Ah yes, talk of the seal made me remember another one......

I used to fish out of a rowboat at Steliacoom. Went down there early one July day well before daylight, put my cut plug in the water, pulled a couple times on the oars and down went the bait. Tightened up and felt a huge throbbing on the line and thought big king! Tightened a little more and off he screams and I'm thinking really big king! About 100 yards out he finally surfaces, and there is a seal, which I at first thought must have my really big king in his mouth, until he went down, I got closer, it got a little lighter, and I could see my line going down it's gullet. Yes, it had eaten my herring! Well, I'm in this motorless jon boat, so I cranked down my drag all the way, reared back on the rod, and let him tow me. Even with a 20 lb. leader, he couldn't seem to break me off between the limber rod, the light boat, and the inability of the seal to put on that burst of initial speed that a fish can. He did tow me around a while, but eventually he started making shorter runs, came up panting like a racehorse, and finally was so worn out after 20 minutes that I was able to reel him right up to the boat. Man did he bark and snap, and kept trying to swim away but eventually couldn't. Could have netted and bonked the sucker easily but all I settled for was grabbing my lead and snapping off my hooks. Don't know how much those things weigh, but short of a sturgeon I haven't c&r'd anything bigger.