AUSTRALIAN FISHES 103 



My first experience with these submarine men- 

 of-war, was in Bass Straits. In the last chapter I 

 said that neither the captain nor I scored a single 

 piscatorial point until we neared the Australian 

 coast, when we captured barracouta. This is how 

 we managed to get them ; but I must first explain 

 that the barracouta is related to the sea-pike, and 

 ruthlessly pursues any fish it can grapple with. It 

 runs to a good size and its strength is tremendous. 



We had been told by a passenger returning to 

 his home in New Zealand, that barracouta were 

 generally caught with a " Maori-jig," i.e., with a 

 piece of red wood as bait, and a large bent nail as 

 a hook. But some one, a second-class passenger 

 (Heaven bless him !) had brought from London a 

 genuine old-fashioned pike-lure, consisting of the 

 tip of a rufus -coloured calf's tail, from which the 

 bone had been removed, a champagne cork form- 

 ing a rough imitation of a fish's head, boot-buttons 

 doing duty as eyes, while a morsel of leather boot- 

 lace improvised a tail, the whole cunningly hiding 

 two formidable hooks with swivel and strong wire 

 trace. It was just the very thing! So we dis- 

 carded our spoon-baits, and our strips of red and 

 white rag, and promptly purchased the calf's 

 tail. 



We got a couple of new log-lines, half an inch 



