Seal report?
 

Anyone else been having a worse than normal seal problem?
Last week I never got a troll longer than 5-7 minutes all day... Earlier this week had same problem... In fact my buddy and I would swear we were tag teamed by a group of 2-4 seals... We tried not trolling for an hour, went in the kelp for a bit... As soon as we came out.... no signs.. start trolling and Bam... freaking seal! It was very frustrating and I have never had this bad of problem..
:cheers1:
Cowboybill

The goal is to not give the knotheads even ONE bait. Once they get a taste, they want to come back. Be aware of your surroundings. And wind in before you lose the first one. They will move on.

^ x2. Gotta be vigilant!

I am gonna attatch a light line trailer hook on my live bait to give seals some painful lesson.

Teach them to leave kayakers alone ... or at least I hope. :the_finger:

Saw a large bull sea lion (300 lb ?) coming toward me at LJ yesterday so pulled in the bait next to me at surface and looked around - the sneaky devil dove under the yak and bumped me while snatching the bait. Saw the same dog about an hr later as he approached my 6 o'clock so I pulled the bait out of the water and he leaped 2-3 ft to grab the dangling fish. These LJ pinnipeds are very smart, sneaky, and well trained!

I had 1 trip this year where the dogs came by a few times but nothing like you described. Best thing to have in LJ is a couple of party boats. Those things pull in most of the sea lions. They've been running off shore more than usual so the dogs are focusing on the yakkers. They're, big, smart, fast, basically fearless, and always hungry. That's a bad combination to deal with. When I get a bait bitten in half I keep the head in the lay for a while. You'll often see the dog ease in and hang out under your kayak waiting for the other half. Guys have talked about stashing hot peppers or even ghost peppers in a bait. Worth a shot I guess. Mike

follow up on seals
 

Thanks for feedback.... To be clear, after many years I developed this subconscious listening for seals blowing air, and constantly scanning...I got pretty good at not loosing bait except the occasional seal.. But this last couple times they kept coming out of nowhere for the initial bait attack! I literally would see them at the last minute, coming head on, 20 feet down at 15 mph! I had only seconds to react and do what!? This was after standing(PA14), scanning, and listening for over 5 minutes with zero signs of seals! And then, it was like a hungry man at the buffet! The damn things would circle back to me every 5-10 min... I even stood there for a while with no bait working a yo-yo and or megabait... and there they came, checked me out,and back to the buffet! Very frustrating to say the least!

At first, I thought I was just sloppy and missed em... That was not it!

I learned that a seal has been recorded as holding its breath for 12 minutes, and gone roughly 1700 feet deep! They could have come from quite a ways away!?

I also researched that an active fisherman (actually fishing at the moment) can use a paint ball gun, sling shot, or rubber bullets from a firearm, along with various noise type devices to deter a seal from engaging in "problem behaviors"...(assuming area is legal to have same..) I carry a sling shot, and am an OK shot on land, but hitting a moving seal on a rolling yak .... the seals are pretty safe! LOL!
Now give me a Mossberg 12 gauge with rubber shot! :the_finger:
I would look like part of water world meets mad max! crazy

Source: http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/deter/index.htm

I have printed a copy and now carry on my yak just in case!

:cheers1: cowboybill

Sounds like material for Sea World.

BTW, you might try trolling an iron for while. They see you're using something that's not edible and will often move on. And you still have a shot of catching something.

Saw a guy catch a nice yellow trolling a crocodile for bait the other day. He was hunting macs with light line. Somehow he got it in after about 45 minutes.

That's what I finally did yesterday,,all while laughing..only after they got 4 of my macs!