Seals on the rise!

[Tailspin]

Just talked to a buddy who fished three morning trips off the mouth and Navy Buoy in Pedder Bay due to high Westerlies. Six nice fish to the boat and all six were lost to seals[xx(].They seem to be following the boat around.

This is getting to be more and more common through all of Sooke's waters in comparison to recent years. The Trap Shack has been bad at times as well this year.Is it lack of fish, or perhaps the increase in Seals? He has never lost a fish to a seal in Pedder bay until last week. I have also heard Renfrew is getting bad at times?

 

[knucklebuster]

I don't see why we can't have a season on seals. We do on everything else on the land and in the sea. Is it maybe those big puppy dog eyes?

 

[SSfisher]

B.C. has more seals per square km than any other place in the world. And the seal population is equivalant to what it was in the early 1900's. Except the fish population is like 10% of back then.

 

[Drewski Canuck]

I have posted this message every year for the last few years. IGNORE IT. Everyone seems to anyway. Oh, if you are interested in solving your seal problem, ask yourself what is the only real natural enemy of a seal, besides a great white shark? A Killer Whale????

What would happen if you bought from the Victoria Aquarium, or downloaded from the Internet, KILLER WHALE CALLS and played the same whenever you hooked a salmon? Make sure you play it really loud though. Do you have a computer with a CD burner, and perhaps a stero in the boat or a real strong ghetto blaster? Why not pull up to Norris rock or Flora Island or the 3 sisters, and crank it up when the seals are on the rocks, and see what happens?

One caveat, I would not play killer whale music when you know killer whales are in the area. I also would not leave the music on all the time. ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE A FISH ON, then turn it off.

Anyways, no one ever tries this bit of advice, and everyone just posts crap about what am I smoking. Well I'll tell you what I'm smoking, (and you are not): SALMON

Drewski

 

[Charter Tofino]

only transient calls will work resident calls would be useless as they can distiguish the harmless from the dangerous

 

[yammy5]

I can see the future....every time we hook a fish we have to drop an underwater speaker in the water to pretend we're a squealing whale and then reel like hell just to avoid the seals. If you like that idea then I have some baseball hats with dorsal fins for sale. Well that doesn't sound like fishing to me. I'd rather sell my boat. We can try all kinds of scare tactics on seals but the fact is it's becoming a serious problem and DFO won't listen to us. But I bet ya if First Nations requested a traditional seal hunt DFO could probably be forced into the idea. They would have my support, that's for sure. Heck, I'll take them out to the rookeries! And why not? Thousands of seals are killed in Eastern Canada every year for their fur, so why not here? No offense intended, just and idea.

 

[The Penguin]

I agree its time to cull the seals
I also would give the wale cry a try I hate loosing fish to seals Fackers! I'd like to do a little seal culling my self

 

[eaglemaniac]

There is nothing quite as demoralising to me than to lose a large spring after a hard fought battle to a marauding seal. These seals have adapted to an unnatural feeding pattern. If the dfo do not recognize this as a major problem soon, there is going to be a rebellion from the rec community. We cannot continue to feed the governmant coffers with our fuel, licence, ramp fees, tackle purchases etc. If they refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem. I feel that we as sportsfishers have to create a panel to confront them head on to deal with this obvious imbalance.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Seals on the Rise! sez he. Down with the Seals! sez I I 'shoot' them with my trusty sling-shot, especially the ones that follow my boat. The little beggars are smart, they back-off just out of range[V]. I saw quite a few dead seals off Point Roberts when I fished there a few years ago and you can bet they didn't die of old age; the American's don't fool around, especially the commercial fishermen. Come to think of it, there aren't a lot of them 'around the corner' from Browns Bay. Hmmmmm[8D]

 

[Riptide2]

Just wondering could the sound of Killer Whales also scare off the salmon???

 

[Charter Tofino]

seal drive by ahhahahha well done

 

[Tailspin]

Bottom line is, that for the average weekend guy plying Sooke's often spotty waters, it would sure be a downer to spend all day trolling around to get your big hookup only to have Mr. Big Brown eyes latch on within seconds. Sort of takes the fun out of it you could say! Or look at it this way, you have a paying group of customers on board and all you can do is grit your teeth as the seal takes fish after fish! So far i have avoided the known seal infested spots and have not been sealed this season, Luck? It's still a problem when your worried about the seals to the point where you encourage people to horse fish in. Not to be negative, but it's one more reason to move the boat to Uci in my books. EM is bang on!

Drewski, the seals have addapted to this unatural behaviour. I fished Chrome Island, Norris, Flora and mooched live herring right against the rocks for 15 years and not one seal stirred of the rocks when the rachets screemed to life from the daiwa 175's. There is proof of addapted behaviours. The first time i was sealed was off the Bowser Flats between Chrome Island and Bowser Bills. The second time was off the Big Q. Good mid 20's fish and it devestated a young boy and his father from Saskatoon. At first turning rachets off worked and then all hell broke loose! At that time, 15 years ago as a young Guide i did not agree with culling. Now i may have changed my attitude.

 

[battaglino]

We have the some problems down in Washington with seals in the Hood Canal last year we had some transient Orcas hang out for 10 weeks and reduced the seal population by 50%. I think it took the seal quite a while to figure out the whale so I am not sure that the sound would make a difference. You just have to figure out how to get the transient whales up to your area.

I have lost quite a few fish to Sea lions the past few years we lost a 100Lb halibut to one last year. I got the hali to boat and we where figuring out how to gaff it (equipment was too small) and I saw a brown streak and off went the hali it and the sea lion came to the service 100 yards from the boat and I fought the sea lion for the next 45 minutes and ended up with the head. I just wish I had a gun I probably would have gone to jail for shooting it

 

[Deewar25]

Riptide...in response to your query about scaring the salmon....the logic is of course you don't turn it on until you have the fish already on......the salmon is already scared chitless as it has this sharp thing stuck in his mouth and he can't swim where he wants to swim!

While in theoy, I'd certainly try this in no mans land (ie, my trips to Malcolm Island), but in the middle of Sooke, people wouldn't be too impressed if all the salmon in a 1k radius got spooked everytime someone nearby had a fish on and turned on the 'music of the whales'....

 

[Drewski Canuck]

Guys,

The whale music does not seem to scare the Salmon. What the salmon "hear" is vibration along their lateral line, and at least the COHO stay in the area, fish after fish after fish to the boat. However, the seals hear like we do, but the seals are very attuned to the TRANSIENT MEAT EATING KILLER WHALE CALLS. (Yes, there are two distinct groups of killer whales, and the Transients are out friends).

IF you can find Whales of Blackfish Sound, and listen for the section where the Bio talks about the different DIALECTS of the Transient pods, and say you copied this section OVER AND OVER AND OVER, and played the transient whale calls when you hooked up, you would find that the little brown bastards all pop their head up out of the water and start looking around for danger, and forget all about your fish!

Some years ago, a friend and his father watched a blood bath off of Flora Rock, from 4 Killer whales, that lasted about 15 minutes. They figure at least 25 seals where taken in that short period of time. Funny thing, the seals did not come off the rock for a day after the attack. Boy they are smart! Now the rest of you smarten up and use what I am telling you about. It works for me very well, and perhaps this tip will help some of you guys as well.

Drewski

 

[Tips Up]

Can I get you another brewski... Drewski??

 

[Oglthorpe]

Last time I checked killer whales prey on salmon. Salmon aren't stupid, they can sense it.[)]

 

[totally tyee]

You beat me to it CA

 

[Tailspin]

I wonder what a 60 Scotchman will look like in the water with a hali poon head neatly placed into one of our culprits? Might make a good video [}]

 

[Kildonan]

Last year my buddy and I lost a fish near Beechy Head that was high 40's to a seal. Made me wish I had a 30-06 and a box of 180 grain shells with me. Would have loved to give that sucker one right through the melon! [][}]