FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS. 119 
boat with him, but one disadvantage lies in this, the boats are ancient and 
for years have been used for fishing purposes, and every crevice and corner 
is stuffed with the accumulations of years of fisherman’s garbage, and the 
odour that exudes is awful, This, added to a bit of a jump or swell, is 
very often the last straw, and I have suffered from mal de mer in these 
boats, when otherwise I should never have had even a suspicion of 
a head, 
Down by the rocky islets afore-mentioned there is in the hot weather 
some of the prettiest fly fishing to be had that I have ever come across out 
here. On the southernmost of the islets is a broad, flat, rocky ledge, and 
we used in the old days to go down there, take a small tent, or sometimes 
only a piece of canvas to rig up fora shelter, have our servants with us 
to get breakfast ready, and then and there begin to fish, The most favourite 
flies were a March Brown and a very large Red Spinner, Our takes consisted 
of mullet, some garfish, a curious looking fish, which I have long since 
recognised as Megalops cyprinoides, and which has a good deal of the 
look of a herring about it ; and occasionally a deeper thinner looking fish, 
something like a perch, which I have never been able to identify ; and on 
one or two occasions we have had, as a great piece of luck, a small “ hilsa”’ 
(Clupea ilisha). The majority of the fish we caught were either mullet 
or the Megalops, and many a dozen have I had of these. Sometimes a shoal 
of them would be swimming past slowly, and as long as they remained 
within reach they would take. No amount of hooking fish would disturb 
the others, they simply held on the even tenour of their way, and as long 
as they were within reach it was all right. This fishing was best in the 
latter part of the hot weather, and, as far as I know can only be had in the 
hot weather, A friend of mine, now a Major R. E., was out one day, and 
laying down his rod for a few minutes, with the flies in the water , was surpris= 
ed when he came to recover his line to find that he had something quite out 
of the way on; after a short time of careful playing, during which, what- 
ever he had on would only move in a sluggish manner, he managed to reel 
up and eventually land a very beautifully marked and exceptionally 
large crayfish, while his line had been left in the water the flies 
had sunk to the bottom, and the crayfish prowling around had 
probably been struck with the novelty of a red spinner in such a 
situation, and had promptly annexed it. The fish had fairly taken the fly 
and gorged it, and could not possibly have got away except by a break, 
Talking of hilsa, it is hardly fair to pass over this fish altogether, although 
from an angler’s point of view, it is almost worthless, being very seldom 
taken on a hook at all, but the hilsa is such a well known fish out here, that 
afew words concerning it may not be out of place. It is a seafish, which, 
annually, like the British Salmonidew, ascends the rivers for spawning 
purposes. In appearance it is like the chad, never attaining any great size, 
