Here the engines are cut to a murmur. The leaders are clipped to lines, the outriggers swung out. The baits first skip in the water and then settle down in varying lengths from the stern. The reels are checked. Fish of the open sea are accustomed to taking prey that is moving fast itself.
Strikes can be spectacular.
Part of the magic of deep sea fishing is that it is carried out on the edge of the unimaginable. Not so in The Stream. A foot behind the bait, parting the water just twenty yards astern, may be the maw of a 700 lb. The beginning of a battle to last eight hours or more may be two seconds away at any moment the lines are in the water. There is an unusual delight and remembrance of those sports whose imagery relates closely to home.