The guy was a professional fisherman... but didn't know how to fish? I get the point of the story and what the author was trying to do. It just seems silly to have such a huge flaw in the plot. It's like Lord of the Rings - the eagles could have flown the ring over to Mordor. I just can't enjoy books (or films for that matter) which require a suspension of, I dunno, basic reasoning.
How many could face the Eye of Sauron and be themselves still..
Aragorn? Some of the council maybe. Great Eagle, quite likely not.
They come to save ringbearer once Sauron is overthrown. If they tried to do it when he was bending his whole being on finding the ring and possessing it they would fail and deliver it straight to him.
It's discussed that the eagles would not mingle in those affairs during the crisis, being unable to help in the most difficult times. I know it's hard to accept this and move on, but otherwise the movie would have like 2 or 3 pages, right
On a tangible level, the old man had been at sea for days fighting this thing. He had nothing left to be able to pull these ragged bits of fish in to possibly sell on the market.
And as he got closer to shore, perhaps he realized it didn't matter.
