Tomales 8/28

Paddled against the tide up to Lawson's and made a series of drifts back towards Miller. Todays strong incoming tide was a beast to paddle against and the drift was pretty quick. Had a couple of munched baits and one brief hookup with a hali for me, but nothing made it to the kayak. Four trips and no butts for me at Tomales this year ... gotta figure out what I'm doing wrong. I saw a very large striper caught (close to 40") and most power boats had half to near limits. Didn't see many kayakers out there today.

Eventually though, even the blind squirrel finds a nut. Drifting in 25 fow north of the island, the rod in my hand gets slammed. I set the hook hard and the rod doesn't budge, almost like a snag. And then the initial run starts and I know that it's definitely not a halibut. Eventually the extended runs cease and this gives way to a cyclical give and take - it takes ten feet, I get ten feet back. Finally I see color and it's all silver - no stripes. My adrenaline goes into overdrive when I see that it's a WSB. Navigate around the other rod that's still in the rod holder, get the net ready, fish comes to the surface ... and it's in the net ! Flop it up onto the hawg trough .. wah wah ... measured 27.5". After a quick couple of photos, back he went. The DFW data collector back at Miller said that he would have squished it to get the extra half inch. I'm only half sure that he was joking.  Sorry about the terrible photos - I'm going to blame it on a foggy cellphone cover but I'm pretty sure the adrenaline was the culprit. I don't remember ever being so excited about a sub legal fish. If nothing else, the Tomales skunk is off !

Big thanks to John, Adam, and Eddie for sharing their tips on Tomales 

So close yet great experience...glad you got some...Tomales is gold when you figure it out and as you're figuring it out...

WSB are 28 inches OR.... 20 inches alternative length.  This is basically from the front of the dorsal fin to the tip of the tail.  Could have possibly been a keeper WSB.

Dang that's the stuff that keeps you coming back!

Hey just a heads up, there is an alternate way of measuring White Sea bass, it only has to be 20 1/2”. From the front dorsal fin to tail

Thanks for the wishful thinking on the alternate measurement everybody. It measured a hair under 19" that way. So close ...

Awesome!! Glad you got the tomales skunk off your back!

That's awesome!! Too bad it's a short but catching the ghost is something to be proud of! He will be legal for you to catch next year. It sounds like there have been a lot caught there this year which is a good thing and hopefully that means their population in tomales will go up every year!

damn...so close! Still a very impressive catch! Big Congrats!

Glad you got to have some excitement out there and a fish in the boat (temporarily). I'll be trying my luck out there on Saturday.

Glad you got to have some excitement out there and a fish in the boat (temporarily). I'll be trying my luck out there on Saturday.

Saw steady action for powerboats north of Hog between the green channel markers. Good luck ! Cant wait to hear your report.