Very little to report. I tried for some of the dungeness that I know came from the bay. One of my "buddies" even told me where to go. I soaked four pots for 4 hours in two holes, one of them supposedly the hole, and caught one dungeness crab that was so sad looking it thanked me for putting it in the boiling water. It tasted fine, but I was expecting more. Several more. In fairness to my informants, I did soak my gear during the highest current period of the day. Others have done substantially better, and a resident here caught three dungeness off the pier in 12 hours of gear soaking. There are a few surfperch being taken as well, although again, not by me. It is a good thing that there are plenty of real fishermen around here because if I had to rely on my catches alone to report on, I would have very little typing to do.

Thanks to those who have written to the MLPA. It may not help, but it sure can't hurt. If you're still thinking of writing, you might tell them you support option 2 in subregion 3. That option allows the best access on Ten Mile Beach, leaves the lingcod hole at Point Reyes in the clear and has no Clam Island closure. It's not great but we need to take what we can get.
In other news, two guys from the Landing went out crabbing today and returned with 10 dungeness in four hours and never left the bay. One boat did go outside today. The boat looked very new, about a 24' Boulton Explorer with a nice cabin. The bar was breaking big enough to break all three front windows. I didn't speak to the guys in the boat but I hope that they're OK. Gentlemen, size may be important in many things, but those breakers can kill you just as dead in a 30' boat as a 15' boat. A kid on the dock caught three dungeness today. Maybe the next time the bar is breaking you crab with the kid.

This is a picture of the proposed Clam Island Marine Recreational Management Area. This could be coming to Tomales Bay courtesy of the Marine Life Protection Act. It is planned to be a "no take" zone, meaning no fishing, clamming or crabbing inside the box. How do you know if you're in the box? Just use your trusty GPS that you always take clamming and crabbing on the bay and make sure you're not between 38 13.00 and 38 13.25. Don't know what that means? Don't worry, I'm sure the friendly wardens and rangers will kindly educate you to the errors of your ways. Or, since this is only part of one of the five proposals being looked at by the MLPA team, you can contact them and tell them that the clams and seals don't need any more protection than they have currently. I'm sure they'd appreciate any comments you may have on Point Reyes' closure and Bodega Head's closure. Send to: MLPAComments@resources.ca.gov

Being that winter is still upon us the fishing report is a bit short. Crabbing is still OK for reds and lousy for dungeness. The surfperch are biting on the incoming tide. The salmon forecast is grim for this season. Of those 3 things the salmon forecast has me the most excited. The salmon forecast I heard the last two years was that there would be many salmon caught. The reality was not that many salmon being caught here. Now they say it'll be a bad year. If the opposite rule still applies then we will be in fat city, salmonwise, as long as they give us a season that is open when the salmon happen to be here. I realize that the chances of Fish and Game and the fish doing the right thing by us fisherman is close to the chances of being struck by lightning while buying the winning lotto ticket, but hey, I'm a fisherman. if I'm not optomistic, I don't fish.