142 Smaller Fly Takers. Chapt XI. 



vokingly. If they are in the rising humour they will cover the 

 surface of the water with rises, and you may have rises at every 

 throw. But you won't catch them unless your fly is very small, 

 and your fly top inclined to be still' rather than over pliant, so that 

 you may strike quickly. 



Ordinary trout flies on No. 9 to 12 Sneck bend hooks are 

 scarcely small enough, and it would lie better to have black flies 

 ami light duns tied on No. 14, the smallest size of Sneck-bends and 

 fine drawn gut. Fish with three such flies on a light collar. 



They do not seem to rise till 1 or 1\ hours before sunset, and to 

 rise best just before and just after sunset. They rise in the 

 morning also, but not so well as in the evening. I do not think 

 they attain the same size in ponds as they do in rivers, though 

 they become very numerous. In rivers they are to be found all 

 over the deepest, largest pools, pools that hold Mahseer and Fresh- 

 water Shark. They seem to be most numerous along the shore 

 edge and near bushes, but the bigger ones seemed to be mostly in 

 the deep mid water, but always near the surface. 



They may also be taken easily with a float, if they are thought 

 worth fishing for in that way. The bait, a single grain of boiled 

 rice, or a small pellet of rice on a minute hook, say No. 14 Sneck 

 bend, should hang within about a foot of the surface, and the float 

 must be very sensitive, and the rod short and light so that you can 

 strike quickly. Natives use with advantage the merest little bit 

 of pith or quill less than an inch long, and a straight bit of small 

 bamboo tip. I have seen them, thus armed, catching them by the 

 dozen, to eat. Perhaps they were having an unusually good time 

 of it ; but they spoke as if it could be done whenever they liked. 

 Still they seemed abnormally jolly over it. 



1 have caught three sorts myself with a fly — Chela argentea, 

 C. boopis, and 0. dwpeoidcs, — and I have caught them on the west 

 coast of Southern India, in other parts of the Madras Presidency, 

 and in Mysore. 



The Tamil name is Vi'lhlchl ; the Canaiv ehl Day says, 



"Generally termed Vellachee-candee in Tamil: Bay-retrsaie and 

 " Baarsee,TeL: Bounce-putti, Ooriah. : Took, Punjab." 



They are evidently the fish commonly spoken of by sportsmen 

 in Northern India as Cltilmi. 



Apropos of those little fish, which are caught as much in ponds 



