INDIANANGLER

Hi Owen and also to all the others,

....missing of pink carps and other formerly common species, loads of blue fin mahseer!

Just this morning we (Owen & myself) discussed by E-mail if the variation of water levels could have any influence. I think you guys should look deeper into this.

When staying in Bheemeswary (uh just one and a half week ago...wish I could still be staying there) Terry told us that some years back there have been plenty of Carnatic carp and other species. Just at Bheemeswary camp pool opposite to the camp there've been loads of them and even fly fishermen could have real good times and multiple catches of good size fish in a single evening session. These days are gone!You (Owen) know we caught plenty of smaller size fish during Chilwa float fishing. So we were getting the feeling that everything is OK, Andreas even caught nearly 30 small mahseer on light float tackle. However as there have regulary been so much more species and higher stocks in the past something should have changed.

I know several very nice looking waters over here that offer brilliant fishing for good size fish in nearly perfect nature. The problem: All fish are old fish. The waters are reservoirs and as the water strength is used for producing electricity the water levels vary a lot. So often after breeding the fish eggs fall dry or if the fry is already there they can't survive in the deeper water because of little food offer (after the normaly food productive shallows are dried up). Maybe the same is hapening at Cauvery. Now with high water levels it doesn't seen to be significant if the water is going up and down by 1 or 2 foot regulary just because of the lake sluices and the power station. But 1 or 2 foot could change a lot. Maybe this problem wasn't as significiant in the past. The population and industry in Bangalore was smaller and so less electricity and moving water was needed.
Because of rapidly changing waterlevels much less natural fry -of the formerly common gold and silver mahseer as well as of other formerly famous species- could survive, so the blue fin variety -which is based on stock fingerlings- can get dominant? Just an idea...think about it.

Other points that have been discussed in the last weeks with several people, but mostly in regards of slow mahseer catches:
-Too much angling pressure the whole year, no longer any real close season. The fish are wising up and are more difficult too catch.
-Often people use the wrong tackle, many good fish get lost. Maybe they suffer from being hooked and from carrying around hook, line and lead. Here in Europe it is known that bigger carp species easily survive such stress. But: Here -after reaching a certain size- they no longer have any natural enemies. This is different at Cauvery. A stressed and weak Mahseer will be easy prey for the predators like crocs and otters.
-A combination of angling pressure and poaching. Because of the angling pressure fish move away from their regular and safe spots. Maybe they move into the areas close to the waterfalls and below the gorge. Here poaching is common as the river stretch isn't protected by the forest and river guards.
-The very dry summer some two or three years ago -don't know about it personally- ...Terry just told us that the water levels have been down totally and that only few pools were holding enough water. All fish -again stressed because of bad living conditions- concentrated in few space... a easy task for crocs and otters.

No clue if any of these ideas is really coming close to the truth. However -even if I still enjoy all my fishing at Cauvery- there should have been much better times in the past.

Dirk

Welcome back, Dirk.

Bops

We seem to be on the wrong thread for this topic Dirk, and i hate to give Bops the problems of shifting it to the right spot, but here goes.

Your ideas are valid Dirk, but i have some spanners to throw in.
I just hope that we haven't really lost any of the larger fish.
One thing i can say is that in the December of 2004 there were very big fish around, and all of the old gold and silver variety, i did not catch a single bluefin among the 14 fish taken in 2 days at Hiara, and that was the dry year that Terry was talking about, but still the goldies were around later that year (I did fish in May of 2004 in peak summer), we could sit on our bums in the middle of the rapids above Galibori camp and fish but there were no fish taken, the water was the lowest i have ever seen it. We could walk across the river from Hiara to the temple on the other bank where Thambi used to live without having to swim, the water was that low, but the big fish were back in December that year.


2005 saw some of the biggest rains that we have seen in 50 years and if i am right MM had some good fish around the 50 mark after the monsoons, but thereafter in 2006 things have changed with only the smaller bluefin being caught on a regular basis, with a few small goldies thrown in.
I will admit though that the bluefin are pretty aggressive fish, and even the small ones can strip your reel of 40 lb mono in a matter of seconds. However i still don't think we know the real reason for the dissapearence of many of the monsters.
I would like to look closely at the fish that JB caught last year in Nov & Dec to see which variety they were.
Regards
Owen

Guess Owen and Gav might be hitting the water in a few hours time ... God Bless Owen and the Fish and the Crocs ....

Hi Fredfish,

any idea where they're fishing now? Still at Wasi lakes or already looking after Mahseer at Cauvery itself?

Dirk