60 Spinning for Mahseer. CHAP. v. 



taken with it in still pools, and Marral and Freshwater Sharks I have 

 killed with it even in ponds. In a good strong run you may even keep 

 it stationary, nay more, may also lower it slowly down stream, the stream 

 doing all the spinning for you. 



Relying on it chiefly in running and rapid water, I prefer the spoon 

 to be somewhat heavier than it ordinarily is in England ; for if it comes 

 to the surface it ceases to have a hold on the water, and consequently 

 ceases to spin. Having regard, moreover, to the bottom-feeding pro- 

 pensities of the Mahseer I prefer to spin deep. 



One correspondent specially commends to me his favourite tackle- 

 maker's " scaled spoons," as if any Mahseer could possibly see the scales 

 when the spoon is revolving ; and even supposing that he could, surely 

 the spectacle of scales on one side only would be so irresistibly comic 

 that any Mahseer with a sense of the ridiculous would be too convulsed 

 with laughter to think of feeding. The only extra advantage of the 

 scales is that they catch anglers as well as fish ! 



As to the different sizes of spoons a word may be better said in the 

 chapter on tackle. I will only mention here that I have been so hard 

 pushed for bait in camp that I have been thankful to lay hands on a 

 mustard spoon, and convert it to the much more useful end in existence 

 of being a beguiler of good Mahseer. 



Apropos of this I may be allowed to tell a little incident. I was 

 fishing in a densely forest-clad part in which a guide was necessary. I 

 was fishing with a spoon, and my guide sat watching me listlessly till he 

 saw me get hold of, play, and land a decent Mahseer. Then he woke 

 up and was all attention. He closely watched me unhook the fish, and 

 straightway begin spinning again with the same spoon, and soon catch 

 another Mahseer. It was too much for him. He could contain him- 

 self no longer. Is it lawful for me, he asked, to see the hook ? Certainly, 

 I said, and handed him the spoon. He turned it over and over in his 

 hand and scrutinized it closely and deliberately. Then, with a motion 

 of the head, and a look of being thoroughly satisfied that he had got to 

 the bottom of the mystery, he solemnly handed back the spoon. He 

 asked no explanation of me, so I gave none, but went on fishing and 

 caught more. That evening he got a rapt audience round him, and 

 expounded the whole matter. " That gentleman catches Mahseer by 

 magic of hand, he puts on no bait at all. I saw it with my own eyes. 

 It is pure magic of hand." He verily believed it. 



