FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 UNITED STATES. The fishing in Florida and California has already 

 been referred to (p. 303, 329), but there is good sea fishing all down 

 the east side. In Mexico, too, Mr Conn tells me that the fishing is far 

 superior to anything in California, as the fish have no knowledge of fisher- 

 men and their tricks. 



V. AUSTRALASIA 



Something has been said above of the snapper fishing, black bream 

 and other sport in New South Wales. 



QUEENSLAND. It is not, perhaps, generally known that tarpon occur 

 all along the north coast of Queensland and round New Guinea, but such 

 is the case. Pretty sport may be had with the sand-whiting on the open 

 beaches near Brisbane, fishing with a light casting rod and small hooks 

 baited with peeled shrimp. The method of fishing is to wade in shallow 

 water and cast just behind the waves, but brogues should be worn as 

 protection against stingrays and flatheads. 



NEW ZEALAND. The snapper is, as in Australia, a favourite fish with 

 the handliner, but an even finer fish is the hapuka, or groper, which grows 

 to a hundred pounds, and is caught from boats anchored in deep water, 

 the bait being a small live fish or piece of crayfish lashed to the hook. 

 Another good fish in New Zealand waters is the carwai, which takes a 

 spinning bait, and it is interesting to know that one of the big trout, so 

 successfully introduced from Europe, has, before now, been taken when 

 fishing for carwai two or three miles from the land. It seems that, with 

 few exceptions, all these trout go down to the sea, like salmon and sea 

 trout, and the failure of salmon in New Zealand rivers has, in fact, been 

 explained on the somewhat fantastic theory that they have gone astray 

 at sea in a vain endeavour to regain their native rivers in the northern 

 hemisphere! 



406 



