About fishing

     There is little to say about this since we didn’t catch anything. The line trailed behind the boat day after day. Correction, we caught a piece of seaweed, but it didn’t look edible so I threw it back. I love to reel fish in, don’t like killing them, can stomach cleaning them and would rather have a carne asada taco. It was probably a good thing nothing bit the hook. Yesterday I heard a familiar cry. An osprey swooped into the marina and deftly plucked a fish out of the water. It looked so easy. The bird took a victory lap then flew away screeching. I think it said “Right on, right ON, RIGHT ON” in bird of prey. Osprey’s have habituated to people in Baja. They sit patiently on the tops of the tallest masts taking a bead on fish lolling near the surface. There are various devices available to dissuade them from their perches, most of them expensive and often as effective as an umbrella in a sandstorm. Check out the useless bristles behind this comfortably perched osprey.

There are alternative solutions though. This low tech device cost a fraction of the official models.

Pelicans claim unattended boats by painting them white with horribly foul smelling excrement. Once they take over it’s time to abandon ship, a flame thrower is the only solution for cleaning a boat drenched in guano. Luckily they are too clumsy to land on the tops of masts.

Herons seem to prefer outboards and bimini covers.

Cormorants choose the spreaders in the evening, but paint the rocks at the harbor entrance white during the day. 

This is fishing done well, by a creature that thumbs its beak at anti bird devices, shrieking loudly, just like I would if I ever caught a fish.

And after envying the birds for a week, two boys showed up on the dock next to the boat and reeled in fish after fish. Their excitement was contagious. Every time they caught a new fish they called me over for a photo, we’re going to be friends on Facebook and I got some advice about lures from them. The boy in the background is reeling in a barracuda.

And this is the new definition of trash fish.