FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 I have known them a light brown, with caudal and anal fins alone light 

 blue; and a deepish blue, almost green, with dorsal, caudal and anal fins 

 light blue, pectoral and ventral a light pink; and again light blue all over, 

 all much the same shape, and the mahseer of the Bawany, which is a deeper 

 fish, the colour gleaming a shade between gold and copper quite fresh from 

 the mint. Near the sources of minor tributaries young mahseer of two or 

 three pounds, taken with a fly and a trout rod, afford good sport to those 

 whose lot is cast in such localities. But it is in the main rivers that 

 they are usually fished for; and it is rocky rivers that they affect, mainly 

 because in them are rock-bound pools ten or twenty feet deep or more, 

 that never run low as the rocks keep up their depth. And the runs, too, 

 not being allowed to spread out, are deep and fast. It is only among the 

 mountains, and in the valleys at their bases, that you find such rivers. 

 When they debouch into the plains, and are shallow, with sandy bottoms, 

 it is other fish than mahseer that you must look for. In large deep 

 waters you may still take them with a fly, if you are inseparably wedded 

 to it, but you will take three to one as many, and those too, three times 

 as big, with a spoon or small fish. For the fly you need not the many and 

 varied " twa and saxpenny flees " commended for the salmon, but 

 may be content with one, the Blackamoor, dressed on a No. 2 Limerick 

 hook, eyed for preference, with alternative sizes, Nos. 1/0 and 3, if 

 you must have them; body peacock harl dressed full, with a touch 

 of silver twist for advertising glint; legs, black; wings, the glossiest 

 black. My belief is it is taken for the large black tadpole so common in 

 Indian waters, but no flsh ever would tell me why he took it. Similarly 

 a smoky-dun may be taken for a small fish, and so may Cock-o'-the-walk, 

 made all of jungle fowl hackles, with silver body. As flies go, my faith 

 is in the Blackamoor. 



But once take to the spoon, and you will drop your British prejudice 

 for the fly. The spoon may be used of various sizes, from two and a 

 half inches long, the size of a dessert spoon, to, say, two inches long, 

 according to the fancy of the fisherman, and all silvered, which 

 suffices; or silvered on the convex, and gilt on the concaved side, again 

 according to the fancy of the fisherman, for the angler will not fish 

 hopefully and painstakingly unless he fancies his lure ; some like a still 

 smaller spoon, and it may be indulged in in small waters. But, for several 

 good reasons, the spoon should be made of stouter nietal than is 

 ordinarily used for British spoon baits. One reason is that, the mahseer 

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