INDIANANGLER

Great. I will have a months break in June.

Hi Folks
Got the opportunity to visit the northern areas (Skardu Valley). Thoroughly enjoyed the fall weather and trout fishing though it had gone a bit chilly out there and water was really cold. It was almost the end of trout season and trout seem to know about it. They attacked the spinner ferociously and fought furiously. Fished mostly in Farok Tso (lake) and Katchura Tso.
Day one. Caught three trout, medium size.
Day two. Caught 22 brown trout and 4 snow carps, mostly in the range of 1 lb. few were around 2 lb. Released 15.
Day three. Caught 9 brown trout, 2 rainbow trout and 2 snow carps. Released 7. Biggest trout being 3 lb. Most were in range of one lb.

A wonderful trip. There is certainly something special about trout fishing. The only unfortunate thing was that the camera stopped working in the middle of fishing session , however, had taken a few pics before it happened.
Sualeh







Days catch, after releasing 15 trouts

Relaxing after a dream session

Man that place looks brilliant! Great stuff,thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Yaj.

U are 1 Lucky Guy to Been fishing and that too in This kinda place...
Cheers!!!
M

What a place. You are one lucky guy dude.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Good show Sualeh Sahib,

Did you stay at the Shangri-la hotel or any of the other ones near Katchura?

You look like a real Northerner with your Khapol on, all you have to do now is start drinking salty buttered tea like us...

sulaeh Sb,

Great going. Awesome pics sir jeeee..... and yes the grin on our face says it all about the fishing.

And yes as Ali suggested you should start out on the salted TEA

I need to visit these areas next season. Havent been there for what seems ages now...

wonderful location, you indeed are very lucky.. thanks a million for sharing the pics..

Sualeh, please check your PM..

Beautiful pix Sulaeh, wish i were there.
Regards
Owen

Thanks for sharing. Superb location.

Thanks for sharing these beautiful pics
Cheers...Hamdhingra

HI Sulaeh,

the pics are absolutely breath taking....thanks for sharing them with us.

Beautiful location…. You had a great time.....

Hi Ali. I stayed in Shangrila for a couple of days but then shifted to another place. You know Shangrila is quite expensive.
While fishing i noticed that during this time of the year, trout attacked the spinner ferociously. Every time i would get
a strong bite that would jolt the rod like anything and than it would turn out to be just one lbr trout. Could there
be some special reason for this?? Do trout bite more ferociously during this time of the year??

Another amazing thing was that i saw a trout in Farok Tso which must have been not less than 10 kgs:shock:. I approached
the lake quitely from the trees and saw this lunker trotting along the banks in shallow water. It disappeared when it saw me. Tried a lot but could not hook it. Locals say that there are huge trout in the centre of the lake. But that portion is very deep. Well over a hundred feet. No worries mate. I will get them. May be we go together for the venture.

Why not Im always up for a trip to Baltistan!

Im thinking hardware, deep diving plugs may work for the big ones, if nothing else works then livebait is worth trying(my flyfishing friends would curse me if they saw me talking about baitfishing for trout). Small juvenile snow carps are supposed to work as are a small flat species of catfish similar to a khagga, its called Kaarmachzi in Khowar and Chaqato in Shina, I dont know the Balti name for it.

The reason the Trout are so aggressive this time of the year is that I think they feed more to build up body fat for the upcoming winters ( Thats my guess).

I am all in for a trip for the monster 10 kg trout.

Ali is quite rite. I have heard of people using live bait for the lunkers

Saw a Rex Hunt video where he was trawling very successfully for big trout.
Will take a better look at the video and tell you how he did it.

Shaphan, sure yaara. I'll let you know before I come home.

Owen, I watched that show, he was trolling in some dam in the Snowy Mountains in Victoria. They were trolling small, sinking rapalas and live bait.

Rex Hunt is damn entertaining!

Thanx mate...........

Thanks Rana. You know autumn colours in Baltistan are a treet to watch. Gold and orange everywhere. Angling in those environment is a real pleasure.

Three things Shaphan
One. Closest trout waters from Islamabad are Naran and upperSwat Valley. I have heard of few trout farms in Muree but never seen those. Trout decomposes quite quickly and unless freezed using scientific methods, is not likely to retain its quality even if placed in ice cubes.

Two. Snow carps are found in Tarbela lake, Siran river and all other streams of the area that fall into tarbela lake. One type of snow carp is quite identical to trout.

Three. When Sheikh says something, its better to confirm from other sources.

my friend's father make a trout farm at Murree on running water. i will ask the location from him. I also heard that some one caught trout from tarbaila. it was be snow carp coz Mr Sualeh says its quite identical to trout.

shah jee! your friend is running a trout farm in murree, wow, mate! get the location quickly. and if you guys plan to go there, count me in...

I guess you guys might be shocked to see the high prices and small size of the trout in that farm

Snow carps, what a wonderful group of fishes! I grew up fishing for them by the cool of the river during the summer months.

Their are many species but they usually do not have seperate names in the languages of the north, they come under the all encompassing term of "desi" fish.

Generally speaking though their are three major species.
1. A solid silver fish that can grow to about five pounds, found in all of the rivers of Chitral, Gilgit and Baltistan.
2. A similar one to the first but with a slightly more rounded form and somewhat larger scales, this is the fish found in Dir, Hazara and Swat. Its quite common in Tarbela.
3.A trout-like spotted one, it is also trout like in its habits and can be caught on the fly and occaisionally even takes spinners. Like trout it prefers clear waters.

Most people consider them to be tastier than trout, but they are extremely boney. The traditional way to cook them is fry them on a "tawwa" with a rock on top until they are a hard golden mass and eat them bones and all with tea.

They also fight harder than trout of the same size, and have mahseer-like runs.

Trout in Tarbela:

I would not have believed it unless I saw one, and I did about ten years ago.

I saw a dead one with the fishermen at Darband. They claim that they migrate in and out of the lake. The speciman was about five pounds and silver with black spots. It wasnt a snow carp or a Bola (Indian Trout) but a Brown Trout of the Loch Leven variety.

Where they come from, God knows. The nearest trout waters that feed into Tarbela are in Kohistan and Diamer.

They are not at all common and are limited to the upper reaches of the lake in Mansehra district. I think they must be stray individuals that swim down the Indus during winter when it is low and clear and find themselves stranded when the Indus rises in summer.