INDIANANGLER

Hey Guys

Just back from a trip to Northern India for these majestic fish with 2 friends.

Had an amazing experience with the sights we saw and people we met.....and the fishing, well that was the icing on the cake. As a group we managed a total of 46 fish landed. Of these 8 were of notable size and I managed to bank lumps of 45lb, 41lb and 30lb. Amongst the fish landed by others were fish of 20lb, 16lb, 13lb and a couple of 10's. The rest were all in the 2-6lb range. Truly blown away by it all!!

The fight that these are capable of giving is like nothing Ive experienced before and when I checked on google earth I found that the 45's first run was actually in excess of 200yds - way further than my estimated 120-140yds at the time. I had to go way down stream to get her in!

Will upload some photos when I get a minute!

Great..... bring on da pics.... plzzz

congrats mate... ill only believe you when i see the pics

29lb+




41lb


45lb


More to follow guys

45lb




45lb & 10lb


Playing the 45lbr

OUTSTANDING !

If I decide to do a trip up north next winter, I'll be PMing you for hints and tips about rivers, locations and methods.

Ken

Thanks Ken - Im no expert though but I'll answer any queries as honestly and openly as I can.

Super fish guys...

Beautiful fish and the place looks heavenly...

JImbo,

Simply awesome. Any anglers dream. Im Gold with envy

G8 pics, breath taking location and fish.

Your one hell of a lucky guy.

Would you like to share the tackle info (Rod, reel, line) and the plugs/spinners used.

Fish on

Incredible!

Can't wait to get back into the hills.

cheers and keep them coming.

simply superb.........

amazing!!!!

Super !

Simply awasome. Great catches mate. These are the fishes of my heart. Yes, the fight can onle be experienced. These fishes are awasome when caught in rapids.
Regards,

Ali.

excellent catch Jimbo
wonderful photographs.
awesome location.
Ravi

Wooooooooooooooo!

Simply Superb. Can you tell us the location & the tackle used ?

How Wonderful !

Happy to see and hear of such fine action after long !

Tight Lines
Hamdhingra

SuperB

Hi Guys

I have put together a few of our highlights from our recent trip to accompany the pictures James has posted. We have over 10 hours of footage which at some point i may put together as a 1 hour film.

Hope you enjoy the video.

http://vimeo.com/1998475

Cheers

Stuart

Beautiful...

fantastic, mind blowing, outstanding, history.....in a nasal tone

saiki

fantastic................

Looks like you had a great time, and great fishing too.

Such a beautiful place.

Nice video Stuart.

Cheers

David

Awesome.. golden's looks just Awesome..

Hey Jimbo,

Can you please share the tackle and location if you don't mind?

-Inder

great stuff Jimbo !

Very nice vedio Stuart. I have combed those waters where you were fishing and had amazing experiance and ultimate thrill of landing Golden Mahseer. Your vedio reminds me of the old days.

How I wish to comb those waters again in surch of this beautiful fish.

Congratulation to full team.

Regards,

Ali.

Nice video!

G8 Video Matey,

Howdy Mate...

But this seems to be shorter version...
Can all of us have a look onto the whole thingy?

Congratulations once again
Regards,
Saiki

Hi Saiki

At some point i might make a film of the 10 hours of footage we have into a short film, but its a long process to do a proper job, i'll let you guys know when i have done it.

I would have loved to have fished when the big fish were more prolific, we understand that these fish are rare beasts now, it was good to see alot of small mahseer in the 2-6lb range, lets hope these fish have the chance to grow on.

Cheers

Stu

Nice video Stuart. Seems like you had a very good time landing those beasts. Thanks for sharing

Nice pics mate. Thanks for sharing

nice video - like the fireworks ... great job.

which river is this ? kali/sharda - looks a bit small in the videos and the pictures and the hills also seem lower ... scratching my head out to guess the river.

Nice catches - seems u were spot on with your timing early October ...

nice himalayan beauties - waiting to get my hands on a few in a couple of days.

welcome to the himalayan 40s club - quite a exclusive place for those who held on without getting the hooks bent or the plugs spit out or knots broken.

Hi Jimbo,

Its fantastic .

HI MATE,

Simply incredible. Well done. Pl give details of the tackle etc.



Tight lines,



Harryxs.

bagiganga

Your not wrong about busting tackle, although i have done a bit of mahseer fishing we were still amazed how 4x hooks were been bent even on some small fish, James did really well to land the 45 it did an amazing first run of 200yrds. James lost a big fish due to the line breaking maybe on a rock, and i lost a good fish which straightend a 4x hook on a spoon, and we had a couple break the hooks.

Our tackle was Daiwa Exceller spining rods 11ft, with Okuma Spinning reel, with 280 yrds of 20lbs big game line, all spro 100lb + test swivels /snaps and split rings. The best hooks we had were owner stinger trebles 6x + but these could only be fitted to the spoons.

I wish the manufactures would make some 6x + hooks which can be fitted to the smaller plugs.

We came to the conclusion that the hooks get bent due to the effect of torque which occurs just after the mahseer hits and turns on the lure. It happens in a blink of an eye and you are just left thinking how the hell did that happen.

Hi guys, thanks for your comments.

We fished on the Kali River. We used Diawa spinning rods, mine was an Excellor 11ft 10g-60g. I also used an American Okuma spinning reel loaded with Berkley Big Game 20lb mono. We used SPRO swivels 100lb test and tied on a 30lb Seaguar Flourocarbon leader for better abrasion resistance. The leader was attached to an SPRO snap link 100lb test and then we used Rapala lures. J11, J13, Tail dancers, X-raps, countdowns, shad raps etc. We also found cleo spoons were good. We changed all our split rings to Owner 70lb test and uprated the trebles to 4x Gamakatsu or 4x Eagle Claw items. Even with all this preparation we still encountered tackle failures!!

hey stu

when the big fish are about u going to have a few bad days - the respect you get for the fish is when you know that the no tackle is good enough to give you the edge - the fact is in these waters the fish still have the edge ... and thats what makes it fun.

its good to see anglers get beaten by the fish because then they respect the fish ... you know cast with caution in these waters - you never know what you going to hook ... remember the trembling in your hands when you cast out in the morning not knowing what the hell is going to hit you next. Thats Kali.

been in kali too long so in Nepal now angling the hard way in miles of uncharted unfished uninhabited wild grade 5 rivers ...

change to 50 lbs test braid line next time, you will have less knot breakage. test the knot each time you cast as the line is as good as knot you make.

HI Jimbo

Thanks for the lovely pictures and the tackle report.

Given the tackle failures you had this time, what do you plan to use on your next trip?

Cheers
IA

The only tackle failures I personally had were:

1. One hook length parting near the lure - which I assume was on a rock so other than going really silly with the leader then there is little can be done about this. Maybe I'd step up to more than 30lb Flouro next time round, perhaps 50lb.

2. One of the hooks on the treble snapped and of the two remaining one was bent. I would look round to see if I can obtain stronger hooks although I dont want to go bigger as it would upset the lure action. Not sure how to get round this to be honest. On the spoons we started using Owner Stinger 6x hooks which did slightly affect the action but we still caught on them. You cant use these hooks on a small Rapala lure though.

Prior to every session we were quite religious in clipping our rigs to the tent guy ropes and pulling harder than we ever could on a fish. This gave us confidence in knot strength and also line defects. Perhaps worth noting that we used the Palomar Knot throughout.

I think you have to accept that these fish definately have the upper hand and they will break tackle given half a chance, most times before we even engage our brains and know whats happening!

Thanks for the update, James. Maybe you could try using single hooks instead of trebles. The action of the plug may or may not be affected but it's worth giving it a try.

Bopanna

Now thats something I never considered! We did consider using just one set of treble hooks but never single hooks......food for thought!!

Amazing fish! Amazing pics! Thanks for sharing! Those Goldens are something else
Regards,
Yaj.

we have used Singles on minnow type lures in the past, they hold on better than trebles once the fish is hooked up...

Somehow I feel that the hook-up ratio with trebles are better..

I'm starting the count down. I will be there in two weeks. I hope you
missed a few big ones that I might be able to catch. We will also be
going after goonch. Hopefully we will be successful on both species.

Jim and Bops thanks for your input on lures and tackle. Wish I had
some down time there. Wouldn't mind trying for some Murrels.

Scott

jimbo-with beauties like those, i'm not surprised at the hook failure. read a couple of articles here in oz about locals shifting to long shank singles as tail hooks, for various hardbody lures, with good hook up on GT and red emperor. the hook was a 6/0 on a 1 1/2 inch metallic lure!Also, know a couple of guys in bangalore who prefer the same technique, retrofitting singles ...Hope this has been of help.
Great job and keep on doing it
Axx

Congratulations on your amazing catch & breathtaking photography.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

Amazing fish caught. You are one of those lucky ones who got to experience some superb fishing with the himalayan river tigers. Congratulations to you and wonderful pics. Thanks for sharing.