FISHES PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 



to prosecute fishing in Southern Australian waters by means of the drift net, which 

 is so extensively used in the fishery for Mackerel and other surface species in the 

 British seas. 



The most approved method of capturing the Barracouta on the Tasmanian 

 Coast is by means of the " Maorie jig," so-called since it is supposed to have been 

 first employed by the natives of New Zealand. This fishing apparatus consists simply 

 of a strong pointed but unbar bed hook, fastened to a small block of wood, preferably 

 cedar. This again is attached by a strong line, a yard or two long only, to a 

 stout staff. A bait, consisting of a piece of coloured cloth or of shark's-skin, is 

 sometimes added, but is not necessary. With this very simple equipment, and the 

 boat at full sail, the fish, when abundant, are hauled in as fast as the fishermen 

 can throw over and recover their baited or unbaited hooks. The deck at such 

 times speedily becomes one struggling mass of snapping, slippery monsters, and the 

 fun and excitement, as the writer can testify, is most exhilarating for those partial 

 to this class of sport. Off the Victorian Coast-line, and more especially in the 

 neighbourhood of Warnambool, the Barracouta is more commonly captured from 

 sailing boats with a long hand line and a glittering metal lure and hook trailed astern, 

 much after the method practised in England for the capture of Mackerel, known as 

 "whiffling" or "railing." 



From a utilitarian point of view, the Barracouta is undoubtedly one of the, 

 if not the, most important of the Tasmanian food fishes. While the Eeal or Hobart 

 Trumpeter may be said to typify the species fitted, like the Turbot, to grace the table 

 of the wealthy, the Barracouta may be as essentially styled the " poor man's fish." It 

 takes in Tasmania the place that is occupied by the modest Herring or the Haddock 

 in the English market. The fact, indeed, that a six or eight pound Barracouta of the 

 best quality can at most times be bought for sixpence, or at less than half that price 

 if any number are taken, places this fish at the command of the very poorest. 

 Notwithstanding its cheapness, the Barracouta as a food fish is by no means to be 

 despised. Carefully smoked, after the manner of the familiar Findon Haddock, it 

 constitutes a no less toothsome adjunct to the breakfast table. Barracouta pie, again, 

 the invention of a Tasmanian culinary genius, is a savoury dish that would tickle the 

 palate of the most fastidious. 



There is a second species of fish closely resembling the Barracouta, and 

 belonging to the same genus, which, while somewhat uncertain in its appearance, 

 occasionally visits the Tasmanian coast in vast shoals. This is the so-called Tasmanian 



