INDIANANGLER

It’s just over two years now since I hooked up with Ali and the Powai crew. Long Sunday afternoons spent staring at the surface of the lake trying to imagine what was happening underneath. These are shy and tricky fish and this is a venue that frustrates analysis and conjecture. It’s like a huge jigsaw puzzle where you don’t know the final picture and most of the pieces are missing.

Of course that doesn’t stop us theorizing and we could (and do) talk all day about bait and rigs and presentation. Every so often a fish takes pity on us and tries one of our offerings – invariably in the few seconds when the angler answers a mobile phone. It’s always tempting to imagine that any catch is a result of outsmarting these wily carp. I’m more inclined to believe that these are chance encounters and we can only be grateful for the brief time we get to interact with these magnificent mysterious creatures.

So, that said take the following story with a big dose of skepticism (make that two). There may be something you can use here – on the other hand it may be me ascribing motive and method to something that was pure chance.

It started with me reading the thread in this forum on circle hooks. I’ve been using them for a while for shore fishing and I’ve had a packet of size 8’s in my freshwater bag for months – always meaning to try them on the Powai carp. I’ve been tardy setting about this as I have a nagging doubt that carp just don’t have the right mouth for that type of hook. They suck and blow instead of biting, the real business is done at the back of their throats. So the mission yesterday was to compare the hooking potential of circles versus standards on identical feeder rigs. On the standard rig I thought I’d try out a “line aligner” presentation. The “line aligner” is an “anti eject rig” – the hook point is orientated toward the line a bit like a circle hook but it is flexible. Google it if you are inclined to try it – all you need is some heat shrink sleeving from an electrical component shop.

The feeder rigs were identical with the standard bait we use for golis in Powai; Bread crumbs (I use the crust only), Toasted channa, Rice atta, Ground Elaichi. I spiced this up a bit with some fruit pulp (waste from juicer) and a liberal coating of WD40.

The cork balls are coated with a little feeder paste so they just pop up off the bottom (essential tactic at Powai due to freshwater crabs). I cast the feeders out to roughly the same area about 4 metres apart and I rebaited them at about 45 minute intervals. It was a quiet day with very little pushing and shoving of the feeder but at about 5pm the line-aligner reel screamed and I was into this beautiful specimen. It took about five blistering runs and 10 – 15 minutes to land it – not an easy task as I could barely get its head in the net.

I had no scale with me but Ali and Vishal saw I had something big on and came to have a look. Just as well as I found out that there was no memory card in my camera. We got these shots using a mobile phone.

So there you go – a head-to-head of circle hooks against line aligner. One fish is hardly a trial but I did feel more confident in the hook hold of the line alighner over a standard hook – possibly confirming that anti-eject rigs are the way to go.

Tight lines
Allan

PS. the fish weighed in at 17.5 kg and I was kidding about the WD40 (this time)



Happy angler


Ready to go back..


..and off back


Feeder Rig with line-aligner hooks (should be more angled but fish straightened the tubing out a bit)[/url]

Congrats Alan on landing that huge catla. In the first pic, one can see me at the far end of the dam wall. Dreaming all day about the big fish and as usual ended the day feeding these smart carps with the feeder.

Hi Allan,

Fantastic!!! what an incredible catch..I'm so glad that it's all come together for you. I can imagine that there have been some very frustrating times on powai knowing whats lurking beneath the surface but unable to put a big one on the bank! Its also great to see such a magnificent fish released to swim another day! congratulations!

I wish you further success and look forward to reading about it.

All the best, Scott

That was a big catch. Congrats for the nice catch and thanks for sharing the pics.

That's one heck of a catla, Allan
Look at the size of it's mouth in the second image - it could probably swallow a boilie as large as a tennis ball
A second thought thus comes to mind - while targetting catlas if we use larger sized "boilies" , would it keep the smaller-mouthed carps away ??
Congrats !

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Allan.......that's an excellent catch.
Beautiful specimen. Congrats.
Ravi

congrates allan
thats one big fish......

@ali bhai: Mission Imposible
still waiting for your final words on catla.......

A good catch, well done and keep it up
regards

hearty congratulations ALLAN
Bigger the catch Bigger the smile see the diffrence


then 06jan2010
and now 12april2010


I hope you lovingly caressed the fish as shown in your avtaar

FANTASTIC! That is a beauty. Congrats!

the best part of this amazing catch is the RELEASE....

Wow.. saw him or his cousins jumping when I was at Powai.. :)

Glad you let him go.. Keep on doing it

-Inder

Thanks for the good wishes guys. An encounter like this makes up for the fishless hours and all those d*mn gobies. Its a rare privilege to handle a fish like this (especially rare for me ) and its respect to handle them carefully and slip it back without harm.

Your right about the smile factor Lionheart - and I'm sooo glad you didn't get a hold of a photo of me gobie fishing .

tight lines
Allan

Wow....congrats!!!

Awsome fish granta.

super stuff... some day i have to get one of those guys!!!

congrats allan