Tomales crabbing 11/15

   Headed out to Tomales to see if any dungies were there and to give my buddy a bit of a tour around.. hes been there but not since he was a kid.    First drop we got all red crabs so we picked up and moved over to the other side of Hog, found a sandy bottom in about 38 feet and dropped the pots again.   One hour soak brought up an undersized dungy (1/8 inch undersize)   so we moved a bit and dropped again.     3 or 4 pb's were working traps as well in the area. 
   After another hr or so we paddled back to the pots.. outgoing tide had picked up fairly strong by then.    Mine were easy to find because I had some big waterski slalom bouys as floats but we could not find Gregs.   He had a smaller float and Im guessing that the current dragged it deep or the float got hammered by all the grass on the surface and just got dragged down.   Anyway.. I spent the next hr trying to find the rope with my FF..  I could see mine when I crossed it very clearly, but to no avail.    Its also possible that one of the pb's went over and cut his rope but my gut says the current walked it.   I put a piece of flagstone in the bottom of each as a weight but with a 5'6 tide the current was ripping along pretty good.
   Anyway.. we did find dungies but they were all same as the first one.. about 1 bloody eighth inch too small.   Talked to a couple of the pb's and they had 6 or 8 keepers by 11 or so.   Dungies are there in Tomales but I think I might try launching at lawsons if I go there again.   Even with the trap loss it was still a beautiful day on tomales..  no wind to speak of and we had a great time!

Bummer about the lost trap but it comes with the territory!!! I lost two last year!

Sorry to hear abour your friend's trap.  Thank you for the report and hope you'll have better luck next time.

Hey BillS, I also donated a few crab traps too.  We were doing pretty good until that current started ripping. That eel grass and the current sure sucks. I started crabbing during the slack tide so I didn't have that much line out. I was only able to get 1 out 3 traps back after spending about two hours dragging my anchor around . I did end up going home with 5 dungies and three red rocks.  Seeing how I've never gone crabbing before I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. Watch that current and don't skimp on your buoys!

Were you there yesterday?   Bunch of yaks were out but mostly tours and paddle classes that do tomales fairly often.    We were otw at about 8:30 so had a couple hrs of incoming before it turned around and started moving pretty fast around noonish.

I talked to a guy over at Outdoor pro shop who has run a few party boats and he said that last year the dungies were in tomales all winter.    Nice place to get them if the oceans a bit blown out..  I need to dial it in a bit more as to where the big bros of the ones I caught were.. lol

Launch at Lawsons and go to the other side of the sand bar. Fish 1.5 hours before high and 1 hour past. Big floats so they dont cork on you. Stay away from the other side as nothingh but rock crabs over there. Forget Hog its too far in for large dungeness.

We were out on Saturday. Launched out of Lawson's and worked the area 400-500 yards from the pier.  There were lots of undersize crabs in the mix though.