INDIANANGLER

hi guys ! i have been a lurker on the forum for quiet a while. i had a light spinning rod and used to fish in haryana. the fish we used to catch in the canals near my home were mainly small murrel and carp. at times a catfish used to be caught. i recently got some better spinning gear a Daiwa D'shock combo and spooled with Yo-Zuri 12lb hybrid line. we tried fishing in a large lake in orissa which we have stocked with species like rohu , catla , grass carp and which has murrel,mulley and indo gangetic koi ab initio.
i tried going after the catla and rohu using tips i got on the forum and had good results.
but the hankering to get a murrel persisted and i got a few scum frogs. i kept on trying the critters without results and concluded that these murrel had not read the forum reviews and were hence not interesed in scum frogs.
spinners (mepps 1) also failed. so did poppers and thundersticks.
while i stood on the bank casting my lures my gillie who is an oriya stood sniggering. i asked what was so funny and he said that the murrel only go for small fish. i swallowed my caustic reply and told him to rig one up. he promptly took a small fish cut off the head and the tail and told me to cast it. i did and was rewarded with an immediate bite. the fish when landed was a small murrel of around 1-1.25 lbs.
tonight i decided to hit the same lake again. i cast all my lures and did not get a single bite .a mulley swam upto my popper and rolled away. i then decided to use live frogs and got my first bite immediately. i got the fish close enough to see that it was a murrel around 2 -3 lbs but the brute bit through the line !!!
now an issue arose for which i had not catered. i normally use size 14 hooks for rohu and catla. i only had two hooks with me which were big enough to impale frogs and one was gone!
i slapped on 30 lb floro trace (thank god i had ordered it) and cast again. the hit this time told me that i had gotten some thing big. a tug of war ensued and shortly the hook was spat out. dejection galore! in my last cast the frog was solidly taken with a splash i heard and felt.the reel sang a bit and i was able to land a 2lbs murrel.
my spirits boosted i cast again and got one more murrel around 3-3.5 lbs. this one put up a decent fight and was landed in short order.
pics are of both the fish. check out the maw on them.
the best part was the look on my gillies face as he was convinced i was again on a fools errand.

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt42 ... r10009.jpg
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt42 ... r10008.jpg
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt42 ... r10007.jpg
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt42 ... r10005.jpg

Nice Striped Snakehead u got....

Thanks for Sharing...

Nice pictures but why the gloves?

slime ! oodles of it.

The murrels look lovely. Well narrated post.

Thanks for posting. Did you hook the frogs or tie them with rubber bands???

Cheers
DeZZ

i hooked them up to regular hooks.

Nice murrels you got there Doc
looks like you took it straight to the operation table, surgical gloves and the background points towards a post mortem
is it Doc?

yes. these particular specimens were well appreciated after the autopsy.
the ones i used to catch in haryana were only around 10 - 14 inches at the max with 8- 10 inches being the norm. biggest fish i caught in haryana was a mangur at 2 kilos. caught on handline with earthworm.
dont worry the ot is still sterile. these kept in the living section.

Grreat carry on doctor we would love to read your autopsy reports, all of them {part-1,part-2 ......}

Nice catch. BTW are you working in the defence sector?

hi doc, nice catch. i am surprised them scum frogs dont work there. the murrels here go crazy after them. regarding the mepps try using a bigger blade like aglia no 4 and use bright colours in darker conditions and gold,copper blades in bright conditions.

regards,
aamir.

A little tip, cast the scum frog on the weeds/high grass and pull it into the water. Often birds and other small animals unintentionally find their way into the water and SOL's are waiting for them.

Cheers

Good tip Sam. It's more like that the sol/murrel are under the weed a bit back form the water's edge. They actually can 'hear' and sense a critter walking on top of the weeds and follow. As the frog plops into the water wait a while before you twitch it. If a sol has actually followed all hell will break lose.

Great Doc,

Glad to hear that you are on the fish.. keep on doing it..

-Inder

thanks guys! and u esp kanwar. any time one of u hits orissa let me know and we can make a plan to get together. the lake is full of murrel , mulley and other freshwater species and as of now i am the only angler in it. this is not likely to change until one of u guys gets here.
thanks for the tips guys.