Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing Reports => Members' Fishing Reports => Topic started by: Every Day on April 20, 2008, 04:59:26 PM
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Started today at around 6:30. Saw a fish landed and another hooked. Soon after I hooked one about 2 feet away from me, gave a few headshakes, started to take off and then I lost it. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
Important part about today was:
Me and Bigfisher were fishing down by the train bridge today when we saw something struggling up through the shallows, we thought it was a school of fish and got our rods ready, but it turned out to be a seal. We left soon after, assuming that all of the fish would have been spooked away. When we last saw it, the seal was working it's way up the run above the train bridge towards Lickman Road, This would explain all the fish with seal marks/wound on them (hopefully someone "solves this problem" soon)
Hopefully this doesnt inhibit more fish from coming up, as I would like to get maybe one more hatch before april is over.
Good luck to everyone going out tomorrow, good to see some reports about fish today.
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Hey Dan
Are you sure it was a seal? There is a family of otters nearby and the male is a monster. I saw it sunning on a log a few days ago - very impressive animal.
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It had light and dark markings across the head. Must have been a good 200 pounds, but we chased it anyways. I was in shock when I first saw the wake coming up from the shallows, I thought we were about to come across a huge push of steelies! ;D I think Dan might have a picture, If you ask he would probably post it.
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I saw a seal in the allison pools once...no bought in what it was!
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are u sure it wasnt a beaver? there are a few lurking around the trainbridge area
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let me know if its beaver, I hunt beaver. ;D ;)
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Sounds like a seal for sure... I've seen them much higher up than that too (but not in the wack). Would be great to see a pic.
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Any of you ever seen the rare hairless beaver?
ya its a sight alright
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Seal for sure. I Positively ID-ed them in the mid-river at the end of the salmon season last year.
Another item that I need to start packing on my fishing trips - a big club. >:(
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I saw a seal in freshet last year 13km up the upper pitt.
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Lol ok here the only pic I got...... not very good u can see the wake and the tail.... hopefully the wake size will show you that it really is a seal, we were less than 30 feet away from it at sometimes just never had time for a pic before it dove again :
(http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg25/fishing_in_summer/IMG_0096-1.jpg)
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Seal for sure. I Positively ID-ed them in the mid-river at the end of the salmon season last year.
Another item that I need to start packing on my fishing trips - a big club. >:(
Or a shot gun (maybe a bow less noise) ;D ;D ;D
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are u sure it wasnt a beaver? there are a few lurking around the trainbridge area
Im sure it wasnt a beaver becuse I saw like 6 this year.... 3 by the train bridge, even saw one at the Crossing bridge.
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Remember it is against the law to shoot at or to harm those pesky seals. Only thing that can be done is to tabulate sightings of the seals. Biggest concern would be if a bunch of seals schooled up in the Vedder river, and then started chowing down on the fish, smolts included. Look at the horror story on Vancouver Island with the Puntledge River in which they are trying to find some way of chasing away the seals. In a case, like that DFO should step in and eliminate the pesky critters. My two cents worth.
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I still say take a bow out there and deal with em yourself. Other fisherman won't care because they hate em just as much as you and tourists (passerby's/pedestrain) won't hear a gunshot if you use a bow, and Im thinking bows are more effective in water anyways. (PS I havnt seen a CO or DFO since last summer, and before that I hadnt seen one since I started fishing 4 years ago.)
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I still say take a bow out there and deal with em yourself.
ED, listen to dennyman's advice please, and don't suggest illegal acts on the discussion forum.
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everyday, you want someone to shoot those seals? why dont you go and buy a bow and do it yourself? i wouldnt be caught trying to shoot one with my bow, they would probably take my bow, give me a huge fine and maybe even ban me from hunting.
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saw a seal in the canal in late march. once you see that little head looking back at you with those puppy eyes and whiskers in the ocean, it's hard to mistake them for anything else. anyway, it was dead in the canal that particular day!!
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I was fishing below Sardis April 18th and spotted a seal. No doubt what it was. While the presence of a seal is bad for fishing ( I was skunked) it is something I accept. Seals like bears, eagles, loons etc are part of the natural cycle and are more dependent on the fish than we are. I respect their presence and existence.
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Everyday if it had a tail, it wasn't a seal.. Coloration looks like a harbor seal though.
Well put Ralph. 99% of the time people want to kill seals because they interfere with "their" fishing...not with the fish populations. Give the great white hunter thing a rest guys, it makes us all look bad.
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I grew up on the Puntledge, I agree with you on that one, just to many of them somthimes. What do we prize more our salmon and steelhead or those dam seals..
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Had a good day fishing today! The highlight today was the dead seal I found with a Arrow through the head. ???
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It didnt have a tail, was definaltey a seal..... doesnt matter to me if you guys don't belive me, I dont normally fish around there anyways (where I saw it).
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I'm not sure if you can hunt or even NBL (no bag limit) Seal here :-\. Its one of those grey area's in the regs. ::)
All I can say is if your hugging one have a Goalie mask on or something to stop the vicious thing from feeding on your face. ( I seem to be having some sort of animal fear tonight)
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It didnt have a tail, was definaltey a seal.....
Lol ok here the only pic I got...... not very good u can see the wake and the tail....
sry was reading your earlier post where you said it had a tail.
You can't legally kill a seal. DFO has to obtain permission to do it, you think seals are open to regular hunting? There is nothing "grey" about it.
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Just my personal feeling that seals in the open seas chasing salmon in a big eco-system there is perfectly ok. It is the circle of life. But when they zone into a small fish habitat like a small river and even up in its pools, away from the wide oceans where they are supposed to be, and decimate the poor fish stock which have no where to run. When this happen day in and day out in the river, then it is not fair game and not natural, and the seals are nothing but a pest to the fair survival of a precious fish stock. They should be terminated as pests. Where is Arnold when we need him? ;D
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Just my personal feeling that seals in the open seas chasing salmon in a big eco-system there is perfectly ok. It is the circle of life. But when they zone into a small fish habitat like a small river and even up in its pools, away from the wide oceans where they are supposed to be, and decimate the poor fish stock which have no where to run. When this happen day in and day out in the river, then it is not fair game and not natural, and the seals are nothing but a pest to the fair survival of a precious fish stock. They should be terminated as pests. Where is Arnold when we need him? ;D
Exactly
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Fortunately it's DFO that decides when to terminate them and not a bunch of bow and arrow toting rambo wannabes.
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I think they are like swimming members of the rodent family.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a391/troutbreath/250px-Marmot-edit1.jpg)
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who said you needed to use a bow!? but Steelhawk hit the nail on the head. Even when they're at the mouth of a small system like the capilano it can be pretty bad.
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Hehe thats a complement troutbreath! And the goalie mask thing can be said for marmots too...vicious critters when cornered.
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let me know if its beaver, I hunt beaver. ;D ;)
Found your beaver today at Peach Road..... ill post some pics of it 2 morrow, Im too tired to do it right now.
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Worlds shortest joke......."this baby seal walks into a club..........."
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LMAO
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arent fish, what a seal normally eats? and arent we actually interfering with the seal, ii think someone should, settle down a little
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arent fish, what a seal normally eats? and arent we actually interfering with the seal, ii think someone should, settle down a little
Seals belong in the ocean where there are lots of species of fish to eat.... any not just a couple thousand Steelhead. When they get into a system like the Vedder they could probably just wait at the mouth and clean out every fish that decides to come up..... so no we are not interfering with the seal because It DOESN'T belong in the river, it belongs in the ocean.
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Perhaps the question people should be asking is, "What's happening in the ocean that has forced seals to feed in rivers?"
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Agreed Rodney.
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I think the collapse of the Eulachon run has something to with it... They'd normally be in the fraser gorging on them at this time of year.
It's a real shame what is going on out there...
Cheers,
Nicole
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arent fish, what a seal normally eats? and arent we actually interfering with the seal, ii think someone should, settle down a little
Seals belong in the ocean where there are lots of species of fish to eat.... any not just a couple thousand Steelhead. When they get into a system like the Vedder they could probably just wait at the mouth and clean out every fish that decides to come up..... so no we are not interfering with the seal because It DOESN'T belong in the river, it belongs in the ocean.
Where did you learn that? yea they are a pain and can endanger runs but its humans faults for the runs being at these low levels that they can be endagered. Seals are hurting runs by eating steelies and salmon in the ocean as well althought not on same impact. I can also bet that seals were following fish up river long before people came here. Its got to the point where yes something needs to be done but thinking seals are causing these problems and they dont ever belong in fresh water is kind of narrow minded.
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Seals' population grows FAST. Its food source doesn't, AND it's natural predator definitely not doing well. So right now, those seals are growing at an uncontrolled rate.
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Nothing is happening that has "forced" seals to feed in the rivers. Ever seen how far they go up with the pinks sometimes? Plenty of fish everywhere, but they will still follow fish right up rivers. I remember seeing seals up rivers back in the late 70s and 80s too. They've been going up rivers for years and it's not always out of necessity. Some seals follow their food in, some do not. The problem arises when a pod of seals learns to go up a river or hang out in an estuary and ambush fish. If it's a single seal though, even if it ate two steelhead a day, is not likely to do as much damage as the drones of fishermen that frequent the vedder.
I agree that DFO needs to do something about it, but only because fish stocks are already beat down, not because it isn't what a seal is "supposed" to do. Localized culls vs. broader culls....who knows what would work best? They work in and exhibit pod specific behaviors, so maybe some pods are more prone to hang out and ambush than others. I'm not a biologist but would take an uneducated guess that if DFO culled the problem pods locally that it would provide enough respite for most of the salmon/steelies that would have been munched to move along undisturbed.
All that said, declaring that seals "belong" in the ocean and not in rivers (especially in bold red caps) is misinformed, and really at this stage in your life you should be asking more questions than providing shoot from the hip solutions!
For anyone that doesn't know, you can be fined up to half a million and go to jail for killing a seal. Probably worth considering....
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seals eat fish, everyday eats Mcdonalds
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seals eat fish, everyday eats Mcdonalds
thats explain why they are better than finding fish :D
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seals eat fish, everyday eats Mcdonalds
Macdonalds has a Fillet O' Fish burger ;) ;D
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Perhaps McD's should try making some filet o' seal burgers.
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arent fish, what a seal normally eats? and arent we actually interfering with the seal, ii think someone should, settle down a little
Seals belong in the ocean where there are lots of species of fish to eat.... any not just a couple thousand Steelhead. When they get into a system like the Vedder they could probably just wait at the mouth and clean out every fish that decides to come up..... so no we are not interfering with the seal because It DOESN'T belong in the river, it belongs in the ocean.
Did a seal tell you that they don't belong in the river? Animals are going to congregate where there is an accessible food source. I've seen seals in the Vedder 20 years ago, and I'm sure they have been in our local rivers well before then.
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I've never heard of them coming up during Steelhead season though.... yes Ive seen them in the Fraser and Vedder before, trying to catch pinks and stuff but when they are chasing the relatively few Steelhead that come up the Vedder (compared to pinks, etc) I would say there is something seriously wrong with the stocks in the fraser when they need to go into smaller rivers to trap food. I caught 16 Steelies this year and 7-8 definately had seal wounds on them, some were quite fresh. When that many fish start showing up with seal bites I think that should be dealt with (maybe transport them, because someone will definately kill a seal no problem, they found one shot last year just below the hatchery). Yes I understand that comment wasn't that great (about the seals not belonging in the Vedder) but chasing hundreds of thousands pinks and springs doesnt matter, chasing, eating, and wounding the 3000-5000 Steelhead that come up the Vedder I think could have a very big impact, especially when half are showing up with marks on them. In the fraser and the ocean the problem is not as bad because the fish have a chance, but in a averagly 15 foot wide river all the seals have 2 do is sit there with their mouth open.
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its nothing new... they come up the river quite a bit.. i see or hear of them every year.
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Perhaps McDonalds should consider a Mc Flosser Burger......seriously people...who said seals are "supposed" to be in the ocean? Do they carry little Passports with them or something? And I loved the posts about how a seal needs to be terminated if it gets into a pool where the fish are concentrated. Hello - paging Dr. Hypocrite - is that because the gong show usually likes to descend on that same pool and fish it out completely? It is an eco-system, and while we are apex predators - we are capable of making responsible decisions. Mostly. Rant over.
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Wow this is interesting.... the post in the Fishing reports section that didn't even talk about catching a fish is the one that keeps re-appearing over a month later ;) And I never said the seal was in a concentrated pool of fish :-\.. I saw it towards the end of the day after covering A LOT of water upriver, decided to give the train bridge a try and left 5 mins later because the little bugger was chasing a school of fish up the river. That was the only day all year I fished below Lickman road... I avoided the gong show pools in my second (and first) year for Steelies, much easier to catch them when they havn't seen anything yet that day ;) Maybe the seal was down there all year and that was why so many fish had marks on them, I dunno, you'll have to ask someone that fished down there a lot.