xxxii FISHING 321 



barbel which grow to a size of about 15 to 20 lb. 

 This is a fish which will rise freely to a fly and will also 

 take a spoon bait or minnow, but only when the water 

 is comparatively clear. This is a very important point, 

 and the lower and clearer the water is, the better 

 will be the sport obtained. It is almost useless fishing 

 with a fly or spoon bait in rivers which are thick and 

 muddy, and it is unfortunate that almost all the larger 

 rivers in British East Africa are muddy all the year 

 round, although running swiftly. However, sport can 

 be obtained even in these larger muddy streams with 

 a bait such as meat, or dough, and considerable catches 

 are often obtained and very large fish landed. With 

 such baits large siluroid fishes are also to be caught in 

 numbers. The fisherman must therefore seek the 

 smaller clear streams which are tributaries of the larger 

 rivers if he wishes for sport with fly or spoon. In 

 these streams sport is not always to be obtained, and 

 East African fish, like their European relatives, will 

 not rise to a fly every day. But when a com- 

 paratively clear stream is found running into a larger 

 and muddy river, excellent sport with a fly or small 

 spoon may confidently be expected at some time in the 

 day, generally in the afternoon, but on some occasions 

 the present writer has found fish rise best during the 

 heat of the day. These barbel, which are caught on a 

 fly or spoon, generally run from a pound up to four 

 pounds, and fight well when hooked. v The largest fish 

 known to have been killed on a fly was one of 10 lb., 

 killed on a salmon fly in the Athi river when it was 

 comparatively low and clear. 



A catch of twenty-one fish on a small red spinner 

 with a light 9-foot cane rod was made by Mr. R. B, 

 Woosnam, the game warden, on the Nairobi river 



Y 





