Seals in Disco Bay

dog · Post by **dog** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:41 pm

Just posted on the delta reports page about the seals in Disco Bay. I wanted to know if anyone ( or Cooch ) can explain why there are no fish at all in the bay??? No bait stripers or nothin. All the fish cant run out at the same time. Whare do they go???? will this mess up the striper season????? Are they coming back???? Am I just freaking out????? I think its time to make a drink and chill out........

Dewayne · Post by **Dewayne** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:17 pm

They are sea Lions actually. They will clear out an area pretty quick. Some bays have been void of fish for me this year before the Sea Lions moved in. Usually for them to move in the Bay would have to have fish in it. I would check other bays or other areas. Once the Sea Lions move out the fish will slowly move back in. Not all the fish leave, but the ones that stay are very spooky when they hear a Sea Lion feeding in the area. This is a pretty common occurance.

Shawn · Post by **Shawn** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:56 pm

Last year it was all too easy to tell where the sea lion had been.There was still live floating catfish heads leading into nearly every bay.I too was there striper fishing.It was kinda cool watching the lion come up with an average size kitty of about 3lbs and bite them off at the fins every several minutes.Obviously the fishing died!Time to move on after all there's only about 1000 miles of water way out here.The only fish I seen him catch were kitties but it affected most of the area.

Shawn

lucas boden · Post by **lucas boden** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:45 pm

i know all animals have a purpose.... predators control populations and all that...
but what is the point of a sea lion??
and what should we do once there is too many of them?

i have an idea, but would like to hear what everybody else thinks.
i dont think the seals would like my plan.

Cooch · Post by **Cooch** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:51 pm

Them sea lions are in there following the Stripers and Salmon, typical prey they feed on in the Pacific and the Bay. The last couple of years, we have seen them move into the river as far south as Rivers End and the Turning Basin, as well as up in the Mokolumne and the areass of the Sacto above Walnut Grove. They really are following the salmon, which is their #1 food source in the salt water, into the River. Once here, they will then feed on any forage they can track down. I have only seen a few of them with stripers or a largemouth bass, one which I captured on film that is on my website. They really take a liking to the catfish, when not gorging on salmon. I see them with these often in Disco, Sandmound and Whiskey when they move to the middle Rivers and the San Jaoquine. Up the Sacto River, from Pittsburg to Corning, they track down the salmon.

I've been to Disco several times the past three weeks, the LMB bite in there has been fine for me and a couple of the other locals I know of that I have spoken with. As for the Stripers and the bait, water temperatures on the River have plunged below 50 degrees. It's been as low as 46 this past week, and came up some today to around 48-49 all day long. The shad have left for warmer areas, hence the stripers followed the bait out of Disco this last week. THere's still a lot of bait in the back bays of Kellog creek, as well as large schools of stripers. This is all normal guys.

NaCl · Post by **NaCl** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:59 pm

DFG announced that they will be planting small pods of killer whales in key sloughs where the sea lion population is excessive. The killer whales are a protected species so if you mistakenly catch one, be sure to release it right away! Ohhh...one little tip...DON'T try to lip a killer whale!

.....NaCl

nipples · Post by **nipples** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:12 am

LOL... I am glad I saw this post... Thought I was going crazy.

Back in mid August I was running from Sycamore back up to Wimpy's (where I launched from). As I was nearing Hog, I nearly ran over a Sea Lion. At first I thought I had been drinking too much, but then remembered that I hadn't had anything to drink. The thing surfaced and then dove right in front of the boat. I didn't feel the prop nail him, so I figured he got away.

Do sea lions eat swimbaits? ... hmmm... wonder if my power pro would handle a 250 lb sea lion?

JGB · Post by **JGB** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:21 pm

Nipples,

I did the same exact thing once while on pad in Whites, but as I passed over the sea lion I actually felt my hull go over the top of him, the engine missed him. About power pro stopping a sea lion, "no way!" I was with a buddie once and he hooked a sea lion out in middle river on twenty pound flourocarbon and that thing spooled him within seconds. He tried slowing it down but ended up burning some skin off his thumb. Those sea lions are close to or even over a thousand pounds.

JGB

DeltaDan · Post by **DeltaDan** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:23 pm

Went to the DB Marina last night for a given "limit" evening with my sons and brother.

Never marked a fish trolling in to the last bay- and there were 3 sealions in there last night.

Decided to leave within 10 minuets and went scouting to other areas.