92 Big Game Fishes 
easy fish to take with the rod; quite the reverse 
in my experience, and I have frequently spent 
hours in attempts to beguile a barracuda. In 
fishing for large specimens I found the borders 
of the channels, where the coral had broken 
away, forming an opening into a lagoon, a favorite 
resort, and by sculling the boat along the edge, 
either with the rag out, or slowly manipulating 
the oar, a barracuda could almost always be 
“flushed.” Then a hook, baited with live fish, — 
shad' preferred, — was slowly dropped over. In 
many instances the fish would dart away, but 
if it so happened that it was hungry, it would 
poise, its tail vibrating, its hypnotic eyes glaring 
upon the victim, its muzzle slowly sinking and 
following as though to charm it; then it would 
move on, never rushing or darting, but in meas- 
ured movement, the personification of dignity, 
until its nose touched the bait, when it would 
snap it up so rapidly that the eye could not 
follow the motion. The bait was generally seized 
by the tail, and the great fish would rise very 
slowly, holding the struggling shad for a moment, 
1 This is not the shad of the North, but a small, very silvery 
fish known on the reef as “shad,” and in Porto Rico as Mojarra 
(Xystema). 
