SOME GAME FISHES OF INDIA 



One of the really great game flslies is the B^min (Polynemus tetra- 

 dactylus), with the head of a trout, the mouth of an anchovy, and 

 the body of a tarpon. It takes a fly, which is creditable to the 

 Bar-meen, which also is a notorious consumer of tackle, accord- 

 ing to Thompson, who has successfully cast for it in the P^mban 

 channel. Colonel Osborn has written entertainingly of it. 



One of the fine, hard fighting fishes of India, and which looks 

 the part, is the Begti of Calcutta, called the Kulanji by the 

 Canarese, the Coollon by the Malays, and the Jack or Ifair fish 

 by the European. The fish resembles wonderfully a ferocious, 

 fighting-mad yellow perch, but he is Lates calcarifer, and has 

 been taken up to sixty pounds. Silvery in colour with a rich 

 brown sheen playing over its surface, the Indian jack is a hand- 

 some fish, and can be taken with rod and reel after the fashion 

 of the mahseer. Here we find many allies of the Florida snapper, 

 as the red perch, caught at Madras. The gray perch, GhrysopJieys 

 herda, is very attractive. Here we also find an Slops, a most 

 active fish of two or three feet that will take a white fiy. 



The famous silver king, the tarpon, has a representative at the 

 marine Court of India, near about where Queen Gulnare came up 

 out of the sea. This is Megalops cyprinoides. It is very small, 

 but a perfect tarpon, and what is interesting, takes a May fly with 

 avidity, also live bait. Like the mighty American tarpon, it leaps 

 well, when hooked. When you hear a Tamil speak of Morang 

 Eendai, you may know he is thinking of going a-fishing, and 

 that the India fly-taking tarpon is the game, but in so hot a 

 country you think a long time sometimes and then do not go. 



It is practically impossible to even mention all the good game 

 fishes of India, and I always remember to refer the reader to Day's 

 splendid work on the fishes of that wonderful region, and Thomp- 

 son on the sport. I can refer but briefly to such fine game as 

 the Seer, which leaps eight feet and has a fighting weight of 

 fifteen pounds. Like the American blue-fish, it wUl take a lure 

 at full gpeed, trolling. Then we have the thirty-pound Chanos 

 and many more. 



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