FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS. 729 



boiled potatoe. The other species, viz., Caranx malaharicus, is also a good 

 fish, and a handsome fish, but is said never to grow anything like as large 

 as his confrere, nor is he so brilliantly coloured. His back is a dull bluish- 

 grey, sides silvery shot with purple, while his fins are a pale yellow, dorsal fins 

 and tail grey with spots. Both species, however, give very good sport. When 

 hooked there is just a whisk of their tail and they are off, and their first run 

 is grand, any check and you will lose your fish, but they do not figt t brilliantly 

 up to the end. After the first run or two they are given to boring heavily 

 round anil round, and if you have a heavy fish on, your rod is likely to suffer 

 a great deal more from them than from any other fish I know, for towards 

 the end it is a case of '• Pull Devil, Pull Baker " to get them within reach of 

 net or gaff. But the Caranx is by no means the only fish that the angler has 

 to depend on. As in Aden, so here, when the sardines appear large numbers 

 of Barraconta, seer fish, and large gar fish and horse makerel appear also, and 

 you may vary your sport considerably bv taking a boat and towing a live 

 bait about slowly — a form of fishing very similar in fact to what is known 

 in Scotland as "' harling.'' Then again on the outlying reefs you will, if you 

 fancy it, get the red rock cod, known locally as "gobra.'' These often run 

 very large and very heavy. One big fish for a long time took up his quarters 

 among the piles of the landing stage at Port Blair, and though often hooked, 

 always eluded capture by breaking away in among the piles. Apparently 

 his favourite amusement was to lie " dog o ! " and as soon as he saw any 

 other fish in difficulties, struggling at the end of a line for instance, as he 

 often did, he just used to open a huge carpet bag of a mouth and closing it 

 on his unfortunate victim, to clear out with the best part of a fish and leave 

 only the head to the angler, I have known of his taking fish up to 61bs. in 

 weight thus, when they were hooked, and the curses that were launched at 

 his devoted head were many and deep. He fell a victim himself eventually, 

 I believe, to a havildar or sergeant in the Police who inveigled him into 

 taking a bait about 21bs, in weight, upon what was practically a small shark 

 hook mounted upon stiff wire, and he weighed somewhere about 651bs. It 

 ia not easy within the limits of a short paper to enumerate all the different 

 fish that can be got here, and to specify also the different means adopted for 

 " sarcumventing " the same, but to your angling readers this will not be at 

 all necessary. Any man who is a keen angler, on findinoj himself in such a 

 place, will most certainly very soon find out for himself all that is really 

 necessary, and thereafter his innate power of inventiveness will lead him 

 on until he will probably become a great deal more expert than I am, and 

 will know more than ever I can hope to teach him. Of the fishing for mullet 

 and gar fish, I have written in detail on a former occasion, so will not refer to 

 it. It is generally only necessary to give hints, &c., but I do not think that 

 any mention of Port Blair fishing would be complete without a passing 

 reference to the atherine or smelt fishing that ia occasionally to be obtained. 



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