INDIANANGLER

I've always loved lure fishing for Mahseer here in the South. It's more active, one gets to see more of the river and understand better how and where fish congregate/feed.

Most of the Mahseer we used to hook a couple of years ago were small fish that we often weren't really fishing for. Our prime targets in those days were murral exclusively. Those days spinners were hard to come by and it didn't really appeal to us to spin for Mahseer and have our trebles crushed.

After starting to make our own spinners, we bagan to experiment and made our first set of spinners for Mahseer with 3X and 4X trebles. Most of the spinners were french blades but we also began to use the willow leaf pattern. I've found these to be quite effective while spinning in fast white water as they offer less resistance. The only problem with them was that they came in too high.... often just about 6 inches below the surface. This problem was sorted out by turning extra heavy bodies with lead inserts. This way our spinners came in deeper and we began to hook more Mahseer. My favourite size is 5 and I've caught most of my fish on that size. I've also made a few size 8's but have not got down to using then extensively.

The fish below was landed in a place called Mysore Mada, just down stream from Moslehalla. We were fishing from the center rocks just where Mysore Mada starts. We had 2 rods out ahead of us with ragi, and were sitting on the rocks waiting for a strike. Since I had my spinning rod with me I handed my bigger rod over to the guide and begun spinning the water behind us. This fish took my spinner as it hit the water and disappeared into a foam of white water. For the first couple of minutes I thought I'd lost him or got snagged, but then he moved and ran straight to the rock we were on. As I had an open expanse of water in front and our 2 other rods were out I bumped up the drag and played him from the rock and stopped him from tearing off down stream. It took for ages to get the fish up as he kept diving but eventually gave up and came up to us. After a few quick snaps, while the guide sat with a rod in each hand we released the fish to fight another day.

Regards,
Mighty Marlin.

Nice Fish MM, from the way you are dressed, it looks like you are going to some "Desi Party" fater the fishing

Nice fish MM. Can we have a look at the spinners. I don't have a digital camera, but plan to finish the film on my Pentax this week end. Will try and post some pix of the spoons that i use that are made in Kolkata.
They are 4" and 6" spoons, and will work only in very heavy water, as they are made from pretty thick brass. I have lighter ones, but am really afraid of using them as i once had a fish work the trailing hook right down to the last millimeter of metal, and was very fortunate to land the fish.

I leave spinning till i am about to leave the spot, and vary the colour of the spoons used from silver to gold or copper, depending on the intensity of sunlight. I have found too bright a spoon sometimes spooks the fish.

Mysore Mada is a wonderful spot. Just 50 feet below the rock you were sitting on, there are some small rocks on the left bank that i used to hide behind and fish. Have caught quite a few nice fish from that spot in shallow water.
Lost a rubber slipper at this spot while crossing the stream, and found it 5 years later in the same spot.
Crazy!

Gavin, we have a fish here called the 'Chapli meen'!

Owen , them have a fish named after your slipper... Cool

Hi Gavin,

This is the fish we call Chapli...

I borrowed this pic from one of Rustam's earlier posts



Regards,
Mighty M

Watch out for the tridents. You thread hijacker!

MM why dont you and Gavin change the subject line on this thread to Chapli on sipnner.....you guys are hilarious...

Hi Guys, to carry on with the original intention of this thread....catching Mahseer on spinner that is in case some of you have forgotten

This was the second substantial Mahseer I caught in Jan 2006 on spinner. Happened to be on the same spinner as I caught the first fish (of this post) on. We'd carried the coracle upstream to a place caller Kir Mada and started off down stream spinning for murral and eventually wound up in Haira. For those of you who've been down this stretch will know what the water's like. The first bit is really nice murral/carnatic territory and a stretch where I've caught a couple of small black mahseer on spinner. The second half of the stretch is nice fast water that looks very good for mahseer. In fact I think it'll fish really well with live bait but have never spent any time there fishing it with live bait.
The first half went off as usual with some murral and a couple of carnatics. Nothing I'd write home about. We were entering a narrow channel of fast water and I shot out a hurried cast slightly up stream and over some rocks when my spinner was taken from the surface in a huge swirl. My reel began to scream as line peeled off and I realised to my horror the line was wrapped around a rock upstream. The next 10seconds had Madha (our guide) furiously paddling upstream to clear my line. Luckily I'd loosened my drag and had no idea if my fish was on or not. Once The line was cleared it shot out of the water and I realised how far the fish had gone. The next 10 minutes saw me collecting as much line as I could that was badly frayed and with a light drag, took ages to bring the fish in. Funny it was one of the most tiring Mahseer fights I've had.

The fish was landed on a Shimano 4000, 15lb suffix mono, 7ft 2piece fast action spinning rod with a No.5 willow leaf blade (silver) spinner.

Regards,
Mighty Marlin.

Nice fish mate...... Matches your shirt

Dear MM

Can we have a look at the no 5 spinners with the extra heavy bodies?? How heavy would that be in grams Oz??

Thanks


"This problem was sorted out by turning extra heavy bodies with lead inserts. This way our spinners came in deeper and we began to hook more Mahseer. My favourite size is 5 and I've caught most of my fish on that size."