Another perk of living in the islands... Orcas

[lokidog]

couple years ago I found myself on one of those puget sound tour boats that feed you a dinner and you ride around the sound with 50 or so other people...


anyways I was amazed how much those boats chased the orca's and how close they got.   They'd really race and jog around trying to get in position for the tourists.  I could see half a dozen boats all doing the same thing.

Kind of cool I guess, but I prefer them a good ways from me while I'm fishing salmon and not swimming all around my boat all day long     Orca's can sure mess up a good troll

Yes, the whale boats do seem to be on them almost constantly.  I wish they would shut their engines off when drifting nearby like all of us smaller boats did.  The first encounter was much more enjoyable being able to actually hear the whales vocalizing.

The funny thing with them and fishing is that we always seemed to catch more fish as the Orcas rolled through, probably because they were following the big school of fish I guess.

There is a group that wants to close down all of SW San Juan Island to boat traffic within a half mile of shore, including sail and kayaks, idiots... anyways, they would accomplish the goal of less harassment IMO if they simply put a speed limit of 5 mph within 1/2 mile of shore.  I'd be fine with that as we could still fish and the whale boats wouldn't be buzzing them all day in there.  There would still be the NA boats blowing through the pods though, unfortunately.   

[runamuk]

Yea ummmm so not my favorite thing....having those wolves surface 3 feet from the 16ft boat I was sitting in I about came out of my skin.  I will say the pair breeching and carrying on like they were a seaworld act a few hundred yards away were spectacular....however the one that surface within touching range...yeah take me back to the beach right now dad go find some crazy person who likes playing with killer fish...   one thing for sure I will NEVER forget that day.

[wildmanoutdoors]

What else is amazing is that there weren't 15 other boats around them and sound watch handing out brochures.

Yeah, we were pretty surprised.  We grabbed a few other folks from the island and circled up to the north where we found them again.  As we sat there, the Victoria Clipper III came by and stopped as well as a few other boats.  When we had them to ourselves, we could hear them gurgling and clicking at each other, it was pretty darn cool.  I swear they swam over just to check us out.

Seems they like to check out boats! These came right to us one day up on Vancouver Island. First we thought oh crap! But they went right under us.

[bowhunterforever]

Very cool

[RB]

Right on very cool!   

[jay.sharkbait]

I've had them around the boat at night. Super cool seeing them close up with the phosphorus.

[seth30]

What a awesome sight, and glad you could share it with us

[lokidog]

Fished San Juan this afternoon and had Orcas swimming by almost the entire time.  Too bad the fish weren't as cooperative.

[wildweeds]

Ed, fact is king salmon sound and get out of dodge when orcas show(hint move deep 250 feet and fish the bottom),coho do the same as well as sockeyes, Pinks are to stupid to do the same. When the whales show up tablefare salmon go off the feed bag and get after going to safety. Whales= no fish in the net,when I see them it's a pick up and move out to the next spot,fishing after spoting them is a lesson in scenery for future painting projects.I've never had any luck fishing around whales in 30 years,Blackfish yes,whales nope.My buddy put another 16 in the sockeye box and was home at noon again today BTW.

Fished San Juan this afternoon and had Orcas swimming by almost the entire time.  Too bad the fish weren't as cooperative.