Just curious at what you think caused the skin wound on that big buck you have posted on the reports page? I believe it is the one Charlie? is holding.

Looks like he had a close pal with our old Pal Herschel ... they were seen even above 101 in the Hoh in recent months and the mouth of the Quillayute system is loaded with them.

Reports are that the tribal fishers used to shoot them, but no longer do so due to tourist complaints ???

Hardly the worst I've seen, we caught one one with a good portion of a skein and guts hanging out!

And we're worried about hooking mortality from hook sizes!


Cowlitzfisherman

Yes...because 'common sense' dictates that many more fish would be affected by hooking mortality (something we CAN control) than would be affected by seal or seal lion predation (something OUTSIDE our control).

Bob -

I told the whole story on the board awhile back but I've personally seen a sea-lion (not a seal) at the upper end of the canyon and, although I can't be positive, saw what I thought was a seal (too big to be an otter or a beaver) at Schmidt's bar...

Nothin a chunk of lead cant "control" I wish people would get off this hooking mortality kick. It hasnt sounded like many fish are being hooked this year anyways. "Common sense" dictates that alot more fish are going be killed in nets. Ban the nets! Too many anti- sportfishermen here, (Bunny huggers) Is this steelheader.net or peta.com Too many seals and not enough predaters anymore. Thank God, there is seal eating orca pods in the canal again, hope they dont bust a gut chowin down on them damn seals and sea lions.

Why is it that some people want others to change their ways , but they want to continue doing things the way they have always done it. You have to do all you can do to minimize your own effect on the resource.

Why is it so hard for some people to realize that the reason we went from rivers with fish so thick you could not walk acrossed them without stepping on them, to rivers that are basically barren. Is not because of hooking mortality, not just because of sportsfishermen! Its a combonation and until all numbers are correctly entered the lock will not open! Its not going to help if just we stop fishing! not one bit! sure another fishy will live another day ooooooooh, what happens to that fish later. do the indians get it or the commercials or the japanese or the russians or the mackeral.

That's right Micro, we (sportfishermen, and for the majority of them that I've seen, I use that term VERY loosely) didn't cause the problem, so (to borrow vernacular from our buddy superfly) [Bleeeeep!] it! I'm gonna keep doin' what I been doin'! Long as them indians and commercials and loggers and seals... blah blah blah keep killin' the runs I'm gonna git mine no matter what!

Have you ever heard the expression: "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem..."

p.s. Last time I checked, this wasn't Steelheader.net

At the risk of belaboring the point...

Micro -

What you are failing to understand is the fish we are fishing for have already made it past all the obstacles you mentioned, all of them.

At the point we attempt to catch the fish its risk of death or injury lies solely in our hands, mine and yours. The techniques we use to catch them has an adverse affect no matter what we use but we can MITIGATE the harmful effects by using 'common sense'.

I have continued this discusion on a new topic.

I just returned from the sportsman show and got on the computer to check if bob answered my question. Thanks Bob. And thanks Micropterous for taking your guys little tissy to another topic.
Another question for Bob or anyone else. Have you seen an increase in the past few years of fish wounded by sealions? A seal above 101 on the Hoh! Imagine the ruckus he could cause. Ive noticed alot more sealions in tidal portions of the river recently than 5 years ago. And the thought of a seal that far up on a river system I thought was unheard of.
The big problem here is I read that seals can live in freshwater also. What happens when they end up thrashing all the vulnerable fish while trying to spawn way up river.
Its time to start controlling the population before it is to late.

Yes, there seems to be a few more marked fish every year ... and upstream sightings become more common as well. I previously mentioned that a couple of days before I got confirmed reports that they were around 101, we nearly got rammed by a sea lion headed downstream through a riffle while we parked on the shelf into the top of the hole below.

Perhaps time to look at their impact as well

Very good point.
I believe that there impact is greatly overlooked. Sure you get your sealions eating salmon off peoples lines in the salt which defintitly tells you that there is a huge population problem, but when they are upstream causing distress for fish trying to spawn we are going to have a huge problem on our hands.

This may be coincidental but when I saw the sea-lion at the mouth of the canyon was also at the beginning of the last el nino weather pattern...

Fewer fish in the ocean = Herschel in the Hoh? I doubt its that simple of course but its possible...

On our annual 10 day salmon trip to the O.P. this year we decided to try the tidewater of the Hoh. Ive never seen so much sealion activity. I picked a spot to fish as far down as I could get and as I was fishing I witnessed sealions waiting in 2ft of water for the salmon they just chased on the bank to slide back in. What a slaughter. They were swimming upstream damn near 5 ft next to me. My confidence level was about none! But I did happen to nail a hatchery steelie through all the chaos.

I sat and watched three seals chase a few hundred salmon in the cliff hole down there this year while they were trapped...it was flat amazing is what it was...to see that many BIG fish trapped in a hole and watching those seals chase them is something I'll remember for the rest of my life...

Did the salmon stay in the hole or scatter back out in to the ocean?
Did they elude there predators or were any snacked on that you could see? It sure is amazing how elusive a big fish still can be.

The fish were flat out trapped in the hole...and I didn't see any visible signs of a successful kill that day even though I just sat there and watched them for a couple of hours. Most of the fish I hooked during that low water period however were somewhat freshly wounded...

Yeah I noticed alot of the same thing. It will be interesting to see the number of returning adults that were spawned this year, because I am curious what hurts a run more, low water... between the seal feasting on trapped fish and the indians netting trapped fish, or extreme high water that destroys spawn beds but allows for much easier passage for adults heading up to spawn. Any surveys or studys been done on this?