Here's a Saturday report: "Hey Willy,

Had to send you a pic for the “tiny boat syndrome” files. Lots of dangerously overloaded boats full of groups on Saturday because of the clam tide. Made me terribly nervous to watch. Lots of newbs in kayaks with shorts or sweats too. Only a matter of time before someone gets in trouble....again.

In our group of five kayaks, all of us hooked one halibut and three made it into the kill bag, with the other two lost near the boat. Tough day on Saturday, lots of traffic, bait was mostly scattered in small balls. Big fish was only 29”, but a healthy almost 11 pounder.

I don’t send a lot of reports because T Bay is already crowded enough, but I appreciate the postings you make and so I’ll throw a few in the mix once in a while. I’m sure I’ll run into Gage on Dillon one of these evenings chasing stripers too, maybe even get to meet you! 

Take care,

Norm" For your sake, I hope it's Gage. He's way more interesting. And yes, Tomales Bay can get pretty crowded at times. That's the number one complaint about this blog. I'm sure the same complaint can be made about Coastside, NorCal Kayak Anglers, social media, etc., but they spread out the woe. I actually don't think there's more people on the bay now (I remember more in the past, although some of that could be "good old days" syndrome) but it does seem like the people that are here cluster more. There used to be 15 to 50 boats fishing the bar in the afternoons and now you might see one or two. Anyhow, the cranky old man agrees with you about too many people (how many is too many? Sometimes it's two) and that there's a lot of people flirting with disaster without realizing it. Speaking of that, here's a video:


   There were fourteen or fifteen people in the boat. That's crazy. They weren't even salmon fishing, when having extra bodies on board can come in handy.
    Today's fishing report is mostly sad, unless you're a fish. The vast majority of boats came back with nada. Tim caught one salmon in the Outer Bay near Stemple Creek and there was a limit caught off of the Trees (next to several boats that caught nothing). There were a couple of other salmon taken, but even the folks that ran up to Duncan's Landing were fishless. There were some salmon and halibut caught on Ten Mile near Abbott's Lagoon, which I'm hoping is a sign of good things to come, but I'm not holding my breath. The water is warm, dark (maybe too dark? Is that a thing?) and full of bait, so if the fish aren't biting there must be some other factors at play.
   Here's another video. It's from yesterday off of Monterey and resulted in two bluefin in the boat with the larger about 170 pounds. I'll be watching this as I fall asleep in hopes of a good dream. Also, WARNING if you have littles or sensitive ears; there's a bit of rough language.