By-Catch...

[RIX83]

Hey guys,

Just wondering what to do if your by-catch was a seal or dolphin? :snap:

im wanting fish a particular area at night but im concerned as there are some dolphins and seals that frequent the area...they are not always there but just wanting to avoid getting a hookup on these guys.

Cheers Rick

[MISTAKOOL]

Caught a seal in Western Port last week! The best you can attempt to do is bring it in close and cut the line as close to the mouth as you can. Very annoying when it happens!

[Brett]

Landbased or boat?

Very very rare that you will catch a Dolphin, I fish with them all the time landbased and have never had them take a bait.
Seals will usually take your fish and are also rarely hooked(that I have seen) if they are they usually break off the line pretty quickly. More of a pita stealing fish than anything else. In my experience anyway.

[Dr Drift]

Very Very Very rare to hook a dolphin(too smart)...
Mr fatty seal though....bugger him, have hooked him plenty times and he has stolen my fish(not bait but fish) plenty times...lol
Best thing too do as mentioned above, try to bring in as much line as possible(very hard) than cut line...Than tell him to go get his own feed :Blah: which he will than turn on his back, float around and clap his flippers and ohk ohk at ya(his way off saying, this is my hood you leave)... :Boxing: lol

Dr Drift...

[Fish-cador]

I give them a beach ball so they can play with it and leave me alone.

[will]

Do the seals put up a good fight? do they bugger off after being caught?

[CarlG]

Do the seals put up a good fight? do they bugger off after being caught?

Foul hooked one on my soft plastics rig.....was like hooking a submarine...all I could do was put my hand on the spool and snap the bugger off...and no, it didn`t have the common decency to sod off afterwards..b@s7a&d..
Carl..

[ecofreak]

from personal experience dolphin if bled well is delicious off a hot smoker, the meat is dark and sinewy and has a very nice taste, however, in Australia they are protected so most will never get the opportunity to eat them unless you head to Japan. I have not yet tried seal but am sure that in time I will give it a crack.

With the protected species issue if you are to catch either one of them you will be forced to let them go even if their numbers are huge and growing.

[Bartnmax]

Paul, you 'orrible man you. Eating poor cuddly dolphins?
Haven't ya read the cans of tuna in the supermarkets?

Seriously though, it's got me bugered how anypone could ever catch a dolphin or seal.
They have an uncanny knack of being able to steal fish, no matter what size or how fast ya think you can reel it in, without getting nary a scratch on em. To top it off Sammy the Seal has a bad habit of really getting my blood up as he sits 20 meters behind my boat playfully throwing into the air & chewing on what might have been my PB snapper, etc.
THE BASTARDS DO IT TO ME PURPOSELY I TELL YA! (or should that be pOrposely?)

Bring on seal season I sez - I'll learn em.

Bill
(Is it really illeagl to fire detonators at seals from my boat using a slingshot???)