Damn Sea Dog Bit me!!
 

I normally fish the beach for Halibut but due to the huge swells I opt to fish inside the harbor for once and try to catch a legal in the harbor around the bait barge. One of the fellow yakers earlier in the day told me "Hey watch out for the Sea Lions they will try to eat your halibut". I thought that was kinda weird since I never had problems with Sea Lions and Halibut.

A few hours after I had a short halibut on while reeling it up I see a Sea Lion pup trying to eat it I quickly bring it on board so it does not get chomped. While I am trying to un hook the halibut the Sea Lion keeps trying to get on top of my yak so it could eat the Halibut. I tried to push it off with my Carbon Fiber Paddle it would not let off so I hit it with my paddle. Keep in mind the Carbon Paddle is light so it does not do much to the Sea Lion. Right after the bastard came back up and bit my leg good thing I was able to move my leg out of the way so the dog did not chomp down on it. I grabbed by gaff afterwards and got it ready and sure enough he still tried to get on my yak, a good whack with the back of my gaff sent it running. I am unsure if I should call DFG or the harbor and report it as a problem animal, if I were a small kid this Sea Lion could of done some major damage.

The same sea lion later in the day kept playing with another yaker since they fed him some bait. He stayed around them like a pet dog for a few hours trying to beg for some bait.

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Luckily it was a mere flesh wound and I got a good laugh out of it. Some boaters were rolling when they saw this happen. On a side note the short halibut are biting in the harbor no legals yesterday. The water temp in the harbor is 68 degree's outside the harbor near the beach 70 degree's. Water Clarity pretty crappy in an out of the harbor.

Since I am relatively new to yaking the Dana Area I ended up venturing North my first time to see what I could catch. Thanks for the distance reference to everyone who chimed in on my question on the General Section. The week Prior instead of pedaling at night I opt to head out in the day so I could see whats out there. I went North to Salt Creek while fishing in the kelp I hooked something that I thought was a Seabass it was peeling drag huge head thumps. When it came up it was the last thing I expected to catch a huge trigger fish, I dropped down hooked another one. I yell to my buddy Jim to get his ass over to this spot he hooks and lands 3 more I dump a few.

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Whaaaat?!!!! You hurt a seal?!!!!


Your going to jail buddy!!!! Im tell'n the seal lady!!!

Holy Crap! Man your lucky he didn't bite you worse... I was just telling my buddy how good Trigger Fish taste in Ceviche. THanks for the report.

Wonder if whacking that thing with a bat (only in self-defense, of course...) would have helped or made things worse...

No seadog (insert blank) smilie to choose from?

There's the problem, right there. You should have shown that Yaker the why you should never purposefully feed those dogs. :mad:

Nice Trigger fish though! :cheers1:

I'll feed the dolphins and even occasionally the pelicans but NEVER the dogs! They are WAY too much of a pain in the butt and are TOO dangerous if they get too familiar.

RABIES
 

I hate to bring on the bad news...

Years ago after an incident while lobster hooping I researched the incident of rabies occurring with seals and sea lions. Although rare, there are cases in California.

You might want to see a doctor.

2x and the shot is gonna hurt

Hopefully nobody chimes in on how upsetting it was you hit a sea lion, I would have done the exact same thing. That sucks it was that persistent since I imagine it'll only get more aggressive as time goes on and once it's bigger it'll be a huge liability to yakkers.

Sent from my SPH-L520 using Tapatalk

HANG THE BASTARD
 

Oh, and by the way...

What idiot, especially on a kayak, FEEDS seals and sea lions bait?

Lets train them to annoy all of us.

Why not just teach them to flip us over so they can have all our fish and bait?

WTH a trigger?

Rabies?
 

If you think rabies is a possibility, you should see a doc quick! I think you have only a few days of incubation before symptoms show up, if infected.

Once symptoms show up, the vaccines and treatments are useless so the disease is incurable and death will result! Check it out for yourselves, it's no joke! No, I'm not kidding!

Now how many reported cases of seals/sea lions having rabies is unknown to me, but if you want to nip it in the bud, go see a doc NOW!

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/

On this weeks episode of how I almost killed myself....





RABIES!!!

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+1

Is that foamy mouth from rabies?:rolleyes:

I couldn't find what I had previously read on CA DFW's website about rabies and seals/sea loins in CA since it is buried in an archieve, but did come across this...

PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE OF MARINE MAMMAL DISEASES, BY C.D.BUCK & J.P.SCHRODER
TAKEN FROM THE CRC HANDBOOK OF MARINE MAMMAL MEDICINE; HEALTH, DISEASE, AND REHABILITATION.
“with some diseases, such as rabies, one might be tempted to dismiss the risk of contracting the disease from marine mammals as non existent; however, rabies has been documented in a wild seal. All marine mammals are capable of contracting rabies, and workers who deal with wild marine mammals must consider the risk when planning their vaccinations or seeking treatment for bite wounds.”

I am sorry guys but I feel bad for the seal after it bit me I think I gave it Rabies now he is screwed Lol.

I was going to say f it I dont need to go to the Doc but everyone was getting on my case the doctor said Sea Lions have very bad bacteria in their mouths and when bitten it could get serious. My wound was a little swollen and the doctor gave me some meds she said if it hurts or the swelling does not go down she is going to chop off my leg. JP She said I would have to come back and get some sort of shot. As of right now no swelling no paid the so I am assuming I am not going to die.

The craziest part about the trigger's I saw a school of 20 of them that's why I set up on the spot. First they were very timid and did not want to come to the kayak, I sat on the spot for a couple of hours and when the current was right they were on the chew. We caught 5 triggers withing an hour span and probably got hit about 20 times.

Interesting
 

I was fishing with my uncle in his boat out at SI. As we were entering to the boat launch area, a huge bull sea lion began following us. He was inches from the prop and my uncle kept saying, "why doesn't he eat THAT!". But no joke, when we tied up to the little dock, the thing jumped up so high to get to our bait tank, I swear I thought he was going to jump into the boat! I have never seen them do that! Getting pretty aggressive if you ask me!

J

I had the same bull come up behind my kayak at the SI launch and checked me out. Came right up to the yak. Only had one eye.

Last Sunday at DP there were some idiots feeding a seal pup from the wall over by the dry dock. Guy actually climbed over the rail and was hand feeding the animal. I'm thinking, "just what we need"

:dontknow:

No pics equals bs
 

Whoops. :D. That's looks painful . Hope you are ok . Thanks for sharing . A little higher and he might have grabbed your jewels .

ToadX2, when you start barking like a seal and eating your fish whole and head first with no hands, don't say we didn't warn you! Jk

I think we might be seeing the first of the zombie dogs! They won't stop! I see a new reality show gents....

BWE MEN ..... Fighting the dogs, waves and wind to pull spotties and the occasional butt...watch as they brave the coastal waters and win!!!

And some guys will still hang their fish over the side in the water.
I still say that's NUTS!!

Sorry to hear about your dog encounter. Maybe it's time to get a bit more offensive in our defense with the dogs. Feeding sea lions? Talk about "paying it forward". You're gonna get the next guy hurt. If you want to feed sea lions get your ass to seaworld. I try never to feed sea lions. When I get a bait bitten in half I keep the head in the foot well and hold off dropping another bait back until I think the dog had gone away. I never keep fish in the water, on the deck, or in the tank well. They all go down the in the hatch.
Congrats on the nice triggers too. You see them around now and then, but a nice school is a rare find. Mike

I wouldn't hesitate to sink a gaff in a sea dog if it's to keep from them sinking teeth in me... chalk it up to paying it forward to the tax man.

Poor sea lion... J/K. Good thing it didn't get a hold of your leg. That would not have been a pretty scenario. Watching the school of fish was pretty fun.

Finescale Trigger are native to our neck of the woods. Not super common, but they are around. Must of run into a group of them assembling for the spring spawn...

I second that!! I'd bring my pistol but don't want cop trouble, or rust in my gun. Time to get a spear gun!!

Jonathan, that sucks to hear about the sea dog chomping your leg! I woulda been PISSSED! Glad to hear your leg hasn't fallen off. Like some of the others have replied, X2 on sinking a gaff into the dogs. Sorry Tess and I couldn't join you guys out there that day. When Peter told us about the plan, we felt it was just beyond our experience level. LOL. Nice job on the triggers! Cool looking fish.

Back to the seal subject... I wonder if pepper spray or mace would work on them? It's non lethal, safe and would prevent any accidental gaffing of your yak and body parts. Or, how bout training the dogs into thinking that taking baitfish from a boat/yak is a negative thing? Lure the seal in with a piece of baitfish and just before it takes it out of your hand give it a good whack over the top of the head with the back end of a gaff. Slingshot? Waterproof, compact, silent and plenty of ammo (sinkers/jigheads).

Okay that's enough, sorry if I offended any Seal lovers. They're adorable.

Jason

Got to thinking' if you'd been bitten by a coyote, bob cat, mtn lion, badger, skunk, fox, possum, or even a squirrel it would bring a response from many officials. But seals and sea lions are sacred cow. If you get injured by a sea lion it's your fault for entering "their" environment. If a coyote bit you while you were in a public park it would be a crisis covered by every news out let. Guess we're on our own. Mike

County Animal Care Services will only respond to incidents that are reported to them. My guess is that this bite has not been reported to ACS. They would get psyched up for bats because rabies is all too common in bats. Psyched up for dog bites because they are so common and they have regulatory authority. Psyched up for mountain lions because they got their a$$es sued off years ago when a mountain lion tried to drag off a little girl. As a general rule, wild animals are mostly outside their purview.

If a bunch of people started reporting sea dawg bites, ACS, Harbor Patrol, state game and federal authorities would probably look into it and maybe hire a consultant to do a study or something. But without some reports of bites, it will be ignored.

They need to make sea lions along the same dfg rules as coyotes!! Open all year, no bag limit!! Sea lions are a nuisance pest, over populated and dangerous, just like coyotes.

We'd have the tax man around to thin the herds if it weren't for that Santa Monica orca pod killing the great whites, scaring the rest off.

Self-defense applies to Sea Lions, too. If a Sea Lion were trying to board my yak, I'd swing for the fences, with whatever was most handy, club or gaff probably, with the hook up on the gaff. I don't need to gaff the seal, just knock some sense into it.

Nice trigger, I've also heard they are very good to eat.

Aaron