We were out by the green bouy when I snagged a heavy halibut. The “muscle” of our group took over for me to reel it in. Suddenly, about 400 yards away there appeared a big sea lion grabbing our fish. No, not one sea lion, but two were fighting over the halibut.
They flipped it up in the air and I could see it truly was a big one. The three “fellows”–my muscle and the two sea lions– were all playing tug-a-war with my halibut. Meanwhile, in the boat, the human bull was pulling, straining, reeling, and squealing, “Not my fish, YOU DON’T get my fish!”.
At an opportune moment, the fish was literally pulled from under the noses of those aquatic bulls. Never have you seen an 80 pound halibut reeled in and pulled into the boat as fast as that one. The lions had done us a favor and gutted the fish so we didn’t need to work to control it. Teeth marks all over the tail and back, but spared most, if not all the meat for us. Trailing behind were those sea lions barking and snarling at us. I feared one would jump in the boat to retrieve what he thought was “his” catch.
Can’t beat an experience like that. WHAT A MEMORY.