Mahseer Fisking. 361 



pounds, but I have known mahseer taken up to eighty 

 pounds, and I think Mr. Sanderson mentions one 

 over 100 pounds. (N.B. A fish should be weighed 

 directly it leaves the water; it loses weight as it 

 dries.) We then returned to camp, swam, had 

 breakfast and took it quietly till the afternoon. In 

 the rapids I caught two, a four and a half, and a 

 half pounder, all on the same huge spoon bait ; I then 

 dragged my boat over the weir, and in the pool beyond 

 hooked a monster, but it gave very little play, and 

 soon succumbed ; it weighed forty pounds. 



0. had bad luck, losing several fish and bagging 

 only one with the spoon, a small two and a half 

 pounder, but with the fly he caught thirteen, weighing- 

 altogether nine pounds. B. caught two, four and 

 four- and -a- half pounds each, and found his line 

 rendered useless by a gar fish hooking itself. 

 These are very voracious ; they have a long snout, full 

 of sharp teeth, and go at the spoon greedily ; do not 

 struggle, and are so light that the angler does not 

 feel them, and is therefore unconscious that they are 

 on, but the spoon ceases to spin, and hours may be 

 wasted without the chance of attracting the nobler 

 species. 



The next day I had all the luck again. I caught 

 the following in the order shown : four pounds, one- 

 and-a-half pounds, thirty- five pounds, five-and-a-half 

 pounds, three and-a-half pounds ; the largest I took in 

 the pool below the weir, very near where I caught the 

 forty pounder. I also lost a fish about eight pounds. 

 I had exhausted it, and told the steersman to spear it, 

 but he missed his blow, struck the hooks out of its 

 mouth which rebounded, and went deep into his 



