SCHNAPPER AND BLACK BREAM 141 



bright climate and clear, shallow water the appari- 

 tion of a rod jutting out over the water would have 

 frightened these sensitive fish. Whatever the 

 objection, rods were never seen, their only use 

 near Sydney being, as already mentioned, for 

 blackfish. On the Brisbane river, a couple of 

 months later, I found rods in much more general 

 favour, a preference which it pleased me, correctly 

 or otherwise, to regard as a possible legacy from 

 my esteemed friend " Redspinner," otherwise the 

 present editor of the Field, who resided for many 

 years in Brisbane, and whose letters of introduc- 

 tion were a veritable " Open Sesame " at the doors 

 of the hospitable Johnsonian Club and elsewhere 

 in the most homely of all colonial capitals. 



For black bream, however, rods were never used. 

 As a result, with no telltale float to guide the eye 

 to what was going on down below, the unpractised 

 hand lost most of the best fish. First, it struck 

 just that fraction of a second too late, which fisher- 

 men know so well as a fatal cause of failure. Then, 

 nettled by the nimble evasion of the bream, it 

 struck the same fraction of a second too soon, with 

 the same result as far as the fish was concerned, 

 only in this case the bait was saved for another 

 essay. These Australian bream bite far more 

 delicately than our sea-breams at home, or even 

 those of Madeira or the Mediterranean. It may 

 be that they have profited by the education 



