Sea Lion cushion?

Springer fishing today on the willy...BIG furbag in our vicinity(at least it looked big to me)...first I've encountered on the yak. Should a guy head for shore ,jump out ,fall in the water(ahem.. ) ,fish right into their vicinity,ignore , or what?  Your thoughts?

I have only had one up close sea lion / fur seal encounter my entire life. 
In my 20's surfing during a heat wave.  I was out well past the swells taking a break.  While laying down on my board, I must have dozed off for just a minute.  I remember being awakened by what seemed like a can of rotten tuna fish being shoved under my nose.  Opened my eyes to see a seals face maybe a foot away from mine.  I no doubt let out a scream like a frightened school girl and he took off.   I was probably half way to shore paddling in a panic before I stopped to calm down,  thinking it was just a seal or something I shouldn't be afraid of.  A couple guys where right behind me, no doubt thinking only a shark sighting could make someone look so desperate to get to shore. 

I've never heard of sea lions actually attacking anyone in the kayak.  But, if you hook into a salmon with one around, try to quietly haul it in quick and get it the fish out of the water.  Dont yell and scream or you'll attract a crowd of them. 
I was told, in a first aid class in Juneau, that one of the leading causes of longliner fisherman drowning or getting hypothermia, was that sea lions would accidentally grab a person's arm when lunging after a salmon that they were pulling into the boat.

Loved your story Craig - those SOBs get huge!

I usually just use my gangsta stare....Sometimes I paddle slap in their direction. Both are about as equally effective

in all honesty,  it was ether a small species or just a pup.     Still scared the dickens out of me. 

I think seeing a large sea lion up close in the kayak might scare me out of the water for a while after I set my own personal short distance sprint speed record in a kayak.

Am I the only one that has become, uh.... less than happy when I see the sea lions at the base of the fish ladder at Bonneyville Dam ?     Have also seen the remains of a 6' sturgeon floating down river after a sea lion has taken a few bites out of it's belly.
I don't think I even saw them submerge when they set the "anti seal" pop bottle rockets off in the air.

We have 2 different types of sea lions in the area, California and Steller.  The Californias are the little ones and the Stellers are the big ones. 

I've had Stellers appear to charge my kayak, and I turned tail and peddled hard. 

We also have harbor seals, and they tend to pop straight up and drop straight down in the water rather than a rolling dive.  And they always look very sad.

NWNoob and I had a close encounter with some Sea Lions late last year, we were heading to Minter creek for some chum fishing and there were a few of them picking a net clean at the mouth of it, NWNoob got a little too close to the net and one popped up maybe three feet from him, it was pretty funny in the end.  We see them all the time out on big floating tank in front of ketron island, on occasion I'll paddle close enough for them to make "Go Away" noises  then paddle away. 

I don't worry to much about them while fishing.  If one starts acting aggressive, like barking at you, then you may want to give it some space.  What I worry most about is a fur bag grabbing a fish while I am netting it or dealing with it on board or in the net, in the case of a native.  Follow DoubleR's recommendation about being quiet and once you have a fish on board keep it out if site.  I have had a sea lion stare at my kayak for a while when I had salmon tail visible in my tank well.  Once I put the fish in the kayak, the sea lion lost interest.     

Them sloppy monters (stellar) follow us every time we re-enter the mouth of the Chetco, They seem to waiting on the Coastie's dock for an easy meal (sunning and bellering).
 I have had them follow us to close for comfort, and resorted to moving all the fish in the gunny sacks to one Yak....while the other ran interferance behind, slapping paddle, yelling , etc.
 I also have the habit of keeping all fish alive as possible in the sack before returning, to limit the amount of blood trail I present.
 I can just imagine the Phat Bastard mounting the back of my Yak!

Lol..."Phat Bastard"