246 SEA-FISH. 
The fisher expert with black bream takes his place with 
our roachers, and there is certainly no other form of sea- 
fishing with which I am acquainted, if this inland sport 
can strictly be called sea-fishing, that involves such 
delicate handling of the finest of tackle and such careful 
manipulation of complicated ground-baits. The latter, 
known as “berley,” is no unimportant factor in a day’s 
sport with these fish, and among its ingredients are bran, 
cheese and tinned salmon, the last-named usually con- 
demned. The line and single hook-snood are of the 
finest, and some care is taken to moor the boat fore and 
aft in the right spot with as little disturbance as possible. 
The best sport is, as with so many other fish, usually 
obtained at daybreak and sunset, and the summer months 
(September to March) are the right season. 
Of rock-fishing I need say little, as it does not differ 
materially from the same kind of sport on our own 
coast. The enthusiast in those parts is certainly not 
deterred by any amount of dangerous climbing, 
and some of the favourite grounds round by the 
North Head, outside Sydney harbour, are only 
to be reached by clambering down escarpments that 
might well frighten an ibex. 
The principal fish sought by these rock-sportsmen is 
the groper, or grouper, an enormous wrasse that grows to 
a weight of, I believe, sixty or eighty pounds, though the 
largest taken quite near Sydney would probably not 
reach half that weight. In addition to this, the ostensible 
object of their sport, they sometimes get schnapper 
of good weight, traglin and flatheads, while leather- 
jackets and small sharks furnish the “vermin” of the 
venture. 
The chief bait of this rock-fishing is, as indeed all the 
world over, green crab, and it is thrown out on an 
unleaded hand-line, the fish when hooked being given 
little law, but hauled as quickly as possible to the ledge 
where sits their captor. 
The other branches of sea-fishing practised in Australia 
are of secondary importance. There is the fishing 
for their so-called “whiting” in the shallows of 
the Brisbane and other rivers, the angler wading 
cut to meet the rising tide and using a lightrod. There 
Rock- 
fishing 
“Whit- 
ing » 
