INDIANANGLER

hi
i happen to visit ranjeet sagar,huge freshwater lake made on river ravi.i wonder if there are any mahseer in there as no reports exist on it. can anyone throw some light on it ?????????

Hi Zorawar,


There are no accurate reports on the Ranjeet sagar. I was there about 6 years ago and had a fantastic trip, but the lake faces the following problems from an anglers perspective:

1) Jurisdiction: The lake is split between three states; Punjab, J&K and HP. Unlike J&K and HP, Punjab has a very defunct angling policy.
2) Security: Being in a so called 'sensitive' area, hassment by the cops/secrity guys is phenomenal. It is best to go there with a military connexion. No other way to beat this.
3) No local Support: There are no boats/roads around the lake. It has to be beaten on foot or one takes the boats belonging to the Dam. You again need sarkari jugaad for this.

The above are a few reasons why the 'aam angler' should not venture there! But if you can find a contact in the admin/sarkar, then no place beats Ranjeet Sagar!!!

Hope this helps...
Cheers,

well when it come's to jugaad,we indians are the best at it. is the ranjeet sagar having any mahseer in it ????????????? wat are the other fish in there ??????

The Ranjeet Sagar, like Pong and Bhakra are all situated in the Shivalik Range aka The Outer Himalayas. If you llok at this region on Google Earth, you'll see that each lake/dam is approx. 100km from each other as the crow flies.

All three lakes contain more or less the same species across the board, with a few rudimentary differences. These differences are my observation over the years and are Gospel to me. Here they are:

1) Pong is good for RCC (Rohu,Catla,Carps)/Catfish as the beas is primarily a spring fed river. The mineral content and the TDS in the water along with a shallow lake depth (Avg 100ft) allows for warmer waters with a low oxygen content. This situation is ideal for species other than the mahseer. Evidence of this would be the 'average' small size mahseer at Pong. The big ones are towards Dehra Gopipur and where the beas falls into pong. The Rohu, Catla, Singhada grow huge in Pong.

2) Bhakra is a deep lake (Avg depth 350 ft) and glacial fed. The waters compared to Pong are much cooler (10 deg) difference and therefore hold more oxygen. The Mahseer out here are huge, whereas the carps etc are tiny when taken in ratio. There is very little singhada at Bhakra and no Sol or Mulley like you have at Pong.

3) Ranjeet Sagar I would say is a hybrid cross between Pong and Bhakra. It has a mix of spring water coming in from the Pangi sub division in Chamba district as well snow fed waters coming in from behind Chamba/J&K. The waters hold everything across the board and the fish stocks have never been disturbed due to the security issues preventing netting etc.

The waters of the Ravi are so unique that you can find mahseer and trout at the two ends of a 5 km stretch. Find this elsewhere in the country!

Ranjeet Sagar is a brilliant place to fish. All you need is good old Jugaad, and the best place to get that from is either the Army or Punjab Sarkar!!!

Cheers,
IG