Most tourists enjoy different types of fishing. Some go drop line fishing which requires patience lots of time and good luck. Others like to go trolling; this is done by towing a line with hook and bait and also requires patience, good luck and many times power to pull in a large barracuda, kingfish, wahoo, or sailfish. A third type is fly fishing which requires the art of spinning the rod and catching that prized bone fish or tarpon. The early skin divers of San Pedro also enjoyed spear fishing and developed the art of using a spear gun or the Hawaiian sling. This required dexterity in hitting the target with a sharp steel spear. Tourists today do not care much about spear fishing because it is not possible to practice “catch and release”.
Of course the real fisherman never practices “catch and release” like the tourist guides. His mode of living was “catch and cook”. But the favorite mode of fishing twenty five years ago permitted a fisherman to fish while he slept, which was with the fishing trap. The fishing trap was a wonderful invention that caught hundreds or thousands of fish at times overnight. It can catch snappers, shads, mullets, jacks, when it is their spawning time as well as barracudas, bone fish, Jewfish, groupers, sea turtles, small sharks, loggerhead turtles and lobster. Even crocodiles were accidentally trapped in fish traps and this was a nuisance because one had to fight to get them out. No wonder they were the fisherman’s favorite manner of fishing twenty five years ago. Here’s a diagram of one, just in case, using bush poles and chicken wire, which should really be called fish wire.
– by Angel Nuñez, Columnist
