INDIANANGLER

Dear All,

What bait do u'll use for Masheer? I have seen you'll mention crabs.

Can any one suggest what kind and prefrably what size?

In pakistan we use Chilwas ( Silver) and Luriya ( Small Fish), spoons, spinners and Atta.

Any Other techniques if somebody would like to share!!!

What size hooks, rigs, wieghts ( fixed or free), how to hook ur live bait (Crabs and Chilwas).


Any other info u would like to share.


Tight lines

Right now jointed rapalas in Gold, silver, fire tiger and all the trouts are working great in the Ganga.

Shad raps, DTs and husky jerks are working great in the lakes.

But this could change anytime.

Another great bait for small mahseer are grasshoppers, crickets and flying ants. I have not tried the ants but saw someone floating a few on a small hook and getting a lot of fish.

As for the grasshoppers and crickets. Put them on a small hook ( hook in the belly not the thorax). Then break one of the big legs (F*** PETA) and toss in the water. The hopper will swim in circles because of his single leg. You'll get a lot of different fish on this.

have fun and a big one.

I've seen catla and carp guts being used @ Bhakra... everything in the water will bite as far as gut goes... mahseer included

Come on guys.

Plz could some other of you guys share ur expertize?

Owen,

If u could plz post the raggi link will aprec. that Bro.

Here you go Sam
http://www.indianangler.com/viewtopic.php?t=251
Basically ragi is a type of millet which is ground into flour.
The ragi seeds look very much like mustard seeds.
It is the staple food of the people of Karnataka state Sam, but I have not seen Ragi growing anywhere in the north of India, but one ofe the guys on the forum mentioned an alternate name that they use in the north.
Even if you manage to get hold of some ragi, the fish will take some time to get used to the bait and start eating it.
Regards
Owen

Owen Mate,

Got it Ragi is called Bajira in northern India and the same in Pakistan. Bajira is also used as a feed fro Birds and CHicken in Pakistan.

Check out http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_2.cfm?wordid=2769

Will try it out the next time i go fishing.

Yes finger millet is the one. You will need to take plenty of it and ground bait the area you plan to fish, to get the fish used to the new bait.

You need not use hing in the ground bait.
If you use continue to use ragi long enough it will give you results.

Ensure that the balls are cooked properly inside. Cut a cooked ball and check that the insides are properly cooked. Don't let the outsides get very dark and burnt, the ragi will tend to break up during casting. Too soft and the same thing will happen.

A good thing about ragi is that if it is cooked just right, it will stay on a hook for a long time even in fast water, and you can cast it a long way out without it coming off the hook (if it is cooked just right)

Tight lines! Be a ragi pioneer in Pakistan

News to me, for some reason I thought Ragi was a red grain. I used to feed Bajra to my Fighting Fowl.

Hi Sam,
Crabs!
They are usually available under small rocks near rivers and streams.
A shell dia of about 2" should be great. Pull off the pincers.

Tie a 6/0 hook to the body of the crab using 4 or 6 lb mono (I mean a neat little job).

Use enough lead to hold bottom, and let the crab do his thing.
Mahseer and even murral love the fellow.

Oranges!
Yep when the mahseer are hungry, they will take even a peeled orange, and even tomatoes, i have even caught them on boiled potatoes near campsites where the leftover food gets tossed into the water.
Check out the below link for pictures of the lead and rig i use.
http://www.indianangler.com/viewtopic.php?t=443

Hey Bobby,

this is getting crazy. first you talk about support the local hookers, then you talk about fighting fowls........ Everyone has heard of fighter cocks, but I suppose 'cocks' would make it too personal, especially if you have a statement about 'supporting.........a needy cause mentioned below it'....lol




Cheers guys...have a great weekend

Ragi is red Bobby, and apparantly there are two types of Bajra. Pearl millet and finger millet. Finger millet is the right type.
Alexis has posted a good link that tells all, and Sam another that tells some more

owen how do u use chilwa? wat the right way of putting it on to a hook?

Hi Aaron,
Mount the hook just below the dorsal fin (in line with the first ray of the dorsal fin)
Regards
Owen

Stay above the lateral line. if you go below you will puncture organs or break the backbone and the chilwa will die real fast.

Another thing is to snip off the tail fin. This makes the chilwa swim real crazy and attracts more fish.

I agree with MKen ... ... another thing that I do is take the 3 sets of trebles off the plug and instead use only 2 but larger trebles .. for eg if the plug has 2/0 trebles x 3 .. i take them off and then put on 3/0 or 4/0 depending on the length of the plug . what this does that it puts the plug of keel with the first treble skipping from side to side of the plug thereby making the plug swim erratically instead of the straight line that it normally would .. The only drawback is that it works great on the troll but instead of putting out 3 to 4 rods .. you may have to put out only 2 as the lines may get entangled . The second drawback is that since the hooks are large you cannot spin with those plugs as 2 out of 3 times the main treble gets entangled either with the snalp or the swivel and thats a pain .. but if your only trolling ... i would advise all to change the hooks from 3 to 2 on the plug and depending on the size of the plug use either 3/0 or 4/0 ... as the strike rate goes much higher when I do this

OB,
how big do these baitfish have to be?

3 to 6 inch chilwa are ideal.

Hi Owen,

We've had good results hair rigging the chilwa. A 40lb hair of nylon goes through the back near the dorsal. This helps stop the bait masking the hook on the strike.

Hey guys, I think Steve has a valuble contribution to make to this thread. His experiments with mangos sound.........interesting

I caught fish on Monster Crab boilie mix and wild mangos.

Also caught on pellets, but think they will eat anything that lands on the water and makes a splash. I suspect they often hit a spinner because of the splash, not because they think it's a fish!

if you want to know which bait to use, then look at the enviornment around you... nature affects everything..

There are seasons for every kind of bait and places for them... I've seen mahseer been taken on a lot of weired stuff which was naturally found around that partcular body of water...

but at the end of the day, if you ground bait heavily enough, you can take the fish on anything from ragi to corn to earth worms....

Hi,
I have used plain atta but maybe only about 5-10 times in my lifetime.The atta should not be hard or boiled as we do for flowing water, but soft for typical to the Mahseer she will take it in one big rush and thus hard atta comes out of the mouth most of the time.Try and keep a very little bit of hook exposed.We are talking of ledgering. For flowing water the best is indian chapati made a little thick and cut in pieces about the size of a medium sized button and put about 15 of them on the hook . Use very light and strong hooks like Gamakatsu octopus hooks sz 3/0. Throw in ur baited pair of hooks and a good hit is going to be there.This bait can be left for long -especially suited to fast flowing water .
Using live bait - try using dollies (Very similar to Murrels) hook them at the dorsal fin -BE VERY SURE U TAKE THE DOLLIES OUT OF THE SAME SOURCE OF WATER AND JUST THEN . THE MAHSEER WILL HIT AND HIT HARD. BE SURE TO HANDLE THE FISH WITH BARE HANDS AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE -Ur SMELL IS CARRIED. We used murrels from a local pond and the Mahseer hit us at Ropar like mad and in Ropar we generally never got a bite those days. Hope all this will help ! CHEERS

most of the time i use cheese and "bundiya" ...... these r really popular baits to catch smaller mahseers in testa river.....even reddish part of lung of mutton is also pretty effective.......

Hi Ham,

Where around ropar do you fish? We guys hit the place this weeknd, but no luck... not even a nibble!!!

Hi,
near the boat club bridge. On thokar no 1 and thokar no 3 . On the divider if u know someone.
Then down from Ropar on the natural course of the river.All thokars there are having deep pools.
pl ensure u have a licence for the thekedar there is abs RABID.He promises to get all fishing licences cancelled.
The fish move up in shoals and if u are there u will get good bites.Mahseer is there but wont touch lures and goes for roti.Considerable no of Goonj are also there.
Hope this helps -will answer to all ur querries
Cheers...Ham

IG does that mean that MKen didn't catch anything? One ToitleKen coming up

That Meant that we did not catch anything at Ropar. Bahkra was another story. Errrr will tell all later.

thanks for the info Ham... thats exactly where we guys went and tried roti and everything else... no luck... the place was in flood!

This Jun and Jul the netting continued unabated.There were some anglers present who objected/reported/thereafter gave up. At one of the thokars below ie no 28(not very sure of the no as anglers hide from each other and say some other no to confuse fellow anglers) they saw the thekedar load 40 Bags of rohu into his vehicle - obviously the boat fellows had a good haul of rohu moving up to spawn. I am told that they even spoke to Dir fisheries who said the money goes right up........Thus ur bad luck
I came to know u were at Bhakra . Go after the grass carp there . let the water recede . For Mahseer spin deep. Cheers...Ham