J3 2 Gram-fishing for Mahseer. CHAP. vin. 



shellac varnish ; this gave it the slight yellow tint of the natural grain, and 

 also prevented it from getting dirty and soaked with water. I found I was 

 just as successful with this as with the real gram, but as it used to take 

 me hours to make a single grain, and that even then only every third or 

 fourth one was at all like the original, I thought the game not worth the 

 candle, and soon reverted to the natural gram. No doubt if Farlow * or 

 some other tackle-maker could be induced to make them it would be a 

 boon to fishers at Jubbulpore. 



" Having got the bait we now go to the river and get the tackle ready. 

 For a casting line I used double gut, twisted just enough to keep the strands 

 together : the hook also was tied on double gut, but the loop for joining 

 it to the casting line must be tied with silk, not knotted, otherwise the 

 knot would not pass through the hole in the gram. For the hook I used 

 a No. 7 Limerick, or the same size Sneck bend. The size just held the 

 two grains of gram, and was not too heavy to prevent it from floating, 

 which it did naturally on account of the lightness of the gram. I think I 

 preferred the Sneck bend to the Limerick ; the bend of the latter hook is 

 very sudden and it broke the grain, but the former being square the two 

 grains fitted comfortably on it ; they also could not slip over the barb as 

 they sometimes did with the other hook. 



" To make a bag a man had to be sent a day or two, or even more, before- 

 hand to bait the runs. This he did by occasionally throwing in a handful 

 of parched gram at the head of the run. This floating down the river 

 attracted all the fish for a long way down, and in a short time they had 

 all collected in the pool, the biggest ones near the head of the run. Of 

 course the first throw you made into this you hooked a whopper, but after 

 taking two or three out the rest got shy and would not come again till 

 next day. You could always get fish, and big ones too, without baiting 

 the runs, but not so many as if the run had been baited beforehand. 



As I said before the nearest part of the river, and the most accessible 

 place, is about five miles off, where the Nagpore road crosses it. It is 

 called Goari Ghaut, and as there is a pucka road it is an easy ride or 

 drive. The ghaut itself is a good place to fish, as the fishes are regularly 

 fed there by the priests of the numerous temples on the bank ; but though 

 there are a lot of them they seldom run bigger than one or two pounds in 

 weight. The Brahmins never once objected to my fishing there, and I 

 think the rice and other grain is thrown into the river, not so much to feed 

 the fishes, but rather as a votive offering to Mother Nerbudda. However 

 I soon got tired of catching tame fish, as these practically were, and went 

 up and down the river looking for new places. 



" I used to get two dug-out canoes and tie them together with planks 



* It would never pay an English tackle-maker to make this imitation for one 

 single locality, but natives being adepts at carving at very low charges, possibly 

 some local tackle-maker like Luscombe might get it done. 



