By Adam B.

In The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, Santiago made many choices that impacted how he caught the fish and how the story progressed. One of the very important choices that kind of goes unnoticed in the story is when Santiago decides to bring along a lot of extra line.

The thought of bringing extra line has come across the minds of many fishermen but it comes natural to experienced fishermen like Santiago. He wasn’t even of thinking about the line when he was loading everything in his skiff. “He let the line slip through his fingers while he reached down with his left hand and made fast to the free end of the reserve coils to the loop of the two reserve coils of the next line. Now he was ready. He had three forty-fathoms coils of line in reserve now” (44). This quote is explaining how Santiago is adding the reserve coils of line to the line he already has. It even says, “Now he was ready.” Without the line he would not have been able to let the fish pull him and without a lot of line the line would of ended up snapping.

The value of the prize is worth more than the cost of the equipment and material items. “I will work back to the forty fathom bait and cut it away too and link up the reserve coils. I will have lost two hundred fathoms of good Catalan cardel and hooks and leaders. That can be replaced” (50). Santiago puts every single reserve lines on to the line with the big fish. He does not care if he looses all of his hooks and weights. He just doesn’t want anything to get in the way of catching the fish. He is really willing to throw all of his fishing gear away to catch the big fish. He says the things can be replaced but this fish can not be. It is either now or never.

Fishing line is the whole key to fishing. “Then he felt the gentle touch of the line and he was happy” (41). The line is what you really need. You don’t need a pole or weights or even bait just the line and the hook and you will be all set. As Santiago did, without using a pole, it can be done without all the fancy fishing equipment that people use today to go sea fishing.

The fishing line and hooks are the key to fishing, the bait also helps. It was a critical choice that Santiago made. The choice to bring multiple spare lines out in the skiff was a very good choice. Without the spare lines Santiago would not of been able to let the big fish swim until he got tired. Without that the line would of snapped and Santiago would not of been able to catch the big fish. In fishing the line weighs more than any amount of weights that you could put together.