Weird experience!

WP · 07-31-2003, 05:30 PM

Took a ride out to around 13 miles today, out of Newport. While trolling up some silvers in 47.5 degree water, a pod of dolphins cavorted around the boat. We were fishing two lines on down riggers and trolling along when on of the downriggers started peeling out cable. The line ran forward and out from the boat. My partner burned his hand trying to slow the spool down (manual downriggers). The fishing line came unsnapped and the flasher softly slapped the water behind us. While thuis was going on, several porpise cut and leaped around us, faster than normal. We could not stop the cable from running (very much like a big chinook on rod and reel, but faster). Weird! Eventually the cable went slack and the dolphins disappeared. When we wound up the cable, the lead was gone, the release was gone (attached to the lead) and the snap that holds the weight was bent open and partially straightened. During this adventure, the cable ran in several direction (not linear) and stopped a couple of times and then took off again. The dolphins emitted squeeking sounds but not any aggressive behaviors. There was nothing for a dolphin (or anything else for that matter) to get hooked on. The line didn't seem to get pulled down as much as out. A startling experience and a new one for me. Any one else have a similar experience? The dolpins were the ones that look like little orcas...Dahls I think they are called.
WP :whazzup:

Sea Jypzee · 07-31-2003, 05:33 PM

Yep, those are Dahl's porposes. Strange, I wonder what got ahold of your downrigger.

ANDYCOHO · 07-31-2003, 05:58 PM

Your puttn' scent on the downrigger ball again arn't you?

:grin:

That is mighty strange, I guess dolphins like to play too :tongue:

Marty · 07-31-2003, 06:44 PM

WP.......I read a post last year about a similar experience with a downrigger fisherman out of Morro Bay. He apparently hooked on to a big thresher shark that jumped and further tangled himself in the line and the guy played the thing like a big fishing reel for half an hour until the downrigger got spooled and broke the cable. Maybe you just need a bigger downrigger and you could have caught that thing.

Marty

WP · 07-31-2003, 06:47 PM

Andy,
That is the only conclusion that Steve and I could come up with...they were playing and grabed the lead. I use the flattened, sort of pancake shapes leads. My wife says they look just like the sonic microphones that scientist use to record dolphins, and that they have been known to "play" with the mics. If that is what happened, I am glad those things didn't decide to play with the boat or me....they are big and obviously very powerful.
WP

Mark Mc · 07-31-2003, 08:49 PM

Dave, I saw on the discovery channel once how both whales and walruses in Alaska will get their own form of indigestion after they have over-gorged themselves during the summer / fall feeding frenzies, to put on the calories before winter. The marine biologists observed that the affected animals would swallow stones or shell pieces to aid in their digestion, similar to birds swallowing gizzard stones. Was there a lot of feed in the water? Maybe he tried to swallow your lead for a digestion stone.

Miss B Haven · 07-31-2003, 09:13 PM

Pete would call those guys the thugs in black leather jackets! :shocked:

Mikeymoto · 07-31-2003, 09:28 PM

Flosser! You were probably lining a shark. Just a guess, be glad you didnt loose a finger in the spool.

PBR Streetgang · 07-31-2003, 09:47 PM

This is not at all weird. Last weekend when we were trolling for Coho's each of us lost a complete set of gear, divers, flashers, and lures. It was like someone took a razor knife to the line. The poles jumped a couple of times and then the line went limp, minus the gear. The only thing I could figure was a shark. This has never happened to me before.

Tim

Clarity · 08-01-2003, 01:37 AM

Glad I'm not the only one who the mammals mess with. A couple of years ago I had a grey whale swim up under the boat. I shut the engine down. It hung with us for five minutes or so, holding its head out, swimming under, etc. Finally it's tail fluke came out of the water and smacked the kicker motor. I don't really think it was being malicious or anything, I think it just accidentally bumped us. After that it just swam away.

w-fly · 08-01-2003, 06:02 AM

Yesterday my brother and I were off Garibaldi and I spot a streaking brown and white object off the side boat. When it did a few loops of the boat and surfaced for air we realized it was a dolphin. There were 2 of them one much smaller than the other, they circled for a few minites, one of them appeared to trip the shallower diver. Then they must have lost interest and left.

Couldn't get the camera out in time ,

Phil Layer · 08-01-2003, 09:29 AM

I truly love fishing in the ocean. I figure it is the closest we can come to visiting another planet.