Pi wakes feeling unexpectedly strong and decides he must learn to fish, even though he has never done it before. After reading the survival manual, Pi improvises bait by cutting up his remaining leather shoe, then carefully rigs a line from the fishing kit. The fish steal the shoe piece by piece, and Pi’s final, frustrated attempt with the sole costs him an entire tackle.

Later, a turtle comes close enough to grab, but Pi recoils at the thought of handling it. Pi’s inner voice scolds him about the real stakes: Richard Parker cannot live long on rotting carcasses, and hunger and thirst could push the tiger to attack Pi. Pi spends the day anxious, stuck in a vicious circle—no bait without fish, no fish without bait—while Richard Parker remains mostly calm but makes unsettling noises.

In the late afternoon, desperation drives Pi to climb onto the lifeboat and search the locker for an idea, tying the raft close as a possible escape. Pi suddenly thinks Richard Parker has attacked when Pi is struck across the face, but the culprit is a flopping flying fish that has landed in the locker. Pi throws it toward Richard Parker, but it escapes back into the sea, leaving the tiger focused on Pi and demanding more.

Immediately, a school of flying fish swarms the lifeboat, driven by dorados and sharks below. Pi is battered and bruised while trying to protect himself and catch fish, while Richard Parker efficiently swipes and eats many of them live. Afterward, Pi secures several flying fish and retreats to the raft with a hatchet, determined to turn the windfall into bait.

Pi struggles emotionally to kill the first flying fish, crying as he finally breaks its neck and mourns it as the first sentient being he has ever killed. Once he has chopped it for bait, Pi tries fishing again and adjusts his method to avoid the tiny fish near the raft. Using the flying fish’s head as bait, Pi hooks a powerful dorado, fights it aboard, and kills it with the hatchet’s hammerhead, watching its famous iridescent colours flash as it dies.

With hunter’s pride, Pi brings the dorado to the lifeboat and drops it to Richard Parker, then blows the whistle to reinforce their training dynamic. Pi gathers more provisions, cleans up, and prepares the remaining flying fish. Though exhausted, Pi feels newly energized by purposeful work and resolves to fish again at first light.