< iiait. ix. Fishing in Coloured WaU 113 



•• polled about frequently, will live for an indefinite period. 1 

 •■ have generally found his existence shortened very rapidly by 

 " Mahseer. 



" 1 give you a sketch of the bait," Plate IX. "The body hook 

 • i- inserted while the point of the shank is held next to the tail, 

 "and then tinned over so as to let the shank lie on the Bide 

 " of the bait, The bait, of course, must not be curved. The month 

 "hook is put in last. Attach the bullet with a bit of thread t>> 

 ' the line, so that you lose bullet only in case of a foul The bait 

 - itself rarely fouls. The curve of the side hook stauds out at 

 " right angles to the side of the bait, so that it may speedily art 

 ■when the bait is taken. The book at A is passed through the 

 '• thin tlap in the upper lip. The dotted line at B is where a bit 

 " of the shank of the body hook is under a bit of skin of the bait. 

 " The points of both books are well exposed. 



" In Upper India, December and January are blank months 

 " for Mahseer fishing, use any bait you like. 



"One hundred yards of line is enough for any fish. K. says 

 " 200, but look at the account of bis monster run, less than 

 " 100 yards (page 253 of your book). The fish was 4 feet 5 

 " inches. I have caught 4 feet G inches that never ran 50 yards. 



"This method of fishing may occasionally succeed when the 

 " water is clear, particularly in rough parts, but never so well as 

 " in thick water ; indeed, it is only then excusable as a substitute 

 " for fly and minnow." 



Colonel Parsons kindly sent me at the same time a pair "I 

 hooks tied as he uses them. They are " peculiar-eyed Limericks," 

 answering to No. f> and 4 on my scale of the ordinary tapered 

 Limerick books (Plate VIII), the larger one being the side 

 hook, and the smaller the lip hook. They are mounted in the 

 simplest way possible on a single piece of salmon gut, and he 

 writes that the mounting of them took him just 45 seconds, which, 

 of course, is a great recommendation to any man who is pressed for 

 time, and the majority of Indian officials have very little of that 

 commodity to spare. 



I am informed bya tackle maker that these eyed-hooks were at 

 ■ me time tried for salmon flies, but were condemned on the ground 

 that the iron cut the gut. I presume it was when laid by for 

 months in the fly-book that they rusted into the gut, for I should 



THE BOD IN INDIA. I 



