Stolen Fish

Headed for the race this morning in E/N/E 5/10 not good conditions but needed some me time. Arrived after a bumpy ride & not another boat in sight, guess most others smarter than me. No matter what I tried almost every drift was different, after 2 hours finally fish on, get what looked like a slot fish boat side & a big seal popped up, grabbed the bass, almost ripped the rod out of my hand & now it’s tug of war, I was out matched & he won, fish gone. Thought I would try a few more drifts, but I now had a shadow, he popped up everywhere i stopped. That’s a wrap, took a slow ride back to the dock, a defeated fisherman.

I look at any seal encounter a win if you get your rig back.

Headed for the race this morning in E/N/E 5/10 not good conditions but needed some me time. Arrived after a bumpy ride & not another boat in sight, guess most others smarter than me. No matter what I tried almost every drift was different, after 2 hours finally fish on, get what looked like a slot fish boat side & a big seal popped up, grabbed the bass, almost ripped the rod out of my hand & now it’s tug of war, I was out matched & he won, fish gone. Thought I would try a few more drifts, but I now had a shadow, he popped up everywhere i stopped. That’s a wrap, took a slow ride back to the dock, a defeated fisherman.

You are very lucky, John, that all you lost was half a Bass. A few years back I had a similar encounter while trying to leader a Bluefish into the boat in the Gut. The seal was no more than a foot from my hand and if he decided to lunge at me, I could have lost the limb or worse! Thankfully I had a knife close by and just cut the rig as quickly as I could. Can never be too careful with those beasts around!

I was a little torn about running a half day Sea Bass trip this afternoon in the Sound, but I would have had tide vs. a NE wind for at least the first 2 hours of the trip so I chose to cancel. Unless that NE breeze is 5 kts. or less the wide-open parts of Sound can be very lumpy in those conditions. Glad you made it back safely.

I'm chunking for bass in Hempstead Harbor a few weeks ago (July). A rod goes off, I lock the reel and the fight ensues. It heads for the surface as many large bass do. In the midst of this tug of war, I notice a seal head poking out of the water looking at me. My first inclination was: "look, a seal!" I sometimes see them in October or November, but never in the summer. Then I realize either I've hooked the seal or it's grabbed my bass. In any event, the seal sounds and line starts peeling off the reel. I clamp my thumb down and POP, my rig is gone.
Turned out to be a good night, as the biggest bass went 49" with 3 over 44"