When Sea Lions Attack :)

Sunday morning dawned absolutely beautiful. A little sun peeking out, no wind, and best of all the bay was as smooth as glass. Our family headed out with our friend Laura for a day on the water. We caught a few rock fish, enjoyed the fresh air, and then headed over to the kelp bed to look for some sea bass. That's when things got interesting.

After stopping the boat and dropping down our lines...these guys suddenly appeared. 

A very large group of VERY LARGE steller sea lions who decided they were extremely interested in what we were doing.

They quickly made their way over to us...

...and next thing we knew one of them had grabbed the fish on Laura's line and was hooked! Her pole bent like it was about to snap in two. A and I were squealing, Dh was yelling for Laura to let out some line as he was running with his knife ready to cut the line when suddenly the big guy let go.

Well at that point, there's only one thing to do...Reel up and start snapping pics.

These sea lions would not leave us alone. No matter where we took the boat, they followed us. 

They were so close, even swimming in and out under the boat!

.

..and popping out the other side air bubbles and all.

They were not happy that we wanted their fish. They yelled and hollered and roared! They were so noisy.

We finally were able to scoot away from the majestic creatures and were able to get some more fishing done.

Dh and Laura hooked some sea bass.

And I ended up hooking the only fish we kept today...a fish we had never caught before...a Kelp Greenling. 

It was an amazing day. I loved watching A's face light up while watching the sea lions frolicking around us. Her animated expression as she leaned over dangling a bait fish over the side, trying to tempt the sea lions, and tell us as they followed along,"I am in control of their little tiny minds!" just fills my soul.

Have a great week everyone. I am off to bed.