CHAPTER VII. 



FLY-FISHING FOR MAHSEER. 



" Awav, then, awaj , 

 We lose sport bj delay ; 



But Brat leave all our sorrows behind us, 

 If misfortune do come 

 AVe are all pone from home, 



And By-fishing she never can find us." 



Cotton. 



Is any one of our readers half as fond of fly-fishing as I am ? 

 If so, 



"A sudden thought strikes me ; 

 I.ct u- Bwear eternal friendship," 



for stoutly though I have argued in favour of spinning for 

 Mahseer. as being the most killing way of fishing for them, 

 and unable though I am to retract, still I could wish that fly- 

 fishing were as killing a way, for it is to my mind the most 

 fascinating style of fishing going. I refer particularly to fly- 

 fishing with a single handed rod and very light tackle for trout. 

 The nicety of skill that has to he brought into play, to make 

 anything of a hag amongst good and wary trout, is sometimes 

 very refined. It is quite distinct from fly-fishing for salmon, 

 and is a much higher branch of the art; though there is an 

 exultant ruder joy certainly in the hand-to-hand light with a 

 lordly salmon, when once you have got him on. But any 

 man who is a good trout fisherman will readily fall into salmon- 

 lishing ; though a master at salmon-fishing may he hut a rude 

 trout fisherman. But both the real trout fisherman, and the 

 salmon tamer, will want to know what can lie done in India by 

 their favourite stj Le of fishing. 



Suppose we commence with the Mahseer fisher. I'll he bound 

 i he very first question he asks will be an awkward question; he 

 will want to know what fly to use for Mahseer. This is a 



