Vagabonds in India Part 2

[Vagabond]

Two other anglers had joined us at the camp, Joe, an ex-pat originally from Cheshire, and John, from Northampton. They wanted to fish Death Ledge, and after one look at it, I was prepared to let them !

It slopes down to the gorge at about 15 degrees, then a sheer drop of 80 to 100 feet into the rapids. Apparently a well-known angling writer was left there alone once, and he wound his bait in, as he was terrified that if a fish took he would be pulled off the ledge.

 

We decided to fish Ajibora, a long pool below Crocodile Pool. The path down to Ajibora was about grade 6 on the accessibility scale, which had not deterred the wild elephants from scrambling down it. Their fresh droppings were on the path, all the way down to the beach. One thinks of elephants as creatures of relatively flat lands, but both here and later in Assam, we were amazed at how steep a rocky slope these creatures will tackle as a matter of routine. Moral, if chased by a wild elephant, don’t imagine you can escape by climbing the nearest rock-slope!

 

Anyway, out went the ragi balls into where the dub of the pool became the tail. Straightaway I got the usual tap-tap-tap of small fish nibbling the bait, but after a couple of minutes came a strong PULL. I struck hard, and remembering advice about mahseer having tough mouths, struck again. This was a bigger fish, putting a respectable bend in the Conolon. It wanted to get down the tail of the pool into the Ajibora rapids - long, steep and difficult of access. I wanted otherwise, clamped down, and gave the fish some wellie. It kited furiously to and fro across the tail of the pool as I pumped it clear of the pool tail, after which it was brought to a sand beach.

 

The guide put a stringer on, then unhooked the fish. I turned away to put the rod in a safe place, turned back to pick up the fish for a photo, only to find the guide had not looped the stringer and the fish had slid off!

 

Fortunately Norma, wise in the ways of guides and fish at the moment of landing, had already taken this shot.

 

Ah well, trophy pictures are just vanity anyway – and we now have an excuse to go back!

 

Anyone can make a mistake, and conscious of the impact it might make on the guide’s livelihood, we made no complaint, but in some mysterious way, word gets around. Nothing was said, and it may have been coincidence, but for the rest of our stay we saw that guide no more.

 

Our new guide – Bashar, is a brother to the famous Subhan. Mahseer fishers everywhere will be saddened to know that Subhan is very ill, in hospital, and not expected to recover.

 

Subhan’s son, Mola was guiding for John and Joe. They came back with a fine tale to tell. John, on his first mahseer trip, had hooked a fish from Death Ledge. It got into the rapids, with John, Joe and Mola hanging on to the rod and each other to stop being pulled off the ledge. Down the rapids the fish went, out of sight, with the line wrapped round a rock. There was another guide with them, who climbed down to where a coracle was stored, launched it into the rapids, went round the corner, picked up the line and handlined the fish into the coracle. “Just short of 25lb” said John happily over a peg of rum that night, “but I don’t think IGFA would accept it as an unaided capture!”

 

I had set targets at three levels – the first (any mahseer whatsoever) and the second (a mahseer into double figures) had been achieved, so now I was looking for the third (a monster). All the fish taken by the five people fishing had been taken on ragi, except John’s fish, which had taken a crab.

 

There was a problem with the ragi – it was too effective! The bait was attacked as soon as it sunk, a 3lb fish could get a lump like a tennis ball into its mouth, and a monster couldn’t take the bait if a smaller fish took it first.

 

We had received some good advice from Ken L before the trip, but our experience was very different to his recent report. On the stretch he fished, Ken got very few bites on ragi, but plenty of fish on lures. We had stacks of fish on ragi, but nothing on lures. I tried all the lures Ken had recommended, fished in the way he suggested – not a touch. I was delighted with the action of the lures, but the mahseer were not impressed. Fished deeps, eddies, glides, rapids with the lures – zilch response. Spent a whole afternoon with the #9 fly outfit and Snatcher’s flies, and again no result.

 

I think the reason for our totally different experiences was the amount of prebaiting that goes on at Bushbetta. They seem to have a full-time “ragi-wallah” with a prodigious output of ragi, and we were told 25 balls of ragi per day went into several swims.

 

 

So the rest of the week I persisted with live chilwa (small fish) and crabs. The consensus of Bashar, Mola and Saad’s advice was that crab was most effective in rapids, so to the rapids we went.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of Big Rock rapids. Note the lines are cast OVER the big rock in the middle distance to fish the eddy behind it – hope the resolution shows the lines up.

Big Rock rapids

 

Also went back to the Pulpit rapids.

 

Norma persisted with the ragi and kept catching small mahseer

 

Another black-scaled mahseer from the Pulpit

 

…and a Carnatic carp

 

My lives and crabs sat in the swirls and eddies of the rapids without a touch.

 

Finally the last day arrived. Two hours fishing in the Crocodile Pool before we left, and Norma had the last word – a nice little silver mahseer.

 

Norma with Bashar and the silver.

 

Back in Bangalore John and the Vagabonds were guests of Saad for dinner. A great evening, during which a splendid meal and a lot of good malt was consumed. Saad is an enthusiast, whether talking about mahseer, a proposed expedition to Mongolia for taimen by the four of us, cricket (Saad played first-class cricket himself as well as having a grandfather and uncle who played at Test level) or his splendid collection of Indian art.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the ethos of mahseer fishing. No monsters, but enough seen and learnt to take us back again.

 

I will not bore you with an account of our trekking and birdwatching in Assam, other than to say we walked up to 17 kilometres a day, and saw 400 bird species, (130 new to us), as well as Indian rhinoceros, wild elephant, flying squirrel, and a host of epiphytic orchids.

Edited April 13, 2007 by Vagabond

[Tony U]

Vagabond

A wonderful set of postings, I want to be bored by your Birdwatching report (Please!!!!!).

 

Tony

[dant]

Vagabond

A wonderful set of postings, I want to be bored by your Birdwatching report (Please!!!!!).

 

Tony

 

Some fishermans dreams realised there by the looks of it.. But judging from some of your earlier travelling exploits you and your wife have quite a checklist..

 

The amazing part for me are the pictures of the rapids. They look too quick to English eyes to be fish holding let alone hotspots...

 

Are Masheer omnivorous??

[Soozy U]

Fantastic photos and fantastic fish. You both look like you enjoyed your trip immensly. I too would not be bored with your birdwatching list!!

[nick]

Nice report Vagabond - and just to echo Tony U, I would love you to bore us with the a report about the birdwatching and trekking, if you felt like sharing.

[Guest tigger]

Another super post

[chappers]

As usual Dave brilliant write up....see you and Norma Sunday

[Newt]

The amazing part for me are the pictures of the rapids. They look too quick to English eyes to be fish holding let alone hotspots...

 

Some fish species not only feed in rapids but even seem to 'enjoy' fast water (to give a human emotion to fish). Even carp can on occasion be found frolicking and feeding in really fast water. We usually think of them as still water fish but at times they can almost out-do a salmon.

 

The one thing you know when fishing areas like that is that the fish will be strong and will give you a great fight.

 

Vagabond - a agree with several of the others. Some description and photos of your birding would be great reading.

[Steve Burke]

Great story, great pics as usual! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Where are you off to next?

[Vagabond]

Where are you off to next?

 

Wingham!