Sea Lions at Yuba City

[Tony Buzolich]

This has been one heck of a season so far starting with all the high water fluctuations, mud like I've never seen before, The Yuba River has been dumping so much mud it's messing the Feather up all the way from the mouth to Verona.

Now the bait guys don't mind the muddy water and the stripers have been here for a couple of months. Once the word got out the parking lots at all the boat ramps have been packed solid. Twice in the last two weeks I've had to turn around at the ramp and leave because I couldn't launch because of no parking anywhere. This morning at Boyd's Pump the lot was almost full at 6:15 AM and there were 5 or 6 guide boats tied up at the dock waiting for clients to show up.

No matter how early we get there it always seems somebody else is ahead of you. And trying to be stealthy around the stripers and getting them to take a fly is next to impossible with all the traffic.

Now today was the final straw when we saw sea lions swimming straight up through Shanghai Bend falls, and had another one come racing toward our boat when he saw us fighting a fish.

Damn, this has been a tough season so far, Tony

[Jake B]

I agree on the crowds. That’s why I’m sticking to the delta.

[STEELIES/26c3]

This has been one heck of a season so far starting with all the high water fluctuations, mud like I've never seen before, The Yuba River has been dumping so much mud it's messing the Feather up all the way from the mouth to Verona.

Now the bait guys don't mind the muddy water and the stripers have been here for a couple of months. Once the word got out the parking lots at all the boat ramps have been packed solid. Twice in the last two weeks I've had to turn around at the ramp and leave because I couldn't launch because of no parking anywhere. This morning at Boyd's Pump the lot was almost full at 6:15 AM and there were 5 or 6 guide boats tied up at the dock waiting for clients to show up.

No matter how early we get there it always seems somebody else is ahead of you. And trying to be stealthy around the stripers and getting them to take a fly is next to impossible with all the traffic.

Now today was the final straw when we saw sea lions swimming straight up through Shanghai Bend falls, and had another one come racing toward our boat when he saw us fighting a fish.

Damn, this has been a tough season so far, Tony

Several times on the AR in the last month or so... I've fished on the flats above where a sea lion was playing volleyball with a fish in deeper water below me... and I caught stripers in 6 inches to 2 ft of water which were clustered up in the shallows avoiding the sea lions. I think the stripers know the sea lions won't follow them into the shallows to feed because they have to support their heavy mass on the not so comfortable cobbles... it's much easier for them to swim underneath the school and shoot upward, out of the depths with an open gape.

Soon enough the sea dogs will have enough shad to eat and they'll mostly leave the stripers alone I think.

[Rossflyguy]

Sea lions are part of the game. We all gotta eat.

[winxp_man]

Sea lions are part of the game. We all gotta eat.

Tell that to the starving sea lion pups. All because there are to many. It’s like the east coast issue with deer. Too many (not enough predators to balance out the numbers) deer after which diseases started up and it was a disaster. But I guess stuff like this does not matter to some people.

And once again if the natives would have been the only people on this land they sure would have hunted down sea lions that came up river systems.

And on another note.... keep your hands in the boat! Saw a video where one took a man and the fish down under water back in 2015. These animals are predator of opportunity.

[Rossflyguy]

If there’s too many clearly they aren’t starving. There’s many factors into why sea lions run up rivers. We can’t get frustrated with something we created (dams and commercial fishing). Plus if we were allowed to kill them most wouldn’t eat it. It’s be a waste.

[Andy Guibord]

Hi Tony. The American has several seal lions- aaaarg!!!!! Thanks for boating around with me the other day.. I landed one other nice fish down river after we parted.. Yesterday I caught some schoolies on the American. The water is very clear. I'll be down by Verona today. Thanks for fishing with me.