Word: banana
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Martin R. Miller's letter (TIME, July 10) concerning the technique of trapping banana fish, reminds me of the fun I used to have as a child, going out with my Uncle Josh to catch whifflepoofs. This, too, requires a great deal of piscatory skill...
This is the way it is done. A banana is submerged half its length, vertically, by hand, from either beach or boat in any tropical waters...
...bright yellow of the banana and the almost metaphysical taste or smell it imparts to the water in its vicinity lures the banana fish, which strikes with lightning rapidity. As the fish flashes at the submerged half of the banana, the fisherman instantly pulls the fruit from the water. Now comes the time when the sportsman must outsmart this denizen...
...momentum of the fish hurtles it out of the water through the hole left by the banana. Quick as a note coming due, the fisherman plunges the banana back into the hole through which the fish has come, cutting off the only possible opening through which it could return to its native habitat...
...friend told me the trapping of banana fish on the surface of the water in this fashion is one of the most highly regarded skills in the South Seas...