SEA FISHING IN THE BOCAS ISLANDS 19 
sometimes fish with it I prefer the hand line, particularly 
for trolling, and I put that down to the fact that, having 
trolled almost every day for the past three years, my fingers 
have got so much attuned or so much in touch with the line, 
that I can tell by the feel what fish I have hooked a few 
seconds after he has been struck, and the game fish have 
nearly all separate and characteristic movements, and as I 
fish with comparatively light tackle this necessitates skill. 
I know that the rod angler affects to look with contempt on 
the hand-liner—says there is no skill required, merely a pully- 
hauly affair, etc., but I have as an authority John Bicker- 
dyke, the famous English angling expert, who says, “ playing 
a fish is a matter of hands, and really expert hand-liners are 
able to play a fish hooked on fine tackle, skilfully and care- 
fully with their hands, just as the fresh-water angler can by 
means of a rod.” It must be also recognized, that whereas 
the rod-angler is generally well pleased with a bag of fish 
running from 4 lb. to 5 lbs., the hand-liner in these waters 
requires from 1o lbs. to 30 lbs. to arouse enthusiasm. Cha- 
cun & son godt. For bottom-fishing in shallow banks, the 
use of the rod and reel will be found advantageous, but 
where the currents are strong and the banks thirty to fifty 
fathoms deep, the hand-line is preferable, as it will be found 
very tedious, in fact almost impossible, to reel up a big fish 
from these depths. Hooking and bringing up a large grouper 
would be something like performing the operation with a 
grand piano. The tarpon, king-fish, cavalli, barracouta, 
bonita, and mackerel, are generally fished for with trolling 
lines, much the same process as “ whiffling’’ in England, only 
instead of using gut, gimp, snooding, and leads, the hook is 
gauged on to about 60 feet of flexible brass wire, and this is 
fastened on to a line which is balled up and placed at the 
fisherman’s feet (who sits in the stern of the boat). A small 
sardine or sprat is fixed on the hook, and as the rower propels 
the boat at top speed, the fisherman lets out the whole of the 
wire (taking care that it does not kink), and from 15 ft. to 
25 ft. of the line. Having paid out this 80 ft. of line he keeps 
it moving swiftly with his arm and awaits eventualities. 
Trolling with rod and line can be done advantageously, 
