INDIANANGLER

Congrats vishal for landing that monster.

Congrats vishal for landing that monster.

Somebody @ the lake is throwing in "hormones " as ground bait ... That is some fluffing fish mate .. Congrats Vishal ... whens the party mate

Congrats Vishal... that is truly a monster ... Some foul hookers of Powai are going to Die wondering about Ali bhai's Gola...

Hi Vishaal, Thats one hell of a fish.
Don't tell me this is the last biggest fish in that lake.

hey Ali damn good report mate and Vishall I am still waiting for the party date mate so you better decide soon . I have yet to see a bigger fish in my life live .The excitement was unforgivable congrats once again cheers and hats off to you

Great going Vishal.

The biggest silver I have seen caught on Rod. G8 going.

Woooooooooo!

Congrats Vishal......awesome catch.

Now tell us where you hid the net
Just kidding !

Congrats Vishal
I am still wondering how you guys catch such a big fish in a size 8 hook.
Thats sefinetely a skill that i should develop ..

Cheers,'
Binu

Not wanting to steal the limelight from you Vishal, this is a fantastic fish. But just to let you know guys, from what I have been hearing Ali is certainly re-writing the way fishing is done at Powai.....ALI, HATS OFF TO YOU MY FRIEND, keep it up.

It was since long that I was not able to fish in Powai as my Machan was under renovation. The guy who was repairing the Machan under one or the other pretext was delaying the work and I was becoming anxious that if the work will not be completed before the onset of monsoon, I will not be able to fish for one complete season. Santosh, as equal partner in the renovation work was equally anxious and thus it was decided to cut short some of the work and prepare the machan in time. Lot of cajoling and arm twisting tactics, as usual, saw our Machan afloat last Friday.

My half renovated Machan


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On Sunday, myself and Santosh decided to re-inaugurate our favorite hang out and accordingly we reached powai in the afternoon. Our hope of catching any thing was minimal as it is an off session in Powai and landing a properly hooked fish is almost impossible. I wanted to try one new concoction on my feeder rig and accordingly we set up our rods. The heat outside was intense and we were sitting in the Machan and suddenly I got a good run on my feeder. Before I could pick up my rod the fish was lost. There were no further bites on the feeder but we managed to land some good size mangurs on ledgering. The day was not very fruitful except I and Santosh fought a 8-9 feet Crock, who choose to entangle his body on my 15 lb line and we admired him for almost three hours while he stalked us from all the side and after sunset, saw him gulping a big Silver, Just behind our Machan. (It’s a different story friends and will be told on some other day)

Fighting a Croc.





The Silver Crushed by the Hungry Croc.



For me, the run on feeder was an encouraging sign and I wanted to give it one more try. Yesterday, i.e. on 27th May 2010 Vishal called up and as I was free in the second half of the day we decided to meet and do some fishing in the meanwhile. After rebalancing my feeder rig we casted our lines and started to wait. There was some activity of big fishes in the bay area but there was nothing near my machan. We were discussing something when suddenly my reel started screaming. Running out I picked up the rod and engaged the drag. My first thought was that it’s another nuisance mangur who has picked up the bait but the pull on the rod was enormous and I knew immediately that I was onto something big. The fight lasted for almost 15 – 20 minutes and the fish did not show its face till last. The usual suspect was a decent hybrid but when it surfaced, we were aghast to see the fanlike tail of a big Catla. I was trying to land something like this since last 2 years and the feeling of joy was beyond description when we netted it.

The Fight





The Catch



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And Release



I have previously also landed some small Catlas on the feeder but this was the fish which was eluding my hooks since long, a good size Catla of 22 lbs. Once again the myth of Catla not taking bait has been proved wrong and I am sure my this catch and Allan’s 41 lbs which he caught sometime back will further establish our claim that any fish can be caught properly hooked if you have the perseverance and flexible techniques to target it.

Now, lets see where those 50 lbs are hiding. What say Santosh?

Regards,

Ali.

50 LB is my fish Ali.. lol.. congrats The great Master. Happy for you (and me). Got some new gear. waiting for the rains when powai will be at it's best..

Santosh

congrats Ali

Wow Ali Bhai,

Thats one nice fish. Its nothing but your hardwork. Sadly due to my short stay, I missed a chance to learn something from a Guru.

-Inder

Fantastic Catla Ali - long awaited and richly deserved. No better way to christen the new improved machan.

tight lines
Allan

Great catch Ali Bhai. Congrats

The day started with me being tied up with work, my mind was on the job but heart was in Powai. Got back home at about 1.30 PM and prepared my own hair rig for the feeder.

Left my house at 3.00 Pm picked up Bablubhai on the way and we reached powai listening to “Beautiful Girl by Jose Mari Chan”.. was feeling lucky and jokingly said to Bablu bhai that I am feeling happy, he said that he always finds me happy.. I replied I am feeling happy from within.. we reached powai lake at 3.30 and by 4, we hade our feeder rigs on places that Ali asked us to place. Hats off to the great man, who has treated me not as a friend but as his younger brother and guided me on matters that are beyond our common passion “Angling”.
Here are some pics of my PB powai fish a 36 LB Catla (my first). Trust me, all those who had the pleasure of fighting a Catla will know what 36 LB fight is. This is not my biggest catch but in terms of brute power The Catla is an undisputed best game fish in India pound to pound. It took me over 20 mins to fight the fish and we have almost the entire fight recorded, will upload it on youtube. The fish was released with prayers for the family of one of the best worker of powai “Nanni” who passed away today.

Soon after my fish Ali did C&R of a beauty of Mrigal of about 5-6 Kg, my next two fish were a Kalabose of 2 KG and one mangur of 3.5 Kg.

Let me tell you guys, this is offseason in powai. Keep an eye on the MI Team, promise you this monsoon, we will have a rocking time.

Today was one more right step in breaking the myth of powai that one cannot land a catla hooked in the mouth. Thanks to Ali.

Jahapana ALI Tussi Great Ho!! Catla Kabool Karo.

Regards,

Santosh



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Looks like you are holding a pet Santosh. I love the look on the face of the fish. Appears as if it is saying " Hukum mere aka" :)

Congrats for the mighty fish.

Cheers chief - DeZZ

WOW!!

Superb! Santosh. Well one.


Jeen

Congrats santosh, Thats a great catch.

Cheers mate.

I am still in a hangover of joy. Well done Santosh and I know you too will be feeling the same . The way this fish was fighting, one can only dream for such fight. Well what more can I say except once again congratulations for the dream catch of every carp angler. Our new feeder bait concoction is a killer. Looks like we will have a blast after Monsoon. And yes, you have missed your chance and the 50 lbs is my fish now .

Regards,

Ali.

Congratulation Santy,

What a fish it was. I am waiting for the video. First when the fish started moving, i thaught it was a Khavli, then a mangur but what fish it turnud out to be. What fun you guys are having in Powai, first you and Ali bhai fighting a Croc , then Ali Bhai landing a big one and now your this catch. Now I am also a convert to feeder rig (Ali bhai ka Gola) club.

Keep it up and good luck for future fishing. I know you and Ali bahi are behind the 50 pounder but dont be surprized if it choose to take my bait..

Tight Lines,

Babloo.

Good going guys.

Alibhai, I need to be here, but with a fly rod.

Wonderful stuff.

Ali Bhai, Santosh

Absolutely fantastic.

As regards the Catla not feeding through their mouths, the same myth exists here in Bangladesh. However, ask any fisherman of experience and he will tell you of innumerable catla caught by hooking in the mouth. I have caught them fairly hooked using just about every form of rig used for carp fishing. Although, all fish are wary, the catla is not more so than any other, in my opinion, and given enough water over their backs fishing at the rod tip with very sensitive float tackle using a single small hook (size 8 to four owner hooks) has given me the best catches, fairly hooked, of course. Nothing like what you have hooked though.







The last one shows a "modernised" version of the standard Bengali rig and will catch you catlas like any other. However in old lakes like Powai there may be a lot of silt on the bottom and there a pop up rig would certainly be very effective - as I have learnt from your wonderful exploits.

The reason that catlas are often foul hooked unintentionally (If someone goes for intentional foul hooking then he and I are on diffrent bandwidths) is I think because, given that their mouths are formed for the ingestion of plankton from the top layer of water, when they feed off the bottom, which they regularly do, they have to up end somewhat i.e. tail up mouth down, to use the top prehensile lip extention that they have to full effect to suck up bottom hugging particles or baits. In this position if the body touches an upgoing line and the float moves and you hit the first movements of the float and the bait is not in the catla's mouth foul hooking may result.

I have this theory that all bait for catla where you are expecting to strike the fish, i.e. not using a self hooking rig, needs to be super soft. A slightly harder bait releases the hook a fraction of a second later and this may be enough time for the catla, who, you can rest assured is instantly aware of the strike via movement of bait and line in its mouth, to open its mouth. The hook then pulls out of that huge cavern without hooking the sides.

My theories are all usually bunkum and I shall be following your lead to try and catch this fellow who along with others much larger came up in a net and was released back unharmed into a large pond maintained for angling that I know.



Congratulations on thinking your way through "Mission Impossible" and coming up with the results and congratulations on your catch and your sportsmanship in letting them go again.

All the best

Lakhyaman

Super Fish man......... Congrats.

Thanks Guys,

Some more pics..

Hearty congrats on those great catches Santosh and Alibhai

wish you many such successfull hookups in gigantic proportions

As we all know, big carps are very smart and will not take bait that easily. Add to it the angling pressure at place like powai lake where certain methods of fishing has made these fishes line shy.
We look forward to further fine tune the setup a bit more in order to increase our hook up ratio. 50 LB + Catla is now the next challenge for Team MI.. :)) The Indian Monster Carp. The quest continues..

amazing fish there ali bhai and santosh
heartly congrats to both of you..........

some time back i had put up question on the same article about catching Catla and your words.......
i got the answer :)
and its a real good answer to all the carp anglers...........
i hope your efforts will enlighten others there.............

once again....great going guys, keep up the good work

Hey and what about the Croc story........
we are waiting for that story.......
and better make it chat-pata (Tikha - mitha bhelpuri in bombay style)