Big Fish, Blue Water

When that great old-time

game-fisherman Athel

D’Ombrain was persuaded to write a book on Australian game-fishing, he did so with tongue in cheek, mainly because he had come by his knowledge the hard way, and a lot of it not according to Hoyle; but his book Game Fishing off the Australian Coast, which came off the presses about 14 years ago was an authoritative volume which filled a big gap in this field.

Among the acknowledgements to those who gave him assistance in his project, he wrote the following: “To Peter Goadby for the enthusiasm and untiring personal effort he put into compiling the Queensland section and the notes on Queensland fish. His belief in the future of the State and his intense love of sport fishing acted as a stimulus in the writing of this book.”

Peter Goadby, as I recall, did a remarkably swept-up job in writing about Queensland fishing, something which required a lot of personal knowledge and experience, but the thing which sticks in my memory was his forecast for the future of fishing in that State.

“Cairns is the best northern base in Australia from which game fishing

can be carried out,” he wrote. Then, with almost the abandon of a vision ary, continued, “and in years to come the waters north of Cairns will pro duce the best fishing to be had any where in Australian seas. There is im mense, almost untouched, potential of game fish from here to New Guinea.

In these seas, which only mackerel fishermen and one exploratory game fishing expedition have worked, out standing results have already been achieved, and it is only a matter of time before the area is thoroughly explored by experienced game fish anglers”.

In the ensuing years, Cairns has indeed become a game-fishing centre of world renown, and the tremendous blacks which have fallen to anglers fishing from the boats of such well known skippers as George Bransford and Allan Collis bear testimony to the soundness of Peter Goadby’s predic tions, a soundness that is echoed throughout his new book on game fishing. BIG FISH AND BLUE WATER. This is a tome which will enthrall anyone interested in sport fishing—young, old, novice or pioneer.

To begin with, the book is a good looker. Its modern 8 x 10 in. format gives tremendous scope to the 12 colour plates and some 250 black and white photos which appear within.

But what perhaps makes it unique is the fact that it’s not only about

Continued p. 83

Australia, but the Pacific generally, including New Zealand, Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, New Caledonia, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Marshalls and Marianas, and Papua-New Guinea.

Take a look at a map of the Paci fic and the island groups represented, and try and estimate how many hun dreds of thousands of square miles are covered in this volume. No small task, yet each area receives meticulous attention. (Even the inside front and back covers provide a lesson in big game angling. They depict marlin broaching after having taken a bait, and show one of the hazards in this sport how a leader or trace can become wrapped around a fish, some thing which in many instances can result in a break-off.) After a brief resume of the Pacific area generally and of some of the exploits, fish, and pioneer anglers of this area, he follows individual ang ling histories of Australia, NZ, Hawaii, Tahiti and Fiji, together with a number of other island groups.

Along with the text goes some fabu lous photographs.

Peter also, of course, offers ad vice on many aspects of fishing, and the ensuing chapters are some of the most interesting in the book. How to find fish, trolling practice, rigging baits, lures, drift fishing, charter-boat fishing, fighting the fish, landing the fish, fishing boats, tackle, knots, and a brief run-down on game-fish of the Pacific, all follow in this order; not forgetting bait and bait-fish and methods of rigging.

All these chapters are profusely illustrated and the entire book is so comprehensive in its extent that a novice with Big Fish and Blue Water tucked under his arm could become a do-it-yourself game fisher

man overnight.

Well almost! He would also require some of Peter’s enthusiasm and in tense love of sport-fishing.—ROß

Wright.

(BIG FISH AND BLUE WATER, Angus and Robertson, $10.) A FORMER High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, Sir John Gutch, has turned author. In England in June Hodder & Stoughton will bring out his Martyr of the Islands, which is a biography of Bishop John Cole ridge Patteson. This is the centenary year of Patteson’s murder, and Sir John traces his life from his days at Eton and Oxford, showing him as a young missionary of tremendous courage, in the face of bureaucratic bigotry on the part of politicians and fierce warfare on the part of the natives.