Porpoises off the Coronado Islands in Mexico

We left at 7:00 AM and decided we would find our own fishing with no help from anyone else. We headed straight towards mexican waters  – to the Coronado Islands. These Islands are about 15-20 miles south west of San Diego in Mexican waters. The Islands are surrounded by water about 100 feet deep which rapidly becomes 300 plus. We traveled west of the islands and found ourselves in 2000, 3000, 4000 an deeper water.

The first thing we found were tons of porpoises. They were smaller than the usual ‘flipper’ gray one’s I am used to seeing. These were small, grey and had white stripes on the side. They were every where and I had heard that where there are porpoises there are Tuna, so we started fishing! Fortunately porpoises are too smart to grab lures or even live bait on a hook. But we had zero bites.

In with the porpoises were these strange birds that popped up out of the water like fish but then immediately flew away. They were swimming under water like fish. Several actually bit Don’s lure and he had at least 2 on for a few seconds. Fortunately they let go.

Later we saw a whales spout on the horizon, so we decided to investigate. We came upon a big whale, perhaps 50 feet long. We kept our distance.

Agressive whale was attacking the boat

Next we knew, the Whale decided we looked interesting. It surfaced about 40 feet behind the boat and was headed toward us. We motored up, but Shamu, the retarded whale just kept coming. We moved further away and then slowed again, but there was the whale again, right behind us.

viciously agressive whale about to attack boat

Goddam whale! Probably wanted to kill us! Fortunately we escaped with our lives.

Later we tried fishing around North Coronado Island, but there were too many sea lions. As soon as we threw a delicious anchovy over the side they would deftly remove it from the hook and eat it. So much for fishing here!

Our final run-in of the day occurred when a lone speed boat came flying directly over to us. It was a Mexican gunboat – law enforcment of some kind. They asked us what we were doing. “Fishing Sir”. Do you have a license? “Yes Sir”. I proceeded to read my license number to the kind english speaking gentleman. Satisfied that we had procured our licenses before entering his sacred mexican waters, he departed. We found out later that if you didn’t have a Mexican fishing license and they caught you … they might well take your boat if they want! I was really tempted to say “License? We don’t need no stinkin’ license!”

It’s Monday and yesterday I picked up my friend Don Green from the airport and with boat in tow we proceeded to drive 10 hours straight from Half Moon Bay to San Diego. Our goal is to catch Tuna off the coast of San Diego.

We are staying on Shelter Island which is in Point Loma at Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn which is on the water and has a marina. It is conveniently located near the mouth of San Diego Harbor. I contacted Brad the manager of the marina and he set us up with a slip for the boat. When we arrived we checked in to the hotel and put the boat in the water using the ramp conveniently located across the street. We then went to a local tackle shop called Angler’s Choice which has great stuff for catching Tuna.

After spending huge amounts of cash we proceeded to sleep since we had none the night before. We were tired!

So I was recently shopping for a gps chartplotter for a boat. I researched it and compared pricing using the usual – google. I mean, all I ever use is google. For the most part, microsoft can kiss my as if they think I will even look at any of they’re garbage .. I fucking love google.

So anyway I am comparing prices on the garmin gpsmap 4212 & 4210. I figure the 4210 is the way to go because it is about $1800.00. The 4212 is around $$2200. I figure a 12 inch screen isn’t worth $400 more than a 10 inch, I’m cheap. So I am just about ready to purchase the 4210 … and the thought goes through my head, maybe I should try that bing shit.

So I try bing.com. I get similar results except they have this silly ‘cashback’ crap next to the top results. I figure that’s a bunch of shit, microsoft is resorting to marketing tricks to try and sell stuff. What a bunch of assholes. Steve Ballmer looks like Uncle Fester. Of course, being the sucker that I am – I look closer.

It appears it is not a trick. What they do is give you some percentage back based on the store. In my case, the garmin gpsmap was $2249.98 from eangler.com (about $50 more than the cheapo sites) but bing is giving me back 20% – $450! They seem to be doing some double reward bullshit during the month of august. So the price after this magical ‘cashback’ from bing will actually be  about $1800. And there is no tax and no shipping from the site.

Are you kidding me? That is less than the lowest price I could find on google for the garmin 4210. So I got the 4212 worth $400 more for the same price as the lower end 4210.

I have a feeling that this reward trickery is just an attempt by microsoft to drum up business for bing. Well it works for me! I bought some other shit this way too and saved another $54. If you are purchasing stuff on the internet, it may be worth your while to check out bing.com.