2lS 



The Seetul, Batchwa and Others. 



CHAP. xv. 



spite of all the strain the rod could bear. Over and over rolled the 

 fish on the surface, just as when at play, exulting doubtless in his 

 strength, not dreaming what a serious game it was going to be for him. 

 Four feet in air leaped the burnished silvery athlete in his wrath, and 

 not once but again and again and again, each time dashing off with 

 a plunge as he regained his element. But the little rod held on 

 tenaciously, labouring hard the while. Brother anglers, viewing the 

 seemingly unequal struggle from a passing boat, called out in honest 

 sympathy : " Next time you come here you will bring stronger tackle." 

 " No," I shouted back, grimly confident of 

 conquest, "the sport is to kill him on this." 

 And so the fight went on till we " foiled his 

 wild rage by steady skill," " we," being my 

 pertinacious rod and I. 



Geen's Richmond spinner, trout size, and 

 with hooks and gut mounted as for trout, 

 would suit this fishing. It is made a trifle 

 larger than the illustration, the actual size 

 being two inches long in the curved blade 

 including the swivel. Consequently it will 

 carry a dead bait of that length or an inch or 

 inch and a half longer. The hooks, though 

 of the same size, will be the better for being 

 Mahseer hooks No. 12, because then the 

 tackle can, on emergency, be available for 

 small Mahseer in mountain tributaries. If 

 you have not got such tackle by you, and 

 must rig up something impromptu, you may substitute a single vent 

 hook, as on page 68, but of No. 8 size treble, on salmon gut, with a 

 Dee sinker minnow size. 



So game a fish was well worthy of more attention than I was able to 

 give him, and much I wish that I could have prolonged my stay in his 

 neighbourhood. Having by a glance at his mouth arrived at these 

 preliminaries and tested them successfully in practice, that the bait 

 should be small, and worked slowly, and at the bottom, and that the 

 strike should be made on the nibble or fumbling over getting the bait 

 into their mouth, I should much like to have been able to make other 

 experiments, advancing further on the lines of these discoveries. If a 



