Buried in this story about the crumbling roads of Tasmania is a startling statistic: only 114 Americans purchased fishing licenses in Tasmania in 2005-2006, out of a total of only 405 foreign anglers. Compare that to New Zealand's 30,000 non-resident anglers, and it makes you want to book a trip right now.
Read Phil Monahan's take on Tasmania in "Down Under the Land Down Under" on MidCurrent.
Sorry to have to correct info about NZ Fishing Licenses - but there is no 'non-resident' license and there has not been one for over 10 years.
There are 157,000 licenses sold in NZ each year, (excluding the Taupo area) including annual, week and day - so there is a good level of duplication.
There is currently no statistically sound way of retreiving non-resident licences sold, but it is estimated that 30,000 sales to non-residents is grossly exagerated.
Thanks for the clarification on New Zealand, Tony.
Marshall