xxxii 
FISHING 
321 
barbel which grow to a size of about 15 to 20 lb. 
This is a fish which will rise freely to a fly and will also 
take a spoon bait or minnow, but only when the water 
is comparatively clear. This is a very important point, 
and the lower and clearer the water is, the better 
will be the sport obtained. It is almost useless fishing 
with a fly or spoon bait in rivers which are thick and 
muddy, and it is unfortunate that almost all the larger 
rivers in British East Africa are muddy all the year 
round, although running swiftly. However, sport can 
be obtained even in these larger muddy streams with 
a bait such as meat, or dough, and considerable catches 
are often obtained and very large fish landed. With 
such baits large siluroid fishes are also to be caught in 
numbers. The fisherman must therefore seek the 
smaller clear streams which are tributaries of the larger 
rivers if he wishes for sport with fly or spoon. In 
these streams sport is not always to be obtained, and 
East African fish, like their European relatives, will 
not rise to a fly every day. But when a com¬ 
paratively clear stream is found running into a larger 
and muddy river, excellent sport with a fly or small 
spoon may confidently be expected at some time in the 
day, generally in the afternoon, but on some occasions 
the present writer has found fish rise best during the 
heat of the day. These barbel, which are caught on a 
fly or spoon, generally run from a pound up to four 
pounds, and fight well when hooked. The largest fish 
known to have been killed on a fly was one of 10 lb., 
killed on a salmon fly in the Athi river when it was 
comparatively low and clear. 
A catch of twenty-one fish on a small red spinner 
with a light 9-foot cane rod was made by Mr. R. B. 
Woosnam, the game warden, on the Nairobi river 
Y 
