Chapt. vn. The fly-minnow. 107 



the Mahseer, the majority, and I think I may even say 

 all, have much smaller mouths comparatively, and can- 

 not therefore readily take the same sized fish bait, as the 

 Mahseer. These seem to take the fly better, and I fancy 

 chiefly because of its smaller size. 



I have an idea which I have not yet tested, because 

 I have not yet had an opportunity, and which is therefore 

 only an idea, that the fly-minnow would be just the com- 

 promise to suit these gentry and the Mahseer simultane- 

 ously. This sort of bait did not exist in my earlier fish- 

 ing days in England, and of course was not to be seen in 

 India, I was therefore unaware of it, till I got home on fur- 

 lough. It is an artificial minnow about an inch long or 

 scarcely so much, and made on a single hook, and very 

 light, so as to be thrown over the head and used just like 

 a salmon fly. Its cost in England is six pence, say four 

 annas. 



All the carps of any size seem to take small fish as 

 well as other things, and perhaps as well as the Mahseer 

 does, the main difference being that they want them smal- 

 ler ; the fly minnow therfore should accommodate them to 

 a T, and be not distasteful, the while, to the Mahseer. 

 But if it is to please all parties, the fisherman as well as 

 the fish of all sorts and sizes, it should be dressed on a 

 hook and gut that will hold against all comers. But I 

 must repeat it is only an untried idea; yet as it only 

 costs six pence, and seems so promising, I commend it to 

 a trial. 



Some jof the large carps of which I have spoken are 



a* 



