Sealion Menace

I havent been crab fishing in quite a while, so this blog has atrophied. But I thought I'd just share some ideas on the menace posed by sealions.

First, its a privilege to see these wonderful mammals while we are fishing. Many people only get to see these creatures in the zoo, if at all. We get to interact with them in their natural environment.

That said, it can be dispiriting to see a sealion dive down every time you throw a trap in the water to mangle your bail cage and steal the bait.

Tips:
(1) Do not underestimate your enemy. They will rip apart bait cages sold by most fishing stores. They have strong jaws and can mangle solid metalwork.

(2) For bait cages, check out goodwill for old freezer baskets etc.  I then affix these upside down onto the base of the crab trap using as strong plastic ties as you can find. Leave an opening so you can get the bait in and out.

(3) When you bait the cage, close it up with ten more plastic ties. Bring a cutter to open it up again when you need to, and a fistful of ties to reclose.

(4) You could do worse than buying a couple of square meters of wire mest, and bash it into an envelope with at least two layers of mesh per side. It doesnt have to be pretty, it just has to be a pocket.  Nail it shut using 30 plastic ties that also connect to the trap base. Because this is basically flat, its harder for sealions to get their teeth around it.

So remember, next time you go fishing, DON'T FEED THE WILDLIFE :)

Fishing after storms.

Recently I wrote that I picked up some light crabs after heavy rains; well last week it rained really bad here, yet Thursday I picked up heavy crabs at Fort Point. Go figure! The fishing itself was lousy, because I turned up at low tide, and for the 4 hours I was around, the tide wasnt moving any which way.

The Lazy SeaLion was being as irritating as usual. I really need to construct a heavier kind of trap. I'm thinking some sort of steel cage, covered in finer mesh, which I can bolt directly to the inner ring of the trap. I saw something like a decent base for that in goodwill - regretting now that I didnt pick it up.

A second thought I have is to put a finer mesh also on the trap - see if I can pick up any shrimp.

Apparently there was a sewage spill over at Sausalito - maybe all the crabs were over there!