FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS, 405 



and creamy air, to enjoy the scenery, listen to the song of the birds, to expe- 

 rience the life blood racing through your veins — in short, to feel young and 

 fit, and strong, was to live indeed. Such feelings come back upon me very 

 often when growing old out here in exile, and one yearns for the time that 

 has gone, for the days that will not return. 



But to return to our friends the mullet, I know that at home he is consi- 

 dered difficult to catch, and is always looked upon as a very shy and a very 

 wary fish. That very wariness seems to be a part and parcel of his very 

 nature, for even out here, where he is not often troubled by the flash of the 

 green heart wand, he is still almost, if not quite, the most difficult fish to get 

 on even terms with, I have every reason to suppose that he enjoys a variety 

 in his diet, and yet after many years I have come to the conclusion that 

 there is but one bait which is worth trying, and to which he will generally 

 succumb -a very simple bait, and one easily obtained and 5\s easily applied, 

 viz., the light-brown crust of a loaf of bread. 



There are, I believe, some six-and-twenty species of Mugilklce in Indian 

 water?, but many of these are fresh water species, and some are naturally 

 pigmies, and never attain very considerable size ; but in some places, and 

 notably in Aden and in the Andaman Islands, there are some really fine, 

 portly, aldermanicapecimens of the species noted above, and, granted you 

 can drop across them, they are well worth the trouble of catching. In Aden 

 the mullet is fairly common and grows up to a length of about 3 ft., and 

 weighs anything from lib. to 51bs. and even 71bs. and 81bs.; I have never been 

 able to get one over S^^lbs. though. In Port Blair several species are repre- 

 sented, but there is one that is especially handsome. This fish, when first 

 caught, has a lovely blue sheen on the back and shoulders, and though never 

 so large as the Aden lot, running up to about 15ins. in length, is a particularly 

 delicate fish for the table. The models operandi of catching them is de- 

 lightfully simple. Send some one down to the pier or rocks, and if they see 

 the fish about, well and good. If not, then you must try and induce them to 

 show up. To do so, get your loaf of bread, and having bored a hole through 

 it, make fast a good long line to it (linen thread is the best), and heave it out 

 as far as possible— 30 yds. or 40 yds. or further if you can — and then wait 

 a while. With any luck, in a short time yoa will see the loaf agitated and 

 you will hear a sort of " suck suck " noise. Your friends are there, and they 

 are quietly and quickly chewing away at the undercrust. 



Now comes in the delicacy of the operation, for you have to try 

 and induce them to come within your reach, without frightening or dis- 

 turbing them. Little by little — in fact, inch by inch— you gather in your 

 thread and you will find, if you are not in too great a hurry, that you will 

 eventually get them to within an easy casting distance of where you are. 

 You will, of course, be ready, rigged up with a very long and a light trace 

 made of the finest gut, certainly not less than 4 yds. long, armed with a small 



