MAHSER FISHING 59 



"Themahser are like the Sahib log [the English]. 

 They come and visit Kashmir for three months, 

 and then go away." 



Some disappointments in my youth turned 

 my attention from fishing to polo and pig-sticking, 

 but when these were " shuv' be'ind me long ago 

 and far away " the piscatorial instinct revived. 



As a hunter, I always regarded myself as a 

 tyro. As a mahser fisherman I had considerable 

 success ; and some notes as to my methods may 

 therefore not be unacceptable to some of my 

 readers. 



In large, clear, fast, and even-flowing rivers, 

 like the Bias in the Punjab, a spoon is a very 

 good bait. It is visible to a great distance, and 

 the fish take it with a rush without having the 

 time to reconnoitre. The old-fashioned oval spoon 

 is, in my opinion, superior to the hog-backed 

 spoons, which are now so much in vogue ; as, 

 when you get an offer,' a fish is much more 

 likely to be hooked. But in a river with rapids 

 and pools, the recesses of which have to be 

 carefully searched out, my experience has been 

 that, for big fish, there is nothing like natural 

 bait and a Hardy's crocodile-spinner. These 

 spinners, however, I usually had more strongly 

 mounted than they are when offered for sale. 

 I attached the long flight along the belly of the 

 bait with the middle triangle at the anal fin, 

 and the other triangle just short of the tail ; 

 and the short flight I attached along the back, 

 with the triangle at the dorsal fin. It is important 

 to get a fish that really fits the spinner, and I 

 always sewed in the hooks and flights so that 



