CHAPTER V. 



SPINNING FOR MAHSEER. 



" That fish that is not catched thereby 

 Alas ! ia wiser far than I." — 



Donne. 



The inventory which we took in a former chapter (Chap. Ill) of 

 the contents of this Asiatic gentleman's intestinal canal showed 

 that he was as omnivorous as the mortal Mr. Samuel Weller was 

 omnibibulous. Metaphorically speaking, the accommodating 

 answer of each of them is "all taps is vanities;" but the par- 

 ticular vanity of the Mahseer, or at least that which we are best 

 able to oblige him with, is, as we have seen, a small fish ; and the 

 question next arises how is the dish to be served. 



Every one knows that fish is good for nothing if it is not fresh, 

 and a pike or perch carries this maxim so far as to prefer them 

 " all alive, alive oh." A little roach all alive and kicking has 

 peculiar charms for a jack, but well nigh irresistible though it may 

 be, and many staunch advocates though it may have in consequence, 

 still I am not one of them. Kxcept it be fur a trimmer, 1 should 

 prefer not to use it; my idea being that with a dead fish you can 

 cover so much more water, that you can show your spinning bait 

 to ten or twenty fish, where your stationary live bait will be seen 

 by only one, and perhaps not that for a while. Advertise freely 

 and you will be sure to find a " claimant." May he be as heavy as 

 Sir lloger. By the ordinary law of chances the odds are you will 

 come across more taking fish out of the ten or twenty than in the 

 one who happens to live in or near the hole into which you have 

 cast your live bait; and you cannot be constantly moving your 

 live bait or you will kill it. You must just quietly drop him into 

 a likely hole, and leave him to " paddle his own canoe ;" whereas 

 with a spinning bait you can take [\ saunteringly all through those 

 dei p eddies that ought to be full of big fish, just under those big 



