Sea Lions.

[striperwannab]

Was out today for about 4 hours fishing north (North of Tower Park), caught one nice fish and what do I see about 100 yards away coming straight at me............a HUGE sea lion! Was totally blown away, never seen one up this part of the Delta. Watched her (name: "Bertha", she was HUGE) for about 10 minutes. Watched how she was swimming, what line she was following looking for dinner, she was feeding on a flat, etc.... learned a lot!

Questions for you tuxedo hunters since I am a newby: 1. when Bertha (or Bertha and her friends) come(s) in an area, what does that actually do to the fish. I would think it scatters them, for they are running for their lives. 2. Does that mean the fish are in thick fish, that is why Bertha is there???

WannaB

[Cooch]

I don't think the presence of sea lions, is an indication there is a school of fish around. Much like the stripers which are constantly moving, I think the sea lions are doing the same thing. Although, many of these sea lions have figured out the striper's migration routes, or so it seems, and we do tend to see them in areas that can be productive at times. I don't think the sea lions are getting too fat on stripers or blackies right now, I've seen a lot of them the past 3-4 weeks, yet I've not seen them slapping fish around and the happy go lucky seagulls scraping scraps. I have seen a few bobble heads in the back of Sandmound, Whiskey and Rock, so they are still finding catfish lumbering around.

I can say though, I've yet to catch a striper, in an area I saw a sea lion with in a cast or two of the boat, so I do think like you that it would scatter any schools that are in the area. Problem is, there aren't a lot of bigs schools of stripers running around the main River system right now, so that makes it hard for me to associate the lack of stripers at this time, being the results of sea lions around. But of course, there are others who will tell ya differently I'm sure.

[striperwannab]

Thanks CoochMeitster, I was hoping that you would reply!

From what I have heard, "dar them tuxedo's" will be in the dead end sloughs from now until March, is that correct?

[SLoGiN]

ive seen them wacking fish but not stripers....ive seen 4 feeding in the last couple weeks...one had a carp....the other had big salmon....one at the mouth of whiskey slough at empire cut.....the other 3 were out on the san joaquin....was up above walnut grove alot august-september smallmouth fishing and the sea lions were gorging on salmon everyday i was there...in the past ive seen plenty stripers eaten by sea lions but this year ive seen none....either the striper population is real low or they like salmon better....dunno

[DeltaDan]

I have not seen any floating Catfish Heads this year - as in the years past for the middle and lower Delta.