a seal story

I'd like to share with you something that happened yesterday and today at the same part of the Kennebec River and at the same time of the tide.

So yesterday I had a guy from Canada and his two sons.  Real nice guys. We were catching fish and having a great time. Then, we tried drifting a few live Macs on the bottom over structure.   The three anglers dropped their baits to the bottom and felt the bump as they drifted in the fast current. I called out the depths and we came to the top of the hump.  I marked a couple fish and seconds later we had a double hook up.  The father was an experienced angler so I helped the son.  Soon, he had the fish near the boat.  I was ready with the net and as the fish went buy the boat with renewed vigor I could see a seal right behind him.

"Seal!" I told the boat.  To the clients this meant nothing. I had not prepped them for this possibility as we had not seen any seals.  As calmly as I could I explained what was happening while I gave orders.

This went something like,"Everybody listen. Jake's Striper has been taken by a seal.  He needs to keep constant pressure on the seal/fish.  I need to drive the boat as quickly and as sharply as I can to stay near the seal so when you can, hang on. Brad you fight your fish,  Tyler, you net your dad's fish and I will take the hook out and then you guys get a pic.  Jake, you and I are going to try to stay close to the seal so when he lets your fish go for a breath of air we can get it into the boat."
Below is a picture of Brad with his fish and Jake and I are in the background fighting the seal.

What you can't get a sense of in this picture is how the boat is moving around.  My goal, is to stay as close to the seal as possible.  So as he swims around I am driving and turning the boat.  This is known on the Kennebec River as the Pecci Spin named after the captain who figured it out.  When I am not able to keep the boat close to the seal he comes to the surface, and holding on to the Striper, he just looks at us.  

Finally, the Pecci Spin prevails. After many attempts we get close enough and Jake gets his fish alongside the boat and I scoop it up.  I am worried about reviving the fish but don't want to put it back in the water for fear the Seal will attack.  I tell everyone to hang on and we go charging a half mile away.  We quickly posed for the following picture with the saved fish.

At this point were all exhausted but happy.  We won the fight with the seal and had a double hook up. Lost in the melee was the fact that dad had boated a 34" fish.  Jake's rescued fish measured 30" and I put the boat in gear, lowered the fish into the water and held on. Slowly, slowly the fish began to show signs of life.  Jake, Tyler, and Brad leaned over the side of the boat to see if we had indeed saved this fish's life.  We all congratulated each other about the feat we had just accomplished and wondered at the determination of the seal.  Brad held the wheel while I held the fish in the water letting it revive. The fish's fins began to stand up and we hoped.  And then, the seal took the fish right out of my hand. Gone.  

The Story does not end there.  Today I decided to take my clients back to that spot. That's reasonable right?  We did have a double hook up.  We caught a fish or two there and again I saw no sign of the seal.  Then, we lost a Mackeral and our lines got tangled and he was there. And when I mean there, I mean he was literally following my boat around just a few feet behind the motor.  In the picture below the client is actually posing with this seal. The seal stayed in this spot behind the boat for ten or more minutes while I fixed up the gear the seal had just wrecked. Pretty Dang Wild.