PORTLAND, Ore. - While they are scaring sea lions with rubber bullets and cracker shells at Bonneville Dam to save endangered salmon, it ‘s a different story in the Willamette River.

Snacking sea lions are popping up in downtown Portland where they steal salmon off fishermen’s lines – and for many anglers, patience is wearing thin.

Trey Carskadon says it takes an average 40 hours of fishing to catch just one of the prized spring chinook salmon from the Willamette River.

The fish are admired for their fight and enjoyed for their taste by thousands of anglers each week – until a sea lion shows up.

Carskadon told KATU: “If there's one of those devils in the area, I don't even like fishin’...they put the fish off the bite.”

And this spring, the salmon have gone off the bite a lot whenever the top line predators, California Sea Lions,  move it to the popular fishing areas that stretch from Portland to Oregon City.

Carskadon’s worried that someone will get hurt: “It's just a matter of time before somebody gets pulled into the water when they're trying to net a salmon because these sea lions literally grab the net - and that there's a concern for people's safety out here.”

We showed you a similar close call last winter when a seal followed an angler’s hooked salmon right up to the boat.

The seal had the salmon in it’s mouth, but the angler got lucky and landed the fish.

Last week, one sea lion swimming in the Multnomah Channel near Coon Island wasn’t so lucky!

A frustrated angler allegedly shot at a sea lion twice and hit it in the neck and the head.

The sea lion survived and was spotted a half-mile downstream.

While the injuries to the sea lion were not fatal, the shots were a serious violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that’s been in place since 1972.

The law says it’s unlawful to harm, injure or kill seals or sea lions.

Fines can reach $20,000 plus jail time.

Carskadon understands the angler’s frustration but breaking the law over a fish goes too far:

“Nobody really wants to do this, but we've gotten to a point where something has to be done to get these animals out of the area.”

So for now, sea lions are here to stay while anglers go only move out of their way.