Going fishing with Stevie Wonder tomorrow.

[Pran]

Tough luck, 'Toitle' Jefe

Pran

[Grumpy]

I damn well KNEW you were really a Mick Asif ! There have been just too many clues recently.
So what`s your real name - `O`Toole`, `O`Grady`, `Oh I`m drunk as a Skunk` ?

[Mack The Knife]

Here's the sequel to last weekend's visit.

Arrived at the lake at 8 a.m. and once again the guard (Raju) was not around. Tackled up and had some tea and sandwiches.

Whilst doing this a movement caught my eye and I saw a group of three animals cross the path on top of the bund. Care to guess what they are?



As some of you may recall, I was only interested in fishing for reasonable size mahseer (10 lbs. or more), so the tackle consisted of an uptide rod coupled with a Shimano 6500 Baitrunner loaded 40 lb mono and a Berkley Lightning spinning rod coupled with a Daiwa Exceler 4000 loaded with 20 lb mono.

By the time the guard arrived and we row up to the spot where the canal opens up into Forbes Sagar it is 9:30 a.m.



Raju is manning the uptide combo (a real pain in the butt when used from a coracle) and gets first strike.







I have never seen a fish hooked in it's lower lip like this.

The bites are coming at fairly regular intervals but neither of us are able to get a hookset and the three times that I did get a fish on the hook, they spat it out after being reeled in for about 10 to 15 yards. The same happened with Raju once or twice.

Around 1:30 p.m. I start developing severe chest cramps due to dehydration and we decide to head back to the Gypsy for lunch.



However, on the way we had to pass some lilly pads and the temptation to spin for murrel was too great.

I catch a couple in a fairly short space of time but thirst gets the better of us and we continue to where the Gypsy was parked. There was a bottle of water in the coracle but the water had turned very hot.





Lunch over (in my case, it was more tea than sandwiches), we walk along the bund and Raju sees a huge murrel. I go back to the Gypsy for the spinning rod and return to where Raju had seen this murrel but the blighter had either slinked off elsewhere or was in no mood to play.

We get back into the coracle at 3:30 p.m. and try for mahseer again.

Once again, there are a reasonable number of bites but neither of us are able to get a hookset. An uptide rod is a bit cumbersome to strike with from a coracle but I had no such excuse.

Towards the dying minutes of the day, Raju manages to hook into another mahseer successfully and brings it in.

Raju is a supreme bullshit artist, so I am not sure whether this is true or not but he said that he thought he had a 10 lb plus rohu on (they were biting earlier on) rather than an approximately 1.5 kg mahseer. Bear in mind that he was using pretty heavy tackle which should have made short work of a 1.5 kg tiddler.



We fish for another 20 minutes or so by which time the mosquitoes were making a thorough nuisance of themselves, so we head back to the Gypsy and once packed I am on my way back home.

Time and circumstances permitting, I will try again this coming Saturday/Sunday but sance uptide rod. I have not given up on catching a big one on this stretch but until I catch one, even if it means getting totally spooled out, I am sticking with relatively lighter tackle. I think they are good enough for even fairly big mahseer but above all one can actually enjoy a real fight or two rather than just winching them in.

[Risala]

Lot of action,that is a good day out on the water

What size hook is that re Mahseer

The animals on bund -porkers.

Keep on doin it

Sanjay

[Mack The Knife]

What size hook is that re Mahseer

That's an Owner Gorilla Live Bait Cutting Point 6/0. Velly, velly expensive. Thanks, Asif!

The animals on bund -porkers.

Do porkers stand on their rear feet? We do have lots of wild boar here but I have never seen them on the bund.

[Pran]

Nice writeup, Mack The Knife.

>I saw a group of three animals cross the path on top of the bund. Care to guess what they are?

Bears? Please post pics, if any.

Pran

[Mack The Knife]

Bears? Please post pics, if any.

See the first pic.

[Pran]

>Do porkers stand on their rear feet?

Kangaroos

Guess they're bears only. Funny that wild animals should venture out into roads so commonly used by people.

Pran

[Mack The Knife]

At first, I thought you said bears without seeing the pic and in response to "Do porkers stand on their rear feet?"

No they are neither bears nor pigs. I thought it was pretty obvious...

BTW, I assume you meant bear cubs because they are far too small to be adult bears. Also, in south India, one only finds sloth bears that are black in colour, not brown.

Try again.

[Grumpy]

Too high on the legs for Pigs and the one on the right has a definite neck. Looks Goat ( or mini-Llama ) shape but I can`t see you getting too interested in Goats so I presume Deer or Antelope of some kind ?

[Pran]

>I thought it was pretty obvious...

No it isn't

My second guess would be it's a primate.

[Grumpy]

"My second guess would be it's a primate."

????????????? !!!!

You see a Yeti standing on all fours ?
Time for some new specs Pran.

( I really, REALLY, now hope that isn`t a bunch of Monkeys !! )

[Mack The Knife]

Too high on the legs for Pigs and the one on the right has a definite neck. Looks Goat ( or mini-Llama ) shape but I can`t see you getting too interested in Goats so I presume Deer or Antelope of some kind ?

You're having a laugh, aren't you?

Come on Grumps...

Will post a bigger pic in a bit.

[Mack The Knife]

No it isn't

Yes it is! If I am not mistaken, YOU saw them last week.

[Mack The Knife]

( I really, REALLY, now hope that isn`t a bunch of Monkeys !! )

Breathe easy, they aren't monkeys either. Yes, you do need to have your eyes checked.