BM.
Now we were into the bait, and the poles started lighting up! I hooked into a nice fish, only to see a seal grab onto it. The skipper did not want to lose his precious dodger, so we chased the seal for 30 plus minutes(my arms were jello).
Another guy on the boat, who wanted to chase a seal, got his wish as well.(another 30 plus minutes) Anyhow to the point!!
The seals and sea lions are becoming ALOT!! more agressive every year, so something has to be done, (seal bombs barely phased this group).So I for one without getting into a war with somebody agree with somehow, reducing the population!!
I am a native to the area, and I know it is getting worse.I will leave the guides name anonymous, so don't ask!! (320.00 for a seal chasing trip!) It has since been talked about, and he is a nice guy, so it is not an attack on this guide.

Woodsy Wayne

Keith, hooked hell,sealion tore it clean off a 3' bleedin rope on the 5th of April this year.They have balls came between us and an other boat anchored 5' away in a hogline below Rainier.....kill'em all... .. ..ok thin em out.............
At Astoria I'm 1 for 2, did get a 17# chinook away from a seal, tail was roughted up a little, then lost a big nook to a sealion under the bridge, a couple years ago.

the indians have permits to shoot them. they shoot lots of sea lions.

Keith I was with a friend at the mouth of the Lewis a number of years ago when the fishing was hot we had 3 nice springers in the boat.We were trying for that limit fish when my friend hooks a nice fish on the maker line and all of a sudden a big bull sealion grabs his fish so I told him to do circles on top of him to force him to let it go, after a few seconds he lets go, in all the confusion my friends line gets wrapped around the tip of his rod so he cant gain any line, so he cranks up the motor and heads for the beach at full speed.He shut the motor down just before we hit the beach he jumps out of the boat and just start to run up the beach just then I looked back to see the fish making a wake,them MR SEALION grabs it again and snap gos his line.I still give him a bad time about trolling for sealions.I have been duck hunting in a delta area of PS and heard a large amount of large rifle rounds being spent a while later the fog lifted and there were a bunch of seals and sealions dead on the beach.I found out later that the tribe had done it !!!!! I wish there was a market for there meat then they could harvest them and make money and save a lot of fish at the same time.

Did you thank the Indians.

Man I need some more indian friends....
Keith

BEAT THE *******S

Didn't have many lions or harbor seals in the sound when I was a kid. It seemed like every fisherman out there had a gun of some kind. At day break you'd hear a shot or three. No one talked about it much, but a lot of dead ones sure washed up on the beaches. Never heard of any accidents either - Now THAT'S gun control.

Crusty

Indians anrn't the only ones who shoot sea lion. Commercial fishermen will do it when they can get away with it....Hell, I've even got a coupl of confirmed kills. I'll shoot them every chance I get.

I wonder if I could hire a Indian guide to take me seal/sealion hunting? Mabe start a new $$$$ stream for the Tribes.

If it came down to who or what has a right to fish I would have to give the mammals that live in the sea the right ahead of our own selfish wants. Sea lions and such need fish to survive, we don't.

We don't need to kill them all, just thin them out. In the south end of Hood Canal they don't have any natural preditors. Something needs to be done!!

Crusty how have you been??

Fishhead5

There's a lot of cracker anglers out there. Should we be thinning them out, too?

A couple of rifle cracks before dawn and you've got the hole to yourself. It's not until the bodies wash up somewhere downstream that people notice. They would have wasted the fish they caught anyway.

i am in no way gonna be upset if anyone out there shoots seals or sealions, especially the sealions, i have jus recently schemed up a idea, i am thinking of purchasing a gun that breaks down and get a silencer tapped onto it jus to do some sealion fishin, any buddy out there think that is to extreme??? like i said its jus a idea

A few years back when I was fishing for kings we seen a seal come swimming up the river he was only about five or six miles from the salt but that really puts a hamper on the fishen. I think you can still get seal bombs out on the reservations or a dupont spinner will do just fine too
And at the end of hood canal them animals have no preditors because of the Navel Base (Banger) it keeps all of the orca's (Killer Whales) out and those buggers are the seals and sea lions only natural preditors.
Dances Out

Most of the time if you didn't have that fish hooked and partially played out, the seal couldn't catch it.

I've seen seals up the Snohomish as far as the city on Snohomish. They were after our steelhead.

who caught the first fish, the sealion or the cracker? If you pick up on a chick that i like does that give a reason to pop a slug or two in you?