Just Joined - Sevengill in Tomales?

Buddy and I hit Tomales this morning for a few hours before getting blown off and lost half a dozen rigs each to sharks. We didn’t have wire leader on us and took a few before we got one close enough to get a look, we think they were big ‘ole sevengills (buddy nearly got spooled twice and the one we saw was north of 5’).  Never fished Tomales for halibut before, is it always like that?  Got into a few shakers in the afternoon back in SF Bay, but would have been a lot more fun with wire leaders if we could have whacked a few sharks...

Welcome Captainski009 

Tomales is a different animal , you either hate it or love it.  That Bay doesn’t play around... but when the weather and fishing cooperate it’s an awesome place.

Welcome! And good luck with those sharks!

Welcome to NCKA CS009 

Welcome to NCKA!

Welcome to NCKA

Did it have spots ? Most of the 7 gills I have seen have spots. Lot of Angel Sharks in Tamale.

Hey! Welcome Capt. Oh yeah there are sharks in Tomales.

Biggest fish I've got out of Tomales was a 7 gill, 67", released, teeth like razor blades, (not like leopard teeth at all). 

Biggest fish I've got out of Tomales was a 7 gill, 67", released, teeth like razor blades, (not like leopard teeth at all).

We’re you targeting them or just bycatch?  We lost a ton of rigs, needed wire for sure, but we were targeting halibut.  Not sure how leader-shy the buts are, it’d be awesome to get into sharks and halibut both.  How’d you land a 67” shark on the yak?  My buddy was the only one of us to get one near the surface - it was just following the bait up, he didn’t really get it in - but he figured it was 5’ easy and it scared the pants off him, felt like something tiny. He wasn’t sure how he’d have got it in even if he had the right gear...

Did it have spots ? Most of the 7 gills I have seen have spots. Lot of Angel Sharks in Tamale.

No spots, just grey with a huge head. We wound up at Paradise Cove later that day and the ranger said he spears there and sees the sevens all the time, we said “big head” and he just started nodding like crazy saying “yep, that’s a sevengill.”  I have no idea.

Biggest fish I've got out of Tomales was a 7 gill, 67", released, teeth like razor blades, (not like leopard teeth at all).

We’re you targeting them or just bycatch?  We lost a ton of rigs, needed wire for sure, but we were targeting halibut.  Not sure how leader-shy the buts are, it’d be awesome to get into sharks and halibut both.  How’d you land a 67” shark on the yak?  My buddy was the only one of us to get one near the surface - it was just following the bait up, he didn’t really get it in - but he figured it was 5’ easy and it scared the pants off him, felt like something tiny. He wasn’t sure how he’d have got it in even if he had the right gear...

That one was in a boat, and we were targeting sharks with wire leaders across from Marshall there are some holes but the sharks seem to be everywhere in the bay. we used like a 7/0 single hook with squid.  Biggest fish on the yak was my avatar fish 50+ inches.  Sturgeon are relatively easy, just make em run til they're done, tired and docile. Caught some leopards on the yak close to 4 ft, they have minimal teeth and are not bad to handle.  Sevengills have teeth like razors, be careful with them.  Tomales also has spiny dogfish but they seem to come and go, watch out they do have some serious spines which is a surprise because they look like any other shark, cool green eyes too. Add smooth hounds, bat rays, halibut, stripers, and the occasional WSB, along with lots of different bait fishes from anchovie, smelt, mackerel, staghorns, midshipmen, perches, etc and some times you can't put your rod down without losing it overboard, (ask me how I know). But with all that said I have been skunked there. I also had a workmate that spent alot of time sailing Tomales and he swears he's seen GWS inside the bay.

Tomales is just a cool place indeed, and there's more than I listed. I need to get up there again.