A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



have produced the characteristics that fail to appeal to those 

 who have known better days with salmon and trout, but the 

 mahseer is a very different proposition for the angler to deal 

 with. Living in some of the strongest streams possible for 

 fish life, it too has the qualities of its environment — strength, 

 speed, and dash equal to those of any fresh-run salmon — and 

 its first characteristic rush is such as to inspire a prayer that 

 all is well with the tackle. A carp it may be by race, but to 

 the ordinary carp of our acquaintance the mahseer is as a lean 

 wild boar of the jungle to the fat prize pig in its sty. 



Indeed, the mahseer has been styled the Indian salmon, 

 and from the angler's point of view the proud title is well 

 deserved. It is to be caught in the same kind of rivers and 

 with much the same lures as the salmon, though it must be 

 confessed that it prefers spoon to the fly. It plays in much 

 the same fashion, and the salmon-fisherman's allowance of 

 a minute to the pound would not be excessive with a big 

 mahseer on the rod, while that first wild rush, the invariable 

 opening of the proceedings, is all in the mahseer's favour. 

 In it the fish may fly off at one fell swoop with a hundred yards 

 of line, the leverage on which makes a ten-pounder feel like 

 double the weight. What would Izaak Walton have said to 

 such a fish, seeing that he used no reel, and, when fast to an 

 extra-heavy trout, used to throw his rod into the river and 

 follow as best he could ! As a further analogy to the salmon, 

 it should be noted that the mahseer, though it does not, like 

 the other, go down to the sea, has its periods of migration up 

 and down the big Indian rivers, and it was, thanks to his special 



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