What's your best Seal/Whatever kind of kritter story?
My best/worst was night tubing in the North Harbor at Moss Landing. It was my first and last time night tubing in the Salt. It was a calm wednesday night with lots of Phosphorescents in the water. We could see where our lures were if they were within probably 6' of the surface. Every fin kick was an explosion of green light. After a hour I was starting to get bored and discouraged, then this HUGE glowing Meteor started chasing another smaller glowing meteor around rapidly near the mouth of the harbor where it hits the main channel, suddenly the smaller on starts heading my way. A small seal porpoises out of the water not more than 50' away and coming straight at me with the bigger meteor hot on its tail, so I gave a big kick of my fins and the seal vears off still going at top speed, needless to say the bigger meteor doesn't veer off, but slows down, dives a little and heads straight at me! At this point I'm thinking Great White, I'm TOAST! Then the large seal comes to the surface 10' away and snorts at me as it rises 4' in the air trying to get a better look at me. I told my #@%$ #$%^^%$ buddy who talked me into this, what the $$%% I thought of Night Tubing and left as quickly as I could.

Tight lines,
Wade

P.S. Somebody tell your story, or a friends story.

Tight lines,
Wade

For those of you who know Chris "Little Fish" Moody. He had a seal bite off a chunk of his Force Fin at Island Grissom last week.

Kiyo

you couldn't pay me to tube in the ocean. i have a tube and it stays in freshwater!they say you have a greater chance of getting struck by lighting than being attacked by a shark. that may be true, but i have never seen anyone stay outside during a lightning storm purposely. i wouldn't worry about greatwhites that much if i was a sw tuber, but i would be more concerned about those damn seals and sharks that frequent close to shore. the seals would probably just be pissed out at you and deceide to tell you to leave. the sharks would probably take a chunk out of your leg not knowing what you are.
even though i might not be concidered dinner, that is more broken flesh than i would want to be subjected to!!

That why we wear Stainless Steel Waders!? Doesn't everyone use these? I wouldn't go out without them. Mine cost $695 and is well worth it!

Kiyo

Here's one...

http://www.charkbait.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000995.html

Fishslayer

i carry a glock .40 cal off duty. my authority as a peace officer is basically only while on duty. therefore, my ability to carry a weapon is only for my personal protection. but, any citizen who can legally carry a weapon can use it in the defense of his/her own saftey. the key is to only use it to prevent great bodily injury or death. doesn't matter if it's a person, seal, or otherwise. but, the situation must be of immidiate danger, not the threat of. a seal swimming and barking around your boat doesn't count. but, a seal jumping up in a small boat does. the seal could cause the boat to capsize and a pissed off seal in a confined space is what i would concider immidiate danger. basically, if a seal breaches my boat, he is going to be full of holes. if this type of situation should happen to you, it would be best to dock the boat a.s.a.p and alert the cops. credability would be in your favor. how else would you get a 450 lb seal in your boat!?!

"IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!" :o

Fishslayer

yeah, what you said!!

After I posted this, I talked to a buddy who lives in Carmel.
Anyways, he told me of the time he got a 32# WSB on the fly from his kickboat, which is amazing in itself. The other part of the story is that while he was fighting it 3 Sea Lions became very interested in it, nothing interesting there. The interesting part is that they all lost interest at the same time in a BIG way and raced to the nearest rock, hauled out and watched the water with serious "Where did he go?" looks. Needless to say he got a bit nervous while fighting that fish with the 3 Sea Lions not paying him any attention. He said it was the only time he wished the Sea Lions were being a problem. He's since stopped tubing the Salt.
I jokingly told him "Whats-a-mater-U? That shark woulda only taken a little nip of ya, considerin' you's only a little nip for him." Johnny is a 5'2" Japanese-American, can you say hor's de ovre, before the Sea Lion-sushi main course.

Tight lines,
Wade

Tight lines,
Wade

Some of the replies on the thread I posted mentioned it's not unusual for dogs to jump in a boat to escape Great Whites.
Maybe the man in the grey suit was in a mood for Italian that particular day! :D Your friend mighta got pretty lucky.

Fishslayer

Can I hear a big AMEN! I personally think that the shape of a kickboat with pontoons probably helped as it's silhoette(sp?) can't be confused with a seal. A round tube might have been toast or should I say sushi.
I figure if the scientists say surfers are hit because they're mistaken for seals swimming, a round tube has to look like a seal spy hopping, and therefore an even easier target of opportunity. JMHO It's also only slightly comforting to think that out of the less than a 1,000 recorded California shark attacks, no one has been confirmed to actually have been eaten. In Australia I read that there was one case of a full-on eating, but it was by a emaciated, Drift-net entangled, Great White. Damned Drift-netters. Every other confirmed eating world wide that I have heard about or read either involve already dead people, or some other extenuating circumstance such as chumming, etc.

Tight Lines,
Wade

Tight lines,
Wade