FISHING IN THE EAST 



previous position after quietly taking your fly, but comes at your spoon 

 witli a rush and sudden dash that will sometimes jerk a salmon rod 

 right out of your hands if not held preparedly, and many a time is tackle 

 broken by this sudden dash at your bait. So sudden and strong is it that 

 you must altogether abandon the home idea of spinning a spoon with the 

 usual stiff pike rod, and must have, instead, a fly rod as pliable as a Castle 

 Gonnel rod, so pliable that it will anticipate, be much quicker in action than, 

 any possible lighthandedness of yours, and will break the suddenness of 

 the blow by promptly bending to it, and so letting the line run out, while 

 still keeping touch with the mahseer hy the springiness of the rod. 



And yet, again, a peculiarity of the mahseer is his first grand rush. 

 So mad is it that for the first few minutes you cannot tell what you have 

 on, a five -pound fish or a fifty -pounder. It is only by its continuing that 

 you begin to guess at the probable size of your fish, for, of course, you are 

 bearing on him all your rod and line can stand, taking all the toll of him 

 you dare. The question has been asked disparagingly: — Does the mahseer 

 leap into the air like a salmon ? No, never; but his first impetuous rush 

 is much more difficult to deal with, and there lies novelty of sport. Other 

 rushes he will make again and again if you let him recover his breath 

 ever so little. But the first glorious rush it is that generally settles the 

 question who is the better man, you or he. Though the salmon rod 

 is bent, and straining all you dare, still the line is flying out at such a 

 pace that if you touch the reel there will be a break for a certainty, and 

 if you put a finger on the line it will cut through leather glove and into 

 your hand like fire. 



And then to land him. Here, again, the familiar gaff must take second 

 place, because the scales of the mahseer are so large and hard that no 

 gaff will penetrate except in the soft parts of the belly, and it is safer to 

 shelve or handle, netting being impracticable except with the smaller 

 ones. Handling must be done by a trained attendant approaching the 

 exhausted fish from behind it, placing both hands under it from either 

 side, one thumb in each gill, and gripping tight all he knows. 



The spoon may be used from the shore if the character of the river 

 permits, or in a large deep river from a coracle or other boat rowed up- 

 stream, with some thirty yards of line out, so as to be well out of sight of 

 the boat. 



And there may be slow -running water; deep, gentle, tempting eddies 

 close to the bank, not so suited to the proper working of a spoon, but 



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