88 How, When, and Whereto Fish for Mahseer. Chapt. vl 



words, your bait at A 

 will be seen by a Mah- 

 seer lying at C, which 

 would never see it if it 

 was spun 2 feet lower at 

 B. On this theory you 

 may say a fish will see 

 further if you spin on the surface. But, on the other hand, we do 

 not know how far a fish can see laterally, or at any angle out of 

 the perpendicular under water, nor how far from the bottom a large 

 Mahseer may feel inclined to come up after a bait, when the water 

 is 20 feet deep. I should say, therefore, spin about mid-water, 

 and I think you will show your bait advantageously to most fish. 



If you are often fishing the same water, you should remember 

 where you kill your best fish, for where one good fish has been 

 taken, another of the same size is pretty sure to be found ; the 

 reason being that those fish which lay wait for, instead of searching 

 for, their bait, those which stop in one place waiting and watching 

 for what the stream shall wash down to them, look out for the best 

 places, the places where the chief current of the stream will carry 

 the most food by them, or a favouring eddy will bring it round to 

 them, and there they take up their station behind a rock or stone, 

 so that they themselves may be in comparatively quiet water, but 

 yet in a good position for watohing passing events, and as any food 

 comes by them, out they dart, take it, and return to their station. 

 Some such stations are better than others, and the strongest fish 

 take the best. With them it is naturally 



" The brave oM rule, the simple plan, 



"J 1 i:it t ! 1 1 ■ \ slioiilil lain' who have the power, 

 And thej should keep who can." 



And when that tish has been taken, and his place is vacant, the 

 next strongest takes it. This is markedly the case with trout in 

 Knglish streams, the proportions of whicli do not vary much from 

 month to month, and is, in my opinion, more or less the case with 

 Mahseer too, though to a less degree, because the rapidly varying 

 size of a stream will in a month or two make a favourite station an 

 indifferent one. But a proper fisherman will readily recognize the 

 most comfortable looking quarters for a good fish. The power of 



