AUSTRALIA 



maintain it is better not to have ferrules or joints. Australians 

 feel that ferrules are treacherous and generally eschew them. 

 Incidentally Southam has built some of the finest surfcasting 

 rods I have ever used. I brought one back from Sydney, New 

 South Wales, via New Caledonia, Fiji, Canton, Honolulu, 

 San Francisco and New York, to Montauk, where I have 

 used it a great deal. At each point it was heartily praised and 

 admired for its large guides and beautiful action. 



The Australian beach worm is quite remarkable as a bait. 

 It is found in the white sand along the water's edge, is quite 

 long and is fine for bream, whiting and jewfish. These worms 

 are captured as they emerge from the sand, lured forth by 

 chunks of meat placed near their holes. In general, Austrahans 

 believe they take more fish by bait fishing than by squidding. 



We have often heard that the Australian surfman prefers 

 a flooding tide with the last hour in and the first hour out as 

 his favorite and that the time of day from four o'clock on to 

 dusk is considered tops. Southam, however, says that no two 

 fishermen agree on the best times for fishing, although I have 

 noticed that Australians have more patience when it comes 

 to keeping a line in the water and ruminating on their fishing 

 experiences than almost any other group of fishermen I have 

 ever encountered. Like the rest of us, Australians consider 

 channels and holes the best beach prospects although these 

 usually require considerable casting ability. A good caster 

 fishes the banks and the "fretting" sides of holes and channels, 

 as they call it, at anything up to three hundred feet. He feels 

 that good squidders often try to fish water above the three- 

 hundred-foot mark from the beach whereas from one hun- 

 dred to three hundred would be normal for their reefs. Some 



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