Identifier: sportsmansbookfo1904afla (find matches)
Title: The sportsman's book for India
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Aflalo, Frederick G. (Frederick George), 1870-1918, ed
Subjects: Sports -- India
Publisher: London, H. Marshall & Son
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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he plains to the higher reaches to spawn ; andit will be seen what stress one of my correspond-ents lays on the proper appreciation of this habit.Mahseer have been affirmed to run up to lOOor even 150 lbs. in weight, but such may be putout of reckoning for the ordinary angler. In anyof the larger rivers, however, you are quite liableto get one of 50 or even 60 lbs. ; 40-pounders arefairly common, and the lesser sizes, of course, stillmore so. All this will show how small is theresemblance of a mahseer to a carp, as we knowthe species in our English ponds. Yet he is acarp too—Barbus tor being his scientific designa-tion—and this kinship only shows what differenceof habitat can accomplish. Having now got some general idea of thequalities and tastes of the mahseer, we canunderstand better what has been said about thenecessity of strong tackle, and may turn withmore appreciation to the consideration of themethods of his capture, and the lures best suitedto circumvent him. c-^ o. ^ TCP
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FISHING 247 By the native of the country, we may be sure, Nativethe mahseer is not neglected, but, as might be Sf Captursupposed, his methods are more of the practical,wholesale order than scientific, or sporting. Wedo not therefore find him interfering, or com-peting with us in what we are accustomed toconsider the only legitimate ways of fishing ; andindeed he does not with a rod trouble the mahseerso much as the other more pronounced ground-feeders. As all the world over, netting byvarious methods is his chief stand-by, but healso uses the rod and line in the still waters, andis fond of night-lines, a lump of dough, a frog ora small fish being the usual baits. One methodof using the net, which I have seen, is particu-larly attractive to watch. A net is first stretchedacross one end of a pool, so fixed as to projecttwo or three feet above the water. A crowd ofmen and boys then form line at the other end,and armed with sticks and stones, thoroughlybeat the pool down towards the net.

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