CHAP. xxvi. Bombay Presidency. 385 



the Jeypur Hills, where I have been for four years ; and there is some very 

 fine fishing indeed to be got there, though the place is undoubtedly very 

 feverish. No one ever seems to have gone in for the fishing here since the 

 memory of man, and I have not yet half explored the rivers. 



" The best chela fishing I have ever seen is to be got in the big tank in 

 Jeypur town. It is about f mile long, and always full. The chela run to 

 about 9 inches ; the majority caught are about 7 inches, or slightly less. 

 They have to be fished for out of a boat owing to the weeds, and always 

 prefer a red fly to any other. I use nothing but red and black palmers and 

 spinners for them on the smallest hook I can get. The following bags have 

 been made out of one boat there : 



June 5th. 43 chela, I rod, about I hour, evening. 



,, I5th. 60 ,, i \\ 

 July 2nd. 112 3 rods ,, I 



And I always get a couple of dozen or so any evening I like. I am always 

 most successful on a windy day. Sometimes I get a little blue fish (a baril 

 of sorts, I think), and when they are rising I*get two of them to one chela 

 on the same flies. They always go for a black fly, but prefer a black and 

 silver fly to any other. They are very small, and only seem to run about 

 3! inches or so. There are lots of big murral and wallago in this tank, but 

 they are very difficult to catch no labeo as far as I know. 



" The best river is the Machkunda, which rises in the ghats above Viza- 

 gapatam, near Paderu, and runs into the Godavery above Rajahmundri. I 

 have caught small Mahseer with bait right up at the source of this river, 

 where it is a mere nallah. Not far from its source there is a curious place 

 called the * Machigummi,' or ' fish-hole,' at a village called Matam, where 

 the river runs under a lot of huge rocks. In the middle of these rocks there 

 is a small pool or opening about 3 yards in diameter, communicating under- 

 ground with a large and deep pool 20 yards lower down. There is an old 

 priest at the village who feeds the fish there every day. He goes to the side 

 of this opening and calls out ' Machi, machi, machi,' and the fish come 

 crowding up into the opening from underneath. I have seen twenty or 

 thirty fish all crowded together thus. They will eat out of your hand, and 

 appear to run to about 9 Ibs. in weight. They don't like one to fish about 

 there, so I have never caught any. They are rather like Mahseer, but very 

 red about the fins and tail, and have a curious dark blotch on the side, near 

 the tail (something like the illustration of the * black spot ' in your book). 

 They are very like a Mahseer otherwise in shape and nature of head. 



" Mahseer are plentiful all down this river and up its affluents, and also 

 in the ' Kolab ' river, which runs from the north of Jeypur into this river. 

 All through the north of this district the rivers are too muddy at all seasons 

 to fish, owing to the red soil they come through. But down in the ; Mal- 

 kangiri ' taluq in the south (some 70 miles north of the Godavery), they are 



THE ROD IN INDIA. 2 C 



