River Ribble Seal & Saving a HUGE PIKE 

I’ll tell you what Danny, it’s moments like that that make you sit back and make you thank god that you set off down the bank that morning, witnessing that seal would have been far more rewarding than catching any amount of fish. I bet you Gary Azzer and mark felt so blessed and honoured to see such mammal up close, I know I would. Thanks for the footage Tight lines buddy👍

It all looks like a good day to remember. Clearly, the seal decided it felt sorry that you hadn't caught a pike and wanted to show you how it's done. Nature is perfectly normal and I personally would have loved to see a friendly seal in the local river.

It’s lovely to see you saving pike from seals

looks like he was gifting you a pike,probably full up after eating the bream.lovely to see ,hopefully he will find the way back to the sea.

someone must been feeding that to say how chilled it was with your mate and yourself getting the pike of it good lad on saving the pike mate tight lines 👍

the worst case scenario with seals in fresh water they go blind after about 2 weeks in fresh water, I've fished church deeps for about 12 years and its a first for sight for me mate great video keep em coming pal👍👍👍

That seal looked like he was bringing you a present lol. The pike was nearly as big as the seal 🤣 hopefully he makes his way back out to sea before some numpty hurts him.

Well done Danny for saving the pike 👍, seal's are a Paine when out fishing (sea fishing)but they are apart of the food chain,nice to see them tho 👍,thanks for sharing this video Danny, take care and tight line's mate 👍🎣.

I enjoyed the video and love the way you said no debate . Great nature moment with 3 amazing predator . The man , the seal and the pike . Outstanding and thank you for sharing this ultimate experience , one in a million .

You're so ALPHA Danny!

Nature really is a wonderful thing.

We have the same problem down here on the Great ouse with seals they have been spotted as far inland as Bedford. Well done for saving the Pike 👍

I can't help feeling he was bringing you a gift.

I had a very similar experience years ago Danny. Set up in the dark ready and began to fish. No bites at all but kept hearing a weird noise most of the morning. Eventually it came to light it was a large seal playing with a 15lb pike it had maimed. I spooked it in the end. Something I’ll never forget.

thanks for posting danny awesome footage , i reckon its a sanctuary raised pup thats why it has no fear , great to see memorable footage

Thanks for sharing that mate.loved it👍👍

I've seen a seal quite high up on the Nene at Wansford but nothing like your video Great video

Great video amazing footage , well done

Very interesting, amazing what you can see on the river bank.

Awesome, well done saving the Pike 👍

that was amazing danny wow top man that should go viral

Amazing footage

Nice one matey . One lucky pike . Hopefully it will get relocated.. Tight lines ..

Amazing - thank you

Wow what a wonderful experience Danny thanks for sharing it

Certainly threw me there Danny uploading on a Sunday 😂nature always throws up something special, that seal has beaten my PB for a bream 🫣

Really fun day mate. Super film. 👌 Ron seal 🦭 😊😊😊

Brilliant Danny, never mind the rights and wrongs, great video, thanks ,take care, Norfolk Ray

Amazing footage Danny, we have been seeing seals up here on the rivers in Yorkshire seems its becoming more frequent

That's crazy! Bet was surreal to see in person!

How unusual, fascinating video there.👍

Dan What next, very unusual set of circumstances perhaps that seal watches RU-vid thank you for sharing that will take some topping kind regards Mr D

Danny youv'e made it on TV : 0 Just seen your seal footage on BBC TV and you were credited for it, good on you mate. I hope that it brings you many new subscribers ; ) All the best.

Looks like he was trying to share his meal with you.

I read yesterday a seal had been found 200 meteres from the river in a field at Walton le Dale so I imagine it was the same one

My brother was on the opposite bank and literally told me about this today. Madness

Really enjoying your videos Danny, what an experience! Went out myself today for a few hours despite the extreme cold, had one on the bank around 8lb and a further 2 missed runs and saw a kingfisher 😃 tight lines mate.

A Seal travelled up the Humber into the Yorkshire Ouse somehow got up the weir and locks at Naburn , through York then passed the weir and locks at Linton on Ouse , then up the River Ure turned right into the river Swale up the weir at Cundall to finally reach Topcliffe weir , there is a video of it by Charley Farley2 on his youtube channel at Topcliffe weir

Mental,we can speculate until the cows come home,we ent never gonna truly understand why he was where he was doing what he was doing,but either way good footage Dan 👍🏻

Great video Danny I suppose it's only looking for its dinner , seals would have eaten all of that pike, where as a otter wouldn't just leave it on the bank, far play to you

You done the rgt thing mafriend.. thts defo a tame seal. Must b used to getting off the fisher men .grat vid . Respect from glasgow scotland 🙌

Get that seal to sign up for sponsorship I'm sure fox or daiwa would put a t shirt on him as he/she was definitely catching more than anyone else on the ribble that day lol all jokes aside it's nature isn't it and although none of us want our fish stocks threatened this little guys fishing to survive

good vid Danny what day did this take place

Never seen anything like that before amazing vid danny lad hope the seal sods off and doesn't spoil yr fishing I was fishing on a boat out of Swansea years ago and my mate hooked a 80lb seal that was mad to watch 🎣👊💯

Fantastic Danny. I've seen plenty in the sea but never upstream in a river. It's like that one in Kent(?) recently on the news. The only thing I worry about, is the fact coarse fish don't have the necessary omega oils and minerals sea fish have, I'm more worried about the health of the seals feeding on coarse fish, still, that one looked healthy. A beautiful sight to see. 😁

Obviously not much food in the sea because of over fishing for them to be entering freshwater for food .1 seal comes over 15 miles from Sunderlands mouth of the wear to Durham city and swims back to sea.

Otters ain’t got a patch on a seal! 😮

Wow 😳

That would have made me jump. Dont expect to see a seal so far inland. Easy pickings for the seal I guess.

Image the outburst if this was a cute little otter ??

Hmm. Not sure I agree with that. I don’t think seals are doing particularly well in the UK so to take a meal away from one doesn’t feel right to me - angler or not. These were 2 wild creatures and the seal was just doing what comes naturally and what it needs to do to survive. Would you have taken a roach away from the pike to save the roach? I don’t think so, so why take the pike away from the seal?

Seals got to eat too mate

Probably rescued when it was a pup, hand reared and released. It will always seek humans when times are hard, sad really but cant be helped really. Great to have these interactions with wildlife but a healthy fear of us is also good to have, there are some sick humans out their that wouldn't think twice of beating that Seal.

We’ve got two in Peterborough right now.Great experience!

There is a theory that as the rivers have less industrial pollution more salmon are returning to more rivers. The seals are chasing them up from the estuary hence we are seeing more in the rivers. The salmon are triggered to run when oxygen content goes over a certain level.

That's mad as f*ck haha

There’s no fish in the sea,

🤔 very tame, to tame for a wild animal. 🤔no fear of humans indicating it’s probably been raised by some rescue organisation/ sanctuary and released back into the wild.

We had a seal through a Yorkshire river system last year. It was tagged and was captured for relocation. It had been released in GERMANY not long before. A few years ago, a group of seals went up the river Hull. The last one to leave was there more than a year. During that time, they decimated the population of large pike and the up and coming barbel population. At this point, I should tell you that I live only a couple of hundred yards from the sea. We regularly observed seals killing fish to simply eat the liver or even just for sport, discarding the fish once it was dead. This doesn't happen now due to the massive increase in numbers and the decrease of food fish. On our stretch of Yorkshire coast, where colonies once had a few dozen, there are literally hundreds. Between Whitby and Bridlington they are approaching 1000! You saw how effortlessly that seal caught fish. Don't be fooled into thinking it will only catch to eat. Although it looks cute, you are best rid of it asap. I hope the EA act swiftly for you. I enjoy your blogs. Keep up the good work!

What made me laugh was a scene previous you were saying I don't know why but the piking asnt as been good, now you know why ,there's more bloody fish in the sea for dinner they shouldn't be coming that far up ,then the otters take over and finally cormorants the fish have dramatically dropped since late 90s when Vernon the vermin started appearing in numbers, they shouldn't be in the river just in that clip guess what it eats a day,don't net it and return it ,shoot the bastard or it will be back, its a case of great to see but summer wears the fish gradually going, an otter , seal and minks guts

Seals belong in the sea not in our rivers. You wouldn't be saying it if one of your kids was playing in the river and it bit them because as cute as it looks they are very vicious. We have enough problems with the otters never mind seals aswell.

Does the seal deserve a meal less than an angler needs a bite ?

I walk the Ribble a lot, and cough I wouldn't feed or show the seal any kind of love. I see the otters and have photographed thier footprints it's not good news I am afraid this will change the stocking levels. John Wilson was a big advocate to control the otters god rest his soul. I too wish someone sorts out the level and care of the otters in the Ribble, fishermen will remember how the Cormorants decimated fish stocks and it took years for the Ribble to recover. Please think about what these do to the river and don't give them reason to keep coming back for easy meals.

River wear in Sunderland otters seals you are lucky if you catch a condom 😂 I bet now there's the odd minnow the EA needs to stock it course fishing is terrible.

Let the seal eat the pike!