In Life of Pi, when he is stranded on the boat, Pi tries various tactics to kill the flying fish that enter the boat so that he can use them as food or bait. When the school of flying fish jumps madly into the boat, Pi tries several different approaches, to no avail, before finally killing his first fish. Upon being hit by the first fish, he grabs it and tries to throw it into Richard Parker’s mouth in an attempt to placate the animal, but he misses, and the fish survives.
After the boat is inundated with fish, Pi attempts to capture them with the blanket he has on board. He has some success but is still unable to kill them—he has been a vegetarian all his life, and this act is hard for him. First, he attempts to hit the fish with the hatchet to chop their heads off, unsuccessfully. Then he tries to use the blunt end of the hatchet to pummel them to death, but he loses his courage. Finally, he simply resorts to holding the fish with the blanket and snapping their necks.
The first flying fish "caught" by Pi isn't really intentional. Pi is worried that Richard Parker is staring at him, and he has no way to redirect Richard Parker's attention. As Pi is taking in the situation, a flying fish jumps across the boat and smacks Pi in the face. Pi actually thinks that Richard Parker has hit him in the face, but then he realizes that it was a fish. Pi believes that he can use this fish to somewhat tame Richard Parker, and he tosses the fish toward the tiger. This is probably the first way that he tries to kill the fish: let Richard Parker kill it. Unfortunately, the flying fish avoids Richard Parker's open mouth. Suddenly, Pi and Richard Parker find themselves in the midst of a flying fish school. Fish are jumping and flying all around and over the boat. Pi is being pelted by fish after fish, and he grabs a blanket to protect himself and catch some as well:
Every fish that hit me was like an arrow entering my flesh. I clutched at a blanket to protect myself while also trying to catch some of the fish. I received cuts and bruises all over my body.
Pi winds up with many fish in the boat. He realizes that he has to kill them in order to eat them or use them as bait. He selects one fish and first tries to hit it with the hatchet, but he can't bring himself to do it. Then he covers the fish in the blanket and turns the hatchet around, planning to beat it to death. Pi can't bring himself to do this either. Then he wraps the fish in a blanket in order to break its neck.
Pi tries to use a piece of his leather shoe for bait (along with fishing tackle provided to him in the lifeboat), a sign of his dwindling supplies and growing desperation. I believe this may be the first way he tries to kill the fish, though due to the wording of this question I am not quite sure.
When he is hit with a school of flying fish in his lifeboat, he tries to direct them toward Richard Parker, which could be another way he tries to kill them (this method is specific to flying fish, not just fish in general).
Also, Pi ends up catching a flying fish and killing it by wrapping it in a blanket and snapping its neck with a hatchet. This is an incredibly difficult thing for Pi to do, as a lifelong vegetarian, but it allows him to catch an even bigger fish, which he uses to feed and tame Richard Parker.
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