CHAPTER V. 

 SPINNING FOR MAHSEER. 



"That fish that is not catched thereby 

 Alas ! is wiser far than I." 



DONNE. 



THE inventory which we took in a former chapter (Chap. III.) of the 

 contents of this Asiatic gentleman's intestinal canal showed that he was 

 as omnivorous as the immortal Mr. Samuel Weller was omnibibulous. 

 Metaphorically speaking, the accommodating answer of each of them is 

 " all taps is vanities " ; but the particular vanity of the Mahseer, or at 

 least that which we are best able to oblige him with, is, as we have seen, 

 a small fish ; and the question next arises how is the dish to be served. 



Every one knows that fish is good for nothing if it is not fresh, and 

 a pike or perch carries this maxim so far as to prefer them " all alive, 

 alive oh ! " A little roach all alive and kicking has peculiar charms for a 

 jack, but well nigh irresistible though it may be, and many staunch 

 advocates though it may have in consequence, still I am not one of 

 them. Except it be for a trimmer, I should prefer not to use it ; my 

 idea being that with a dead fish you can cover so much more water, that 

 you can show your spinning bait to ten or twenty fish, where your 

 stationary live bait will be seen by only one, and perhaps not that for a 

 while. Advertise freely and you will be sure to find a "claimant." 

 May he be as heavy as Sir Roger. By the ordinary law of chances the 

 odds are you will come across more taking fish out of the ten or twenty 

 than in the one who happens to live in or near the hole into which you 

 have cast your live bait and you cannot be constantly moving your 

 live bait or you will kill it. You must just quietly drop him into a 

 likely hole, and leave him to " paddle his own canoe " ; whereas with a 

 spinning bait you can take it saunteringly all through those deep eddies 



