THE M A R L I N OR SPEARFISH 



five feet of line to a fifteen-foot bamboo pole. 

 No hook is used. This flying-fish skitters 

 along on top of the water and acts as chum. 

 My bait was fifty feet further astern. 



I soon had a strike and hooked a marlin. 

 He jumped half out of water and tried to 

 shake the hook loose but I had driven it well 

 home. He then performed a stunt that was 

 beyond all my fishing experience. We were 

 following the fish at full speed at the time 

 and the reel brake was on, but this strong 

 and lively fish jumped twenty-two times in 

 a straight line tearing the line off the bend- 

 ing rod as he went. He then sounded and 

 jumped again, fought on top of the water, 

 swam in circles, and performed every kind 

 of piscatorial acrobatics known. He jumped 

 twenty-nine times and in forty-five minutes 

 I had him alongside stone dead. My first 

 marlin! I was warm with excitement and 

 pleasure, for my journey of thirty-five hun- 

 dred miles had now been well worth while. 

 "Shorty" shook me by the hand and sug- 

 [83] 



