3»2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



again from a reluctant Government, and a three months' sojourn at Nuwara 

 Eliya, is all the time that I have had to become acquainted with these fish. 

 Perhaps others, much better qualified than myself to write about the subject, 

 may send you an account of Ceylon trout. In which case this screed need 

 never appear in print. But in case none of your subscribers from this island 

 comes forward to answer your appeal, these notes are offered for what they 

 are worth. 



But besides trout, which are restricted to a certain altitude in the hill 

 country, there is good fishing to be had in the low country of Ceylon, in 

 river, lagoon, sea and tank ; and it may not be out of place to offer a few 

 remarks on some of the fish that the writer has caught. 



Very little is known from an angler's point of view, about lagoon and tank 

 fishing in Ceylon. There are a few enthusiasts to be met occasionally who 

 will speak of great captures ; but we badly want a second Thomas, not only 

 to show us how to catch the fish, but to tell us what fish there are worth 

 catching. Until I came to this district, about two years ago, I was quite 

 unaware of the splendid opportunities for sport with rod and line in the low 

 country, and I believe many other keen anglers here are similarly ignorant. 

 I therefore offer these remarks with less diffidence than they otherwise deserve, 

 only hoping that brother anglers may eome forward and contribute their 

 quota of experience to the pages of the Fishing Gazette. 



The most common of low country fish is the Singhalese " lula" — the Indian 

 " murral." The Tamils call him " viral." His classical name is Ophio- 

 cephalus striatus. He is to be found in nearly all tanks and rivers that do 

 not run dry ; but he will live a long time without water apparently. A tank 

 near here was completely dry for a month or six weeks last year. When the 

 rain came and the fields were being irrigated, I was shooting snipe, and picked 

 up several fair-sized lula in the padi field below the tank. They had evidently 

 been washed through the sluice of the tank ; but where they came from is 

 a mystery, for the tank in question is not fed by any river. They must have 

 been lying up under the grass and mud along the edge of the tank " bund. " 



Thomas, in his " Rod in India " (2nd edition), treats the lula, or murral, 

 with scant ceremony. He regards him as a poor sort of pike to be eaptured 

 with frogs and similar bait. But the lula is really a gentleman to be regarded 

 with respect, for he rises to the fly freely and is a good table fish in spite of 

 his bones — two supreme qualities. He does not fight very hard — about as 

 well as a chub perhaps — but he often leaps clear of the water as soon as he 

 feels the hook. A clear, calm day with water low is the best time for taking 

 him with a fly. He is just the opposite of the trout in this respect. I have 

 seldom caught them when there has been any wind or when the water was 

 high. He will take a dry fly — if you are a dry fly purist — but the best ones 

 I have caught have been taken with a large Red Palmer fished wet. There 

 is a small red Dragon Fly on which the lula feeds in the evenings, and then 

 the Red Palmer or Foster's " Caterpillar " will do great execution. 



