SEA FISHING IM THE BOCAS ISLANDS 19 



sometimes fish with it I prefer the hand hne, 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 puUy- 

 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 ^ lb. to 5 lbs., the hand-liner in these waters 

 requires from 10 lbs. to 30 lbs. to arouse enthusiasm. Cha- 

 ciin a son gozit. 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, 



