Believe it or not, fishing in other parts of the world isn't like here in the U.S. of A. For example, many foreign anglers don't equip their boats with powerful motors that can move a supertanker fast enough to get a ticket from the marine patrol in a manatee no-wake zone. And sometimes - gasp! - they even row their boats with oars. Some of these less-fortunate souls deprive themselves of rods and reels that cost three-month's salary, a price that the De Beers fishing tackle company recommends to serious anglers. However, these countries compensate with their own unique fishing techniques.

Russia
Russians are avid anglers and don't let a little thing like the Siberian winter interfere with their fun, although the harsh conditions do require some adjustments: On Lake Baikal, which is iced over for five months of the year with a crusty covering up to 8 feet thick, it takes a heavy-duty hydraulic auger - that more closely resembles machinery for taking core samples from the earth's mantle than ice-fishing equipment - for drilling holes. Hey, it could be worse, Lake Vostok has ice 12,000 feet thick. After a long, hard winter, the ice melts around June, and the Russians revel in the short but glorious Siberian summer. "Eef eet come on Soonday, we haf beeg peek-a-neek."

Australia
No one knows why there are so many deadly creatures in Australia, which is home to the 10 deadliest snakes in the world, but Aussies seem inured to the element of danger in the "land down under." In fact, they consider it boring if pastimes like fishing don't include the possibility of death or dismemberment. In the Northern Territory, a popular sport is wade fishing for Barramundi in shark- and crocodile-infested waters. They claim that it's actually pretty safe, as long as you squirt blood on your fishing mate when they're not looking.

Japan
The Japanese love high-tech gadgets, so for them, fishing is not only a fun activity but also a way to showcase their engineering abilities. Their reels feature the same maglev (magnetic levitation) technology found on their 200-mph bullet trains. This device eliminates resistance so casting distance is unlimited, and although useful, it can still get an angler into trouble. Since the lures have water-seeking, GPS-directional guidance devices, it allows anglers to make pinpoint-accurate casts; however, if they make an erroneous cast that has the coordinates of the prime minister's commode, they may have to move to Borneo to "save face," not to mention other body parts. Although the fishing here is great, the pace is more like a baseball game during a rain delay, because as soon as they catch one, the fishing stops, and they whip out the sushi kit and have a feast. In Japan, forgetting the wasabi is grounds for canceling the trip.

France
In France, they have some pretty crazy ideas, like the four-day work week, recipes that begin, "Take two pounds of butter," and drinking wine with every meal - OK, maybe they're not
so crazy - but their fishing is pretty weird. Carp is the number one gamefish, which is about as ridiculous as worshiping Jerry Lewis as the greatest comedian who ever lived. This Eurotrash fish is the subject of festivals and tournaments where the winner gets nothing except a limp handshake - how un-American is that? The only good thing about this fishery is that the most popular French carp recipe begins, "After drinking a bottle of wine, take two pounds of butter ..."


Illustration by Brian Buxton