CHAP. xiii. Fishing for Labeo in Rivers. 199 



passed twice through the eyes and then tied in a slip knot, so that 

 when pulled home the hooks must lie back to back. To prevent 

 their standing out they are then whipped back to back with silk. 

 With a clear space of two inches above them on the same gut is 

 the No. o Limerick hook for the bait. When the gut is well soaked 

 and soft, the double hook at the tail is concealed in the mud from 

 lying flat at the bottom, which a treble hook could not do. 



Another difficulty has been the fishing in rivers. Mr. J. S. Aldwell 

 tells me he has succeeded with the Naraini, which, from his description 

 of it, as having red fins and tail, and a fimbriated mouth i.e., a mouth 

 with a frilled edge would seem to be one of the Labeos. He took 

 them as much as 2 feet long, and thick fish, in the running water below 

 the Okhla weir, with thread weed, on a No. 4 Limerick hook, without 

 float or sinker, working it up and down near the surface, and striking 

 sharp on their biting. There was at the time only a little stream, the 

 sluices being all closed. Others say the Naraini is the Mirgha. I 

 have had no opportunity of identifying the fish under the vernacular 

 name. Possibly the Hyderabad plan above given might also serve in 

 rivers. It is in rivers that they have beaten us hitherto. 



Anglers who know their fish well enough by their vernacular names 

 do not always know the scientific equivalent, and as vernacular names 

 are often used somewhat laxly, and differ with localities, it is not 

 always easy to connect them with the right fish without seeing the 

 fish oneself and identifying it. Thus I found the vernacular name 

 Rahu, Rohu, and Rohi, used indifferently in Northern India, to 

 include sometimes Mirgha and Kalbans, and I was told it was also 

 loosely used to cover all large carps except the Mahseer, as Kendai 

 is in Tamil. I was puzzled, too, about Kalbans till I found it was 

 the popular abbreviation of the more correct Kalabans, the n in 

 Kalbans being silent. Hence Labeo calbasn. 



If you use the soft lead wire sinker advised in " Tank Angling," 

 page 30, you will need the long shank of the Limerick hook ; but 

 if you dispense with a sinker then the Rohu hooks made by Messrs. 

 S. Allcock & Co. of Redditch, and figured at page 123 supra, are built on 

 purpose for you. 



I have said in " Tank Angling " that 30 yards of running line was 

 ample, but I did not then know of Rohu and Catla running up to 

 the size they do as capturable by this style of fishing. I should 



