INDIANANGLER

Gentlemen and brothers of the angle, introducing meself- a pahaari angler. 'Pahaar' in Hindustani meaning 'mountain', the suffixed 'i' denotes '..of the..'. This for the brothers from other shores.
I fish in Uttaranchal, Himachal, Nepal and Assam-Arunachal, all on catch and release basis. I fish saltwater in the winters (chennai coast, surf fishing) and mountains for the rest of the year.

Great to be on board!

Welcome to the board Vedan,

By the way what to you target form the Surf in Chennai. As winter had started, I hope you are now in Chennai Surf Fishing. Once again welcome abroad and have a nice time.

LF

Many thanks, LF.

When in Chennai, I try to go for trevally's (got a 24lber off Kanyakumari, nothing from here yet except on big breakoff (drag too tight, 20lb line), blue runners, morays and basically anything I can bag. Scored one small seabass on floated dead prawn.
Tried going offshore in a boat, trolling when on the move and spinning from anchor. Got nothing. Bad tide timing or maybe wrong spot. Next time- bottom fishing with a half mackerel. Need to get my inflatable out here, along with the gps and echosounder....

Am trying to discover as much as I can, good fun, especially the preparations.

Off to Bangalore this weekend (non-fishing), but you should find me at either Kovalam beach or Thiruvanmiyur on most weekends.
Planning on another boat ride as soon as I get back- let me know if you'll e free enough.

Any ideas for freshwater fishing around Chennai? I don't mind tickling the native species a bit...

Thanks again,
Cheers
V.

Welcome to the forum Vedan. Look forward to your angling stories.

Give me a call on 9845149783 if you are going to be in bangalore anytime soon.

Bopanna

Thanks B.

Will surely do so. A friend has some fishing gear, Varthur any good on a weekend?

Cheers

V.

Varthur is very polluted now and isn't a good idea. Manchinbele reservoir is a better bet.

Bops

Hi B.

We need to talk.
Will buzz you by 11am, Saturday the 16th if it's alright.
I'm available at 044-65121 003 till Thurs evening.

Cheers

V.

Hi Vedan,
Welcome aboard. I really enjoyed reading your posts. Its not very common to see anglers both into fly fishing & lure. Many of my pals who Fly fish scorn at us guys tossing gigantic plugs and half rotten mackrels into the blue. I rarely take them on my boat cause you continously get these insects buzzing past your ear and always vizualise a size 2 embedded in your eye ball.
But they are my pals and do catch more fish than me.
Welcome again.
And guys where is Owen ? Did the crocs get him??

Tight lines
Jeen

Thanks Jeen.

I started out as a bait fisher on weekdays, playing hooky from school and heading for the nearest stream (when dad was posted in Palampur, Himachal (best posting to date) or the nearest paddyfield when we were in Assam. Got introduced to spinning on the Bhoreli river. Used to head for the timber camp on weekends with dad and friends. This is ca. 1981-84, before the Eco Camp came up.

Got into flyfishing around 5-6 years ago, purely for art-form sake but the results have kept me not hooked but gaffed. No teacher, had to crack everything meself.

Would love to fluffchuck in ocean waters but first, I gotta spin, man.
And if I'm in your boat, rest assured I won't hook you.
Give us shout next time you're around our waters, will try and get you into ffing.

THanks again,
cheers
V.

Vedan,

As far as I know there is no good place for freshwater fishing in Chennai. You can find me on almost all weekends at Kovalam catching nothing . Let me know if you are surf fishing in Chennai, we can fish together. By the way got any pics of those Trevallys.

LF

LF.,

Great pity on absence of freshwater prospects. Was hoping I'd be able to pick up some small barbs and things for my aquarium.

I'll take you up on the Kovalam weekend. Had a massive bustoff there- was using a half mackerel on a double hook (6/0) rig, 200lb mono leader. Mainline broke during first run.

Bluewater's offering offshore trips- when we get desperate enough we'll book seats on their boat. Whatsay?
Cheers,
V.

Vedan,

Are you in Chennai this weekend? Then meet you up in Kovalam beach on Saturday. I will be there in the morning and in evening. But I have heard that the surf conditions right now are not very good from the local folks there and they are waiting for the sea to calm down for the Big GTs to hit the surf. Hope time and tides are favourable this weekend.

LF

LF,

Regrets, off to Bangalore this weekend. (planning on meeting our esteemed SiteAdmin, Bopanna) Am free on weekdays, though(!). Interesting, what you say about the surf conditions. According to some of my info, some fish actually like turbulence. Given that the water close to the beach will be murky, I have a feeling big bait (full mackerel) 3' under a float might bag something- 'cudas, maybe trevally and who knows maybe even a shark....

Something that might get our fishing times right might be a tide chart that gives High tide or incoming tide timings. I remember seeing something like it somewhere on this forum (lost it, damn).

Anyhow, keep us posted and thanks again

Cheers

V.

Vedan,

Have a nice time fishing with Bops. Yes, I too am looking for that tide chart. The changing tides might be very productive at the mouth of the backwaters at Kovalam. How would you compare Mullets with Mackerals for bait from the surf.

Thanks,
LF

LF,

Haven't used a mullet yet, but did have a breakoff on half mackerel. I'll put my dosh on the mackerel, but if my local shikari advises mullet then that's it.

Out in Kanyakumari, the handliners fish the surf for morays, small grouper (under a kilo) and GT's with a full 'Charl Meen'. Looked like a starving, flattened silver meckerel to me. Saw a chap land a 9kg GT next to me. Five minutes later I got mine on a full 'Charl Meen'.

Figure out a local fisherman who handlines and you're not likely to go far wrong. Was fishing Kovalam once, last year, and this chap from the fishing village plucked out 4 seabass in under an hour from the rocks. Bait- live prawn, handline, freelined.

Cheers,
V.

Vedan,

As far as Barramundis are concerned you can also catch a lot of them at the fishing harbour in Chennai with live prawns for them. I have seen GTs breaking the surface there, but I guess it should almost be impossible to land them from a Jetty. They will head straight into the tetra pods.

LF

LF,

Last I heard, fishing in and around the harbour was completely banned. The fisherman who told me this was ssalivating when he described the numbers and sizes of fish.

Re landing the GT, well, let's get into one first. Not very tough to rig up a drop net in advance if we anticipate fishing down the pier wall. The tetrapods may be a problem...

Some friends of a friend go fishing and shooting near this island near Ennur- any idea where this might be?

Cheers,

V.

Vedan,

The harbour I mentioned is the fishing harbour and the not the actual one. The fishing harbour is located a little north to Chennai harbour and it is polluted to some extent. But as I have told before, I have seen a guy take few barramundis with live shrimp by handlining and I have also seen Big GTs breaking the surface. I had a barracuda hit my popper when I gave it a slow sub surface swimming action during the sun set. It made a leap to about 3 foot from the surface of the water and spit my plug and did not hook up.

Yes, the Chennai harbour is not accessible for fishing and I too have heard about 100% sure catches there. But the fishing harbour is not always good or couldn't even be compared to the Chennai harbour. May be we can meet at the fishing harbour early morning tomorrow, what do you say?

Regarding the fishing and hunting near the Ennore you mentioned, I heard that hunting is now banned or not allowed there. But as for as fishing, I have heard that it is one of the best places along this coast for Barramundi. But is highly inaccessible. I have sent you a PM for the exact Barramundi fishing spot.

LF

Back to civilization Jeen. Had a bit of success at the wasi lakes, but apart from a few mahseer at the river, the fish played hide and seek. Check image gallery.

Met Steve Harper there after many many years, he's the bloke that had a 104lb goldy way back in the 90's and had it on video. I was fortunate to get a copy from Britan, and now have it converted to DVD.

I did not know he was an artist and a graphic designer, well he gave me a copy of this mahseer that he painted 20"*18", a real beautiful piece of work. Thanks Steve!
By the way Steve is on this forum as well.
Regards
Owen

LF,

Thanks for the island tip. Sounds fantastic, barras on shrimp. The'cuda sounds even better, what gear do you use?
Drat, I need to stock up on poppers- any idea where I can buy some balsa dowels from? Prefer making my own.
Cheers

V.

Vedan,

I don't know any place where you can buy the harware for making own plugs but you can find some poppers in a shop called King Fish near fishing harbour. You can find the address of the shop in the following link.

http://www.indianangler.com/viewtopic.php?t=44

Any plans for a trip to the fishing harbour tomorrow morning?

LF

LF,

Got it. Many thanks. Will raid it at first opp.
I picked up a couple of rods and reels from Adam's near Parry's. Didn't see any poppers with him. Did pick up a couple of Halco Lasers from them last year. The one in Firetiger scored me a 42lb golden (tor putitora, not mussullah) while guiding a couple of birders down the Kali in dead winter. I sent them a pic of the fish wih the lure, must visit them and find out if they have it on somewhere.

Yeah well, maybe I ought to try some other materials, I really prefer making my own lures (putting my grapic design and sculpture foundations to use...) but at short notice, prefab is just fine..

Re. fishing tomorrow, I must bend from the waist and apologize (those aren't tears on the ground 'cos I'll miss the fishing company) for the inability of rendezvous as I'm going to be unnecessarily busy.
Will take you up on it anytime next week beginning Monday.

Cheers,
V.

Vedan,

No problem, we can fish next week.

LF

LF,

Next week? Done.
Just say when, esp. on weekdays, and where. Personally what you just told me about the harbour, what with the GTs and barras throwing hooks made me rod jump from the shelf (no innuendos- my son's playing around it, he's just 9 months old (can't even dig worms, let alone hold a rod, but he'll grow. He'll grow. Ahem.)

Say, midweek? Tuesday and after? I'll have a chance to raid the tackle shop you mentioned and get stocked up.

Cheers,
V.

LF,

Got the tide table url.
http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/index.html
Nearest we can get to chennai is cochin, lets see if the tides are the same.
Any experienced shore angler who can tell us of the tide time variations between Cochin and CHennai?

CHeers
V.

Thanks Vedan,

I was looking for that info as I have learned recently that time and tides is a very important factor for river mouth fishing.

By the way for Chennai, look at Madras in the same link. Looks like there is quite some difference in the tide timings between Cochin and Chennai from that website.

Thanks,
LF

Owen .. need copy of the 104 ....

With Dirk at the moment Fred he has converted it to DVD, and will be sending me a copy. Thereafter i will circulate.
Regards
Owen

And dont foret the recent trip with the crocs devouring Gavin .