New angler in town
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:57 pm
Whilst TenX was recently in the U.S., I persuaded him to buy some angling tackle and get into the sport.
He arrived on Saturday and the next day we left for my usual fishing haunt. Demonstrated the basics to him and he was almost off to a dream start - a murrel went for his lure on his very first cast but spat it out before he could strike.
After a while we got into the coracle and went spinning for murrel as this is a relatively easier fish to open your angling account with. Let me say, that so far, he has been the quickest to grasp the basics of casting but the fish were more interested in my spinner and spoon than his lure and so he was yet to open his account by the time we rowed back to the jeep for lunch. I had a reasonably good session and managed to catch five.
By now the heat was really getting to me and instead of sensibly quenching my thirst with tea (the water had turned hot), we went off to the twin falls to drink aerated drinks at the cafe. I am afraid I overdosed on the Sprite and not only did it eventually increase my thirst, I was genuinely feeling ill and for the first time ever contemplated packing up and going home.
However, the contemplations remained just that and we headed off to Headworks. Once there, I took a breather in the shade and then started spinning for mahseer whilst Anand and one of the guards went to the upstream end of the dam to drift fish for the same. I did not catch any mahseer but managed to catch two more murrel. I found this rather strange as one does not usually find these fish in strong currents.
After a couple of hours at Headworks we headed back to Forbes Sagar to ledger for mahseer and rohu. This is when Anand finally caught his first fish and what a way to open one's angling account. Not only had he hooked into a reasonable size mahseer but it was a Tor mussullah (thanks for the correction GG), a sub-species I had not seen on the WASI stretch and the biggest since WASI got the lease to this stretch three years ago. The previous ones being no more than a few hundred grams in weight, whilst this was a 4 kg plus fish and a real scrapper to boot.
I managed to catch the usual blue finned mahseer and it was the most boring fight I have ever encountered. Infact it cannot even be called a fight. It just came in as if it knew it was going to be released.
Anand then hooked into two more small mahseer and the grin says it all.
We would have continued fishing for another hour but I had to get back to the bank to attend to nature's call - the big one.
So there endeth another day on the WASI stretch.
Tackle used:
Rods - Temple Fork Outfitter 6', 2 piece and Berkley Lightning 7', 2 piece.
Reels - Daiwa Exceler 4000 and Shimano Symetre 4000.
Line - 20 lb. Power Pro / 20 lb Berkley Trilene Big Game and 14 lb. Berkley Iron Silk.
He arrived on Saturday and the next day we left for my usual fishing haunt. Demonstrated the basics to him and he was almost off to a dream start - a murrel went for his lure on his very first cast but spat it out before he could strike.
After a while we got into the coracle and went spinning for murrel as this is a relatively easier fish to open your angling account with. Let me say, that so far, he has been the quickest to grasp the basics of casting but the fish were more interested in my spinner and spoon than his lure and so he was yet to open his account by the time we rowed back to the jeep for lunch. I had a reasonably good session and managed to catch five.
By now the heat was really getting to me and instead of sensibly quenching my thirst with tea (the water had turned hot), we went off to the twin falls to drink aerated drinks at the cafe. I am afraid I overdosed on the Sprite and not only did it eventually increase my thirst, I was genuinely feeling ill and for the first time ever contemplated packing up and going home.
However, the contemplations remained just that and we headed off to Headworks. Once there, I took a breather in the shade and then started spinning for mahseer whilst Anand and one of the guards went to the upstream end of the dam to drift fish for the same. I did not catch any mahseer but managed to catch two more murrel. I found this rather strange as one does not usually find these fish in strong currents.
After a couple of hours at Headworks we headed back to Forbes Sagar to ledger for mahseer and rohu. This is when Anand finally caught his first fish and what a way to open one's angling account. Not only had he hooked into a reasonable size mahseer but it was a Tor mussullah (thanks for the correction GG), a sub-species I had not seen on the WASI stretch and the biggest since WASI got the lease to this stretch three years ago. The previous ones being no more than a few hundred grams in weight, whilst this was a 4 kg plus fish and a real scrapper to boot.
I managed to catch the usual blue finned mahseer and it was the most boring fight I have ever encountered. Infact it cannot even be called a fight. It just came in as if it knew it was going to be released.
Anand then hooked into two more small mahseer and the grin says it all.
We would have continued fishing for another hour but I had to get back to the bank to attend to nature's call - the big one.
So there endeth another day on the WASI stretch.Tackle used:
Rods - Temple Fork Outfitter 6', 2 piece and Berkley Lightning 7', 2 piece.
Reels - Daiwa Exceler 4000 and Shimano Symetre 4000.
Line - 20 lb. Power Pro / 20 lb Berkley Trilene Big Game and 14 lb. Berkley Iron Silk.
