Northwest Fishing Reports

I've gotten tired of seals and sealions taking my salmon. In the last 4-5 years I've lost 3 Coho, I Pink and (worst of all) 2 Chinooks. According to the NOAA link, paintball guns are OK. I'm looking for a paintball pistol in the $50-60 range. I don't want a rifle, takes up too much room. I don't want one that looks like a real gun for obvious reasons. I hear the balls work better if you freeze them first. The link for one pistol looks about right.

I don't know anything about paintball guns, anybody have any suggestions?


https://www.amazon.com/JT-ER2-Pump-Pain ... tball+guns

http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov ... ethods.pdf

Might call your local paint ball gun store to see if they have any used for sale? They may have some suggestions as well. I would use a sling shot and ball bearings or wadd cutters myself as there is less to worry about and simple. No air supply to think about. Wrist Rocket (I have) or a standard 'Y' would work fine. Kind of fun too!

Not to rain on your parade, Barchaser....
But check out the fine print.
“ methods for use by private property owners to deter Pacific harbor seals, California sea lions, and eastern U.S. stock Steller sea lions from damaging property (developed waterfront, decks, docks, floats, piers, bait receivers, vessels at anchor, etc.).”

Private property owners.... well, I guess you own your boat
But looks like while playing that salmon, you have to drop anchor before discharging a paintball.

The way I read it, page 2 outlines the do's and don'ts specifically for fisherman.

Potential methods for use by fishers to deter Pacific harbor seals, California sea
lions, and eastern U.S. stock Steller sea lions from damaging gear or catch (anglers
must be actively fishing with gear deployed).
Visual Repellents/Noise Makers:
• boat hazing, circling
• pounding on hull
• pyrotechnics (e.g., bird screamers, bangers,
underwater firecrackers, cracker shells)
• starter pistols
• horns, bells, whistles
Physical Contact:
• slingshots
• non-toxic and water soluble paint ball guns
• non-lethal ammunition (e.g., rubber bullets,
sabot rounds, game stingers)

http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov ... ethods.pdf

Sideburns,
Good catch! The document initiataly goes into what appears to be all the actions you can take against the furbags, but it is for private property owners... then page 2 directly speaks to Anglers.
Lock and load those paintballs.

non-lethal ammunition (e.g., rubber bullets, sabot rounds, game stingers)

Roll your own and lock and load something else.

Yeah, page 2 is us. The NOAA policy is fairly recent, Nov 2015. I'm a little surprised at how many options they give to scare the things away. I think that is about the time the NOAA started to take the furbag threat more seriously.

Couple years back I slit the gills on a Coho, put a rope in his mouth and out of his gills, put the end of the rope through a loop, tied it to a rail and hung it over the side to bleed out while I was cleaning up and getting ready to put the gear out again. A seal took the fish and pulled the rope clean through the jaw of the fish and I was left with just the rope!

Since then I'm a lot more careful when I bleed a fish. The things have no fear and are very powerful. We need to give them something non lethal to fear. Paintballs sound good to me. At the age of 74, I'm not much at slingshots anymore.

Well, according to your initial post, you are losing just a fraction over one fish per year.

I honestly don't know how many trips you make per year, what the daily limit may be during your outings, or what kind of financial burden losing these fish may cause.

I've given up multiples in a day to size limits, adipose fin presence, barbless hooks, etc, but never a marine mammal. Should mention that I'm usually fishing with multiples of those pesky critters within eye to eye distance, and yes, they do make eye contact. Biggest disappointment is dragging hardware and bait around for days without anything to show for it but a launch receipt.

Sorry you've lost those slabs of meat, but in the grand scheme of things there are better places to put your time and energy - such as bringing awareness to pollution, global warming, poaching, mismanagement, erosion, and fighting those who make crap decisions in these areas. We lose millions of fish each year to these things and I would think your own personal loss from these to be at least a hundred fold to your one per year from seals. Seriously.

Thinking about what could be vs what could've been is a step ahead, and spending your time and money hitting some harbor seal in the head with a paint ball won't solve s***t (squat)

The picture is definitely bigger.

Best of luck.

onmygame

Onmygame wrote:Well, according to your initial post, you are losing just a fraction over one fish per year.

I honestly don't know how many trips you make per year, what the daily limit may be during your outings, or what kind of financial burden losing these fish may cause.

I've given up multiples in a day to size limits, adipose fin presence, barbless hooks, etc, but never a marine mammal. Should mention that I'm usually fishing with multiples of those pesky critters within eye to eye distance, and yes, they do make eye contact. Biggest disappointment is dragging hardware and bait around for days without anything to show for it but a launch receipt.

Sorry you've lost those slabs of meat, but in the grand scheme of things there are better places to put your time and energy - such as bringing awareness to pollution, global warming, poaching, mismanagement, erosion, and fighting those who make crap decisions in these areas. We lose millions of fish each year to these things and I would think your own personal loss from these to be at least a hundred fold to your one per year from seals. Seriously.

Thinking about what could be vs what could've been is a step ahead, and spending your time and money hitting some harbor seal in the head with a paint ball won't solve s***t (squat)

The picture is definitely bigger.

Best of luck.

onmygame

Squid fishing from central puget sound docks, the seals can be the "biggest picture" in relation to your catch. When the seals are persistent, you might catch 1% of your perspective catch if you cant deter them. Usually they are not that much of an issue, but when the squid are running thick, the seals follow. Also our lights at night make easy squid hunting for the seals, so they hang out right under the dock scaring all the squid just out of reach of our jigs.

Onmygame wrote:Well, according to your initial post, you are losing just a fraction over one fish per year.

Sorry you've lost those slabs of meat, but in the grand scheme of things there are better places to put your time and energy - such as bringing awareness to pollution, global warming, poaching, mismanagement, erosion, and fighting those who make crap decisions in these areas. We lose millions of fish each year to these things and I would think your own personal loss from these to be at least a hundred fold to your one per year from seals. Seriously.

Thinking about what could be vs what could've been is a step ahead, and spending your time and money hitting some harbor seal in the head with a paint ball won't solve s***t (squat)

The picture is definitely bigger.

Best of luck.

onmygame

Aaaaaand another reason this forum may be loosing members... Honestly, I come here less and less because sooo many post or report responses are 'high moral' preaching to others.

Agreed. Some of these guys have gotten real preachy.

TrackerPro16 wrote:

Onmygame wrote:Well, according to your initial post, you are losing just a fraction over one fish per year.

Sorry you've lost those slabs of meat, but in the grand scheme of things there are better places to put your time and energy - such as bringing awareness to pollution, global warming, poaching, mismanagement, erosion, and fighting those who make crap decisions in these areas. We lose millions of fish each year to these things and I would think your own personal loss from these to be at least a hundred fold to your one per year from seals. Seriously.

Thinking about what could be vs what could've been is a step ahead, and spending your time and money hitting some harbor seal in the head with a paint ball won't solve s***t (squat)

The picture is definitely bigger.

Best of luck.

onmygame

Aaaaaand another reason this forum may be loosing members... Honestly, I come here less and less because sooo many post or report responses are 'high moral' preaching to others.

I know right, can't we just shoot marine mammals in peace? Afterall they are the only scapegoats fishermen have left to harrass. And how dare he put opposing perspective into a forum. We all know what we really need here is an echo chamber to liven up this conversation lol *complete and udder sarcasm in case you couldn't already tell*

I think onmygame is right. You guys are dropping dollars to pick up dimes so to speak. And i don't mean to say you are wrong in what your doing. Its legal, giver hell. Im just saying its not going to produce any good results other than perhaps a release of frusteration. Which again if thats what your after then giver a full send.

BARCHASER1 wrote:Agreed. Some of these guys have gotten real preachy.

True. True.

On Wednesday I had a chance to try my paintball pistol on a seal. My buddy had just taken a Chinook, he cut the gills and had a rope through its gills and mouth and was dunking it over the transom to bleed it. Here comes this seal headed right at our stern. I took a shot at it from about 15-20 feet and the ball landed 3-4 feet in front of the seal and it got our of Dodge in a hurry! Dove down and never came back.

On that one case the gun seems to work. It makes a nice loud noise, pretty close to a .22 pistol, and makes a noticeable PLUNK in the water.. The paintball is non toxic, there is no paint in it, its filled with a thick vegetable oil and food coloring.

Besides, its fun, legal, doesn't hurt the seal, and hopefully just makes them go away.

If some of you guys want to preach some more, go for it.

Where did and what did you end up getting? New? Used? Would you do it different next time? We want answers man! Glad it seems to work. Gives you something to do waiting for the fish to bite!
Though I always enjoy using a sling shot (check out the UK sling shot competitions on YouTube!) it would not be as quick as a paintball gun to get into action and it doesn't make much noise.

Amazon, 72 bucks all in including the pistol, extra paintballs and CO2 cartridges. Seems to work well. When you work the slide you have to be sure a ball goes into the chamber. A cartridge lasts about 25-30 shots. But with the cartridges, when you put in a new one, over several weeks the air will gradually bleed out.

I also use it to shoot at rabbits in my backyard. Havent hit one yet, but it scares them away pretty good.

https://www.amazon.com/JT-ER2-Pump-Pain ... tball+guns