Dorado and Boobies (Saturday 8/1/09 )

Fishing was a grand experience! On route from Santa Rosalia to San Francisquito (which we did in one long hop beginning at 2am and arriving at 6pm). Jim and Tim each caught a nice dorado a piece. Prior to that, however, they caught two brown boobies. I'm not referring to a Mexican mermaid... I'm speaking of a super stupid bird called a Booby that I'm sure is related to the now extinct DoDo. They began diving on our lures repeatedly missing them mostly by miles! Then it happened... one bright Booby became entangled in our line and as Tim reeled him in he freed himself... only to begin dive bombing the lures again. Brilliant... these birds. We attempted to scream ugly bird calls at them, but they were not dissuaded. The fog horn didn't deter them either. Finally, Tim got his slingshot and hit a few of them... to no avail. The second Booby we caught was hooked in his gullet. I jumped down to the swim step and pulled him aboard. As I tried freeing the little booby, he bit me! Then, he got his wing in the hook. With great difficulty, Jim freed the boob. Instead of flying away, the booby sat comfortably on my lap for a few minutes before I lifted him up and threw him back into the air. He took flight and I'm sure he was one of the same boobs that began dive bombing us 30 minutes later. I doubt they're on the endangered species list because they're so many, but if they ever do make the list it will be no surprise to me!