THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



anglers I met had nothing hut hlank days to record. The season was said 

 to be an abnormal one ; the river was in flood and cloudy, and the weather 

 of the worst description. 



I count myself an unlucky angler, and the following is an instance. 

 At one place on the Irrawaddy (with a big reputation) I spun for nine 

 days, morning and evening, from a big rock about thirty yards out in the 

 stream. It was a monotonous occupation, varied by using two rods and 

 two different kinds of casting-reels. There were only two places from 

 which casting could be done, one on each side of the rock round which the 

 powerful current swirled and eddied over other, but sunken, rocks, making 

 a large backwater, which was treacherous water for heavy spoons, as it 

 concealed many boulders with its ever-changing surface. 



In my pursuit of the elusive mahseer I covered 250 miles in marching 

 alone, without counting distances to and from fishing. Eighty miles of the 

 Irrawaddy were either fished or looked at with a fisherman's eye. The 

 point finally reached was between 700 and 800 miles from Rangoon, and 

 I believe well over the frontier — but tell it not to miUtary pohoemen or 

 to deputy-commissioners of the frontier brand. From this place I 

 travelled part of the way down stream on a bamboo raft knocked up in a 

 few hours by Gurkhas in a very workmanlike fashion. It was a most 

 unwieldy vessel, and myself and crew nearly foxmd a watery grave by 

 colliding with one of the gold-dredgers' wixe cables which stretch across 

 the river, and are lowered for traffic. In midstream the wire when 

 loosened sinks right down, but our raft got swept towards one bank by 

 the current, and we finally just avoided the cable, hitting it with one 

 comer of the raft. There were a few exciting seconds, during which we 

 were wondering what the crash would be Hke — ^if the wire would slice the 

 raft in two portions, and what pieces would be left us to cUng to and avoid 

 being sucked imder by the current. A few weeks before a Kachin boy 

 had been swept off a similar raft and drowned. Ghadean. 



I first heard of the glories of the Eohu (Ldbeo roMta) from 

 Kipling and was caught by the names mahseer and rohu. The 

 latter can properly be classed among the great game fishes of 

 India. Eohu is a large carp, looking not unlike a roach, but with. 

 the long pointed head of the carp. Its body is broad ; the 

 dorsal fin big ; tail powerful, put together for a fight long and 

 well contested. The fish attains a length of three feet and a 

 weight of sixty pounds. There are other species which have 

 been taken weighing thirty, forty and even seventy pounds, 

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