He shipped his oars and brought a small line from under the bow.
It had a wire leader and a medium-sized hook and he baited it with one of the sardines.
He let it go over the side and then made it fast to a ring bolt in the stern.
Then he baited another line and left it coiled in the shade of the bow.
He went back to rowing and to watching the long-winged black bird who was working, now, low over the water.
As he watched the bird dipped again slanting his wings for the dive and then swinging them wildly and ineffectually as he followed the flying fish.
The old man could see the slight bulge in the water that the big dolphin raised as they followed the escaping fish.
The dolphin were cutting through the water below the flight of the fish and would be in the water, driving at speed, when the fish dropped.
It is a big school of dolphin, he thought.
They are wide spread and the flying fish have little chance.