FISHING 



time he stood up to cast, the original incident always pre- 

 senting itself vividly to our minds. M'Donnell, when in 

 residence at Topawewa, was a mighty fisherman, and many 

 records of his and the Mudaliyar's catches are, or were, 

 pencilled up on the door of the Tank Bungalow. They 

 used to go out about 5 P.M., and, more or less, lived on 

 their " catch," as fresh meat was scarce, and one tires of 

 fowl. 



As years went on this lovely tank became more and 

 more weed-choked, until at the present day scarcely any 

 open water is visible at all. This precluded the use of 

 lines altogether, and drove us to use a most ingenious 

 native dodge for overcoming the weed difficulty. Rattans 

 slightly thicker than a pencil are spliced neatly together 

 until a length of 40 or 50 feet is reached ; the hook is 

 attached to one end of this by its 1 5-inch bit of line, and 

 half-a-dozen of these rattans so fitted are tied, hook end 

 in-board, the rest of the rattan trailing on the water, at the 

 stern or side of the canoe whilst you pole out to your fish- 

 ing ground. There you bait the hook in the usual way, 

 lay it and the rattan on top of the water, where the latter 

 of course floats, and push it out gradually bit by bit to- 

 wards the small open spot you want to fish in. 



The rattan floats on the water and catches in nothing, 

 whilst, in shoving it out, you can guide it in any desired 

 direction. 



You eventually leave a few feet of the rattan end lying 

 across your canoe and put out as many of them as you re- 

 quire, in all directions. A bite will agitate and depress the 

 hook end of your rattan ; a violent tug does the striking, 

 and you then simply haul in, hand-over-hand, the free end 

 sliding past you on to the water behind you as you pull the 

 rattan in. I once had one of my rattans pulled clean away 



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