138 



Live Bait Fishing for Mahseer. 



CHAP. IX. 



foul. The bait itself rarely fouls. The curve of the side hook stands out 

 at right angles to the side of the bait, so that it may speedily act when 

 the bait is taken. The hook at A is passed through the thin flap in the 



upper lip. The dotted line at B is where a bit of the shank of the body 

 hook is under a bit of skin of the bait. The points of both hooks are well 

 exposed. 



" In Upper India December and January are blank months for Mahseer 

 fishing, use any bait you like. 



" One hundred yards of line is enough for any fish. K. says 200, but 

 look at the account of his monster run, less than 100 yards. The fish was 

 4 feet 5 inches. I have caught 4 feet 6 inches that never ran 50 yards. 



"This method of fishing may occasionally succeed when the water is 

 clear, particularly in rough parts, but never so well as in thick water ; 

 indeed, it is only then excusable as a substitute for fly and minnow." 



Colonel Parsons kindly sent me at the same time a pair of hooks 

 tied as he uses them. They are " peculiar-eyed Limericks," answering 

 to No. 6/0 and 4/0 on my scale of the ordinary tapered Limerick 

 hooks, the larger one being the side hook, and the smaller the 

 lip hook. They are mounted in the simplest way possible on a single 

 piece of salmon gut, and he writes that the mounting of them took him 

 just 45 seconds, which, of course, is a great recommendation to any 

 man who is pressed for time, and the majority of Indian officials have 

 very little of that commodity to spare. 



I am informed by a tackle-maker that these eyed-hooks were at 

 one time tried for salmon flies, but were condemned on the ground 

 that the iron cut the gut. I presume it was when laid by for months 

 in the fly-book that they rusted into the gut, for I cannot see how they 

 can cut the freshly-tied gut in a single fishing trip, provided care is 

 taken, by thoroughly well soaking the gut before tying the knots, that 



