Let me start at the begining.
Asif landed up at my place on Friday evening and we had a long chin wag, when it was decided that I would be at his place at 5 a.m..
12:20 a.m. found me replying to one of Grumpy's e-mails and after that I just had to read a few pages of the book on knives that Asif brought me. Many thanks for that, Asif.
I don't know about you chaps but I can never sleep early just before a trip and that does screw things up later in the day but for me an outdoor trip is still just too exciting for sleep to come.
4:50 a.m. the kids are bundled into the jalopy and 4:55 a.m. finds the J ticking over nice and warm (none of that fuel injection stuff here) and off we go.
5 a.m. finds me in front of Asif's gates but there does not seem to be any movement inside. After a while Asif's dad comes to the gates and tells me that Asif hadn't come home.
Out comes the phone and after a few rings the maestro answers. He is at home (must have been some pretty impressive tiptoeing there), he had set the alarm on his cell but the silly bug*3r forgot to take it off 'silent mode'.....
Since I was in no mood for the
please take your time line, my tone must have suggested that he and his friend, Dr. Sripad, better make it snappy and snappy it was.
5:20 a.m. finally finds us on the way and just when I was all set to play Fangio I find that he isn't keeping up. The engine of his bloody van was knocking.
Great! A 70 odd kilometer stretch that we normally do at 100 kmph is now done at a mind numbing 60 -70 kmph. I am pretty sure a few tractors overtook us.
We break at my usual haunt for breakfast and am happy to see that everyone had worked up an appetite and tucked in. When I mentioned that lunch would not be served before 2 p.m., they tucked in some more. Gluttons...
Incidentally, just before we stopped for breakfast, a black car came up behind me and started honking, then it came alongside, the front passenger window went down and a feminine hand frantically waves me to stop. By now I am wondering what the hell is happening. Have my boys been making faces at the cars behind? Or did the sight of my pro-gun stickered jalopy offend some mindless city slicker. WHAT???
Anyway, I pull over and it turns out to be my friend Dhanu who was going with his wife and daughter for a days fishing to Balmuri. Dhanu then pulls out his brand new rod and we are busy wiggling it about on the shoulder of the highway whilst cars whizz by. At which point Asif commented that in the old days it was quite possible for a rifle or shotty to be admired in such a setting. Do it now and some chap will be on his cell to the coppers.
We finally reached the cottage at 8:30 a.m. and after a cup of badly needed chaa and checking out each others fishing tackle, we hit the bank. We started off with a bit ledgering for rohu but that session proved to be unproductive.
After a while, I suggested we do some spinning for murral along the lake's periphery from the coracle.
I wasn't surprised to find that Asif could not cast for toffee but was really taken aback at the speed at which he learnt. Shabaash! We must have been on the water for close to an hour when there was an almighty shout from Prathap (a friend of mine who had gone ahead a day earlier) from the far bank. He was into something that was stripping line at the rate of knots and all he had was a piddly little reel and no boat in which to follow the fish. Our ghillie started paddling back as fast as he could but I doubt we would have made it. Fortunately, we had confiscated a coracle from poachers a few weeks back and one of the guards on duty, rolled it across land and plonked it in the water. Prathap and the guard were now able to follow the fish to some extent.....they did not have a paddle. No wise cracks about being up the creek please!
We altered course for Prathaps coracle, caught up with it and brought both coracles quickly to a bank. Here we handed over our oar to Prathap's guard whilst we stayed put in the current by grabbing a plant stem on the bank and watched the fun. And what a jolly time it was.
Prathap played the fish well and when it was sufficiently tired they paddled towards us, gave us the oar and we towed them in. Prathap played the fish for a couple of minutes from the bank.....
and then held his trophy with a grin a mile wide.
Some quick pics and then the fish was revived and released.
This rohu weighed in at 18.5 lbs.
After this everyone was keen to land another Rohu but I guess the pangs of hunger must have been stronger as we returned to the cottage for lunch.
After lunch it was decided that I would take Sripad and Asif to Forbes Sagar (a far bigger lake) to catch some murral. For a chap who hasn't casted out much, Asif gave a virtuoso account - back hand cast, side casts, you name it. Sripad was no slouch either. So I was pretty confident that they would both catch a few. After all, in all visits to this area, no one has ever come away empty handed.
30 minutes or so into the session and the fish really started biting and Sripad was the first to get one. The murral was brought in and as Sripad was reaching for his camera, the line broke. I don't know how but I really felt bad for him.
A few minutes later Asif got a good whack but in his excitement he forgot not to strike for a second or two and lost it.
After that both Asif and Sripad got some good bites but the murral kept spitting the lures out.
By now the Sun was begining to set and I was getting a bit panicky. Not only were Sripad and Asif yet to open their account but there was no fish for dinner!
Sripad claimed that his wrists were aching after all that casting (I think he noticed my desperation
) and gave me the rod. I soon started getting hits but it was the same old story of the lure getting spat out. Normally we don't use a spinner at this time of year because of the weeds, so asked the ghillie if I could use one. Since the chances of snagging are very high, ghillies don't like them as they keep having to row to and fro. As expected he pointed at the failing light and said it wouldn't work. 10 or 15 minutes later and with the light fading fast we were still without a fish and I decided to use a spinner. Out came the trusty Mepps Agila No. 4 and in came a 2 to 2.5 kg murral. In just over one year of fishing this was the first time that I actually had to fish for food and not just sport and I can tell you, it concentrates your mind to your surroundings a lot more. Well, at least in my case.
Following this there was some frenetic spinning whilst we paddled back to the car but a fish still eluded both my friends and in a way this was a slap in the face for me because this place has always produced fish. What makes it worse is that neither of them were doing much wrong. I guess there is a first time for everything, it's just that I wish it hadn't happened to a bloke who has come all the way from Delhi to catch his first fish.
On reaching the cottage after some tea and a bath, we were ready for dinner and Prathap cooked up some rice, daal and fried murral. We then did some night fishing but did not get any bites.
Asif was up early, so we made another round of the cottage lake in the coracle but still no joy. I would have liked to do Forbes Sagar again but Sripad wanted to be back in Bangalore early, so we packed our stuff, had a hearty brunch and hit the road once again.
I hope it's a different story when Asif returns in December.
Mack The Knife
P.S.: Soon after we left, Prathap caught an even bigger rohu and this one actually stripped off all his line. Fortunately, the knot on the spool held and soon thereafter a guard came on the scene to paddle the coracle and they were able to retrieve it. He also caught a 3.5 kg cat fish which he suspects to be an African catfish.
Don't forget to take and post pics.
After all that hard work, it would be nice to have some fried fish with chilled beer...
.