Vagabonds in India Part 1

[Vagabond]

Fired by the exploits of Ken L , we booked a week at Bushbetta camp on the Cauvery River in March, prior to an intended three weeks trekking and birdwatching in Assam.

 

The logistics of a trip to Southern India mean that you arrive at 4am local time (22.30 GMT) at Bangalore airport, to find a great scrum of taxi-drivers awaiting outside. If you are lucky (we were) you spot the guy sent to pick you up. Over to St Mark’s Hotel (strongly recommended) for a shower and a few hours sleep before the transport to Bushbetta arrived at midday.

 

It’s about four hours drive, flat out, as is the usual Indian style, aided by repeated blasts of the horn as our driver overtook everything in sight. On the outskirts of Bangalore, we sideswiped/were sideswiped by a small three-wheeled van. Our driver and supervisor were out of the vehicle like jack-in-the-boxes and a four-way shouting match with the van driver and his mate ensued. I sniggered, Norma dug me furiously in the ribs “Don’t laugh, this is a serious matter”. By now a very large lorry driver and mate (lorry large, driver and mate very large) had joined in on “our” side (I don’t know why) and outnumbered, the van driver retreated. No exchange of insurance data, or any sort of data. Damage merely shrugged off.

 

We continued our journey, through fairly open country, except for the busy market town of Kanakapura, until the main road became a side road, the side road an unmetalled track, and the track a series of tyre marks, which ended by a river.

 

An ancient Jeep standing on the other bank now burst into life, and forded the river. We and our gear transferred to this vehicle for the 8km drive to Bushbetta. Here is a photo of “Jeepie”. Travelling as front seat passenger was “interesting” because the transmission tunnel and much of the floor had been permanently removed to make the (frequent) repairs to starter motor and clutch easier. “Careful where you put your feet” was the motto.

 

Jeepie

 

It was dusk when we got to camp, and a very welcome cold beer before dinner. Jeepie made daily runs for ice, bottled water and Kingfisher Beer (superb), until the fourth day of our stay, when the combined efforts of everyone on site failed to start her. Various ad hoc arrangements were made to keep ice and beer supplies coming – one thing you rapidly find in India is how good they are at finding solutions to logistics problems.

 

Bushbetta is situated on the lip of a gorge through which the Cauvery runs, some 200 feet below. You need to descend 200 ft to fish, and that means 200 ft to climb when finished – so a cold beer is doubly welcome after fishing. Each major set of pools has its own access path. These paths vary on a scale of 1. Long and Tedious (Beach Pool), through 5. Steep and Awkward (Crocodile Pool), up to 10. Frankly Terrifying (Goat’s Leap and Death Ledge)

 

Our first crack at mahseer was to be at Beach Pool.

 

Just a quick run-down of the tackle we used. Rods, ABU Conolon 4-piece uptider travel rod. Reels Penn 535 loaded with 50lb Trilene XT.

 

50lb mono necessary, not just because of the potential size of the quarry (100 lb odd), but because of the many sharp rocks in the river - you need maximum abrasion resistance and a line thick enough to withstand some chafing. The downside is that you are a bit overgunned for anything under 25 lb

 

We had been greeted somewhat apologetically with the news that the water was high, which diminished our chances of hooking a big one. “You should have been here in February”. Yeah, right.

 

Our circle hooks had produced an interesting reaction when I had set up our tackle the night before. The guides said they would never hook a mahseer, and refused to let us use them! Fortunately Saad, (Nawbzada Saad Bin Jung – grandson of the Nawab of Pataudi who played cricket for England against Australia in the bodyline series of 1932 – made a century too) the owner came in later in the evening, examined the hooks, and was interested in giving them a trial. Needless to say, they liphooked fish perfectly, with no deep hooked fish in the entire week. Newt, Jabee and Spasor will be interested to learn that by the end of the week the guides were asking for circle hooks in preference to J’s !

 

We used tennis-ball lumps of ragi paste on Gamakatsu Octopus circle 8/0 . The only other item on the line was 3” of rig tube, around which a length of roofing lead ¼inch in width was wound spirally and squeezed gently to grip. Experience has shown this is the weight least likely to get hung up – and fairly cheap if you do lose it.

 

Out went the balls of ragi. “Ignore nibbles – wait for strong pull” said the guide (I won’t name him for reasons that will become obvious later). We got plenty of nibbles, then at last a good pull. Struck, yes! …but not very big. Never mind, that’s my first mahseer.

 

Later that morning we both got catfish, but no more mahseer. “Catfish come, Mahseer go” said the guide. Well, he could be right, or perhaps it’s the other way round!

 

First Cauvery catfish. This went back to camp for dinner

 

After lunch – by the way the food in camp was superb – usually two vegetable curries, a meat or fish curry (catfish, chicken or goat), rice, dal and chapatis at both lunch and dinner. Onion, coriander and chilli omelettes for breakfast. Oranges and bananas freely available at all times. – as I said, after lunch, we tried the Crocodile pool – I got three or four mahseer up to around 6 lb. Saad came down and chatted with us, mainly about cricket, and slung a bait out himself.

 

Norma was watching grey-headed fish eagles, but had yet to catch a mahseer. “We’ll try the swim where we have caught 100-pounders, tomorrow” said Saad “ Fish are almost guaranteed there”

 

Next morning we took the Jeep (the last time it worked!) as far as the track went, then walked another half-mile to some fearsome-looking rapids. There were lots of huge rocks beside the river – one of which jutted out over a whirlpool, and was shaped exactly like a pulpit.

 

Saad took charge of operations. Norma was installed in the Pulpit, Saad and I on rocks either side. I was told where to cast – to the inch, and Saad cast Norma’s bait over a rock and let it settle into an eddy behind it.

 

Norma’s line suddenly pulled tight across the rock, she struck, and there was a great commotion in the eddy. Saad stood on his rock directing the guides into the tangle of rocks and water, where Norma’s first mahseer was thrashing about on a tight line. It was landed amidst great applause. More action followed, and we finished up with plenty of fish between about 2 and 8 lb – all lip-hooked, which convinced the guides that circle hooks really work. It was amazing how fish as small as 2 lb managed to get a tennis-ball sized lump of ragi on an 8/0 hook into their mouths – but they did, time after time.

 

Norma’s first Mahseer

 

How many lady anglers can say an Indian Prince acted as ghillie for them?

 

Next day we tried the Camp Pool

which proved to be “Catfish Alley” catfish after catfish until we packed up.

 

This was the best cat – hooked at dusk.

 

 

As that’s the quota of pics used up, on to part 2

Edited April 13, 2007 by Vagabond

[Josh W]

Very interesting!

[Ken L]

Nice writeup.

I never did get myself into any of the cats or murrel so I envy you that little Silund.

I'll get around to posting some pics from my trip when I get my home broadband reconnected.

 

I also read your account on IA and the thing that was weired was the story of the river being up. I was quite away upstreem of Bush Betta but the river was low and clear where I was - maybe there had been some rain affecting one of the tributaries.

[Vagabond]

Ken,

 

Owen from IA said something about the water levels being controlled by dams/sluices and that there was some controversy about water levels/flows between the two states Kanataka and Tamil Nadu.(boundary runs through Bushbetta)

 

I don't know enough about the local geography/politics to know how relevant that is.

 

Certainly there was no rain locally during our stay, although we did see some thunderclouds and lighting flashes away to the south on two nights.

[Guest tigger]

Looks fantastic, thank's for sharing.

[Patrizia]

Interesting to read, really cool.

[Newt]

Great write-up Vagabond and I'm glad to hear that some of those circle hooks proved useful to you two.

[Alan Stubbs]

I don't usually suffer from envy, but I'm happy to make the exception here!

 

Thanks Vagabond - great report.