The crabbing inside Tomales Bay has been bad, but as usual, a few people have figured out how to catch a few. Our local expert, Tim, has been catching a little better than half-limits in a few hours just this side of Marker 5. Those crab were mostly barely legal and kind of ugly,  but they were legal eaters, so... Outside the bay you will be competing with professional crabbers, and while there are crab, there ain't many. Your location needs to be very particular for success, and the successful guys are very correctly not sharing their locations with me. From shore, the crab snare guys have been trying very hard. A few have done pretty well. A young man this weekend had four in a day. Most of the snarers are working inside the bay, even though there's less people and sometimes more crab from the ocean-front beach. Often times a little walk will improve your chances.

      Not much that I've heard of here about fishing. There's been a few guys trying for surfperch but nom reports filtering back on success. Usually this time of year has a few stripers showing up in the surf, but again, I haven't heard of any and haven't had a chance to try myself. I did hear of a guy with a bucket of stripers at Doran Beach, which tracks, as I've heard that Doran has more stripers than Dillon, but Dillon has a larger average size. Bigger don't matter if they aren't biting, so you might try Bodega's option.

      Rockfish, it seems, will open again in April, but only out very deep (over 300') at a time when the weather is generally against you even leaving the bay. But there might be a window. By May we go back to inside of 120' until October. As nearshore fish stocks have never really recovered from earlier closures forcing shallow fishing only, well, good luck. Best bets for success then will be going with the pros. Salmon? Let's talk about halibut. That season will happen, as no fresh water is required for their reproduction. They have been hit hard the last couple of years, and this year, well, the hits keep on coming. They should start here about four to six weeks after things get interesting in San Francisco Bay. Likely late April in the way back bay. We had a great time last year trolling bait, hootchies and Predator minnows back there. Lots of action, and the bites on the Predators were just plain fun, as that ain't the norm. My guess is that the halibut bite here should start around the time my wife starts walking again, as that is my hope, as then I can go fishing.... Good luck to the rest of you before then, but after that, watch out for me.