CHAP. xiii. Special Rod for Fishing in Waves. 197 



then it was both too unsensitive to show the shy bite even if you got 

 one, and it prevented your getting one by lifting the bait off the ground 

 at every wave, and keeping it in constant unnatural movement, for, the 

 water being 30 feet deep and still, all should have been motionless at 

 the bottom. For meeting this difficulty the natives had, I noticed, 

 a very ingenious plan. They fished with two rods with one bait. One 

 rod, holding the reel and running line, was laid aside in preparedness 

 to play the fish when hooked. This rod was really only a short 6 inch 

 butt. Therein I thought they were at a discount in playing, and that 

 one of our rods could as easily have been used. The other rod was 

 a very special one. It was 4 feet long, made of the finest branch of 

 bamboo they could get. They said they cut twenty such branches 

 before they got one to suit them, and when they did, you could see 

 how they prized it by the way they painted and decorated it. But 

 the finest of the fine branches suffices not, and they whip on to the 

 point 6 inches more of the silicious part of a big bamboo, fined down 

 as fine as they could cut it. To the top end of this light rod they tied 

 the tangoos line coming from the bait, and to the bottom end they 

 tied the running line coming from the short butt. You will observe 

 that there was no light running line between the light rod and the bait, 

 because it would have lessened the sensitiveness. There was only 

 tangoos, their equivalent to our gut. Then having baited, and using 

 no float, they flung out the bait so far that it carried the little rod out 

 also. Then waiting till the bait had reached the bottom, which was 

 there some 33 feet, they drew in the running line till they recovered 

 the little rod, and thus secured a taut tangoos between the little rod 

 and the bait. You might gain the same end by having a very light 

 ring at the tip and letting the line run through till you had got the 

 right length, and then stopping it with the hand. When a bite came 

 you could see every movement of it indicated by the sensitive top of 

 the little rod, which was in effect their float. You could feel it also 

 coming down the exquisitely light rod, but they went by sight. With 

 this rod they struck hard with the whole arm. There was no fear of 

 a break, as it yielded so easily, and a hard strike was in consequence 

 necessary. If the fish was small they played it with this light rod. If 

 it was large they flung' in the light rod, and took up the butt, and 

 playejj the fish from that, the light rod then becoming only a part 

 of the running line, and disappearing under water during the play. 



