INDIANANGLER

Here are a few shots of my trip to west Nepal spring 2011.

This is our put in point on a tributary of the Karnali. With me were Andy W who has fished with me in Nepal before, Jason and Andy B.
We got a fair bit of interest from the villagers. This river is very rarely run by rafters never mind fished by anglers.






Text book pool. The river mainly comprises of smallish rapids falling into gorgeous pools, and good long runs, some shallow and fast others slow and deep ... time to relax and admire the stunning scenery.
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Having said they are mainly smallish ... this one isn't. Its the biggest rapid on the run down, a class three beastie, it looks horrible from the top but is straightforward, a good bit of fun in fact, not holding on for dear life stuff ... realy !


Top



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Middle


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Bottom


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and off again


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Catchng bait on a tributary of the tributary. We had a few issues with bait on this expedition that will never happen again, you live and learn hey ...

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21st century when you haven't seen it for days! this is one of only three footbridges we passed under in the entire 120 miles from start to finish.It realy is remote. The old growth forest the river flows through is home to Nepals last hunter gatherer tribe the Rautte and a meeting with them is jawdroppingly fascinating on both sides.
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A nice run close to the confluence with the Karnali, The allready rare people of the area drop off the closer we got to the main river and of course the wildlife gets richer. One night a guide came over to the fire to say there was an "animal "on the far bank, so out with the big lamp and there is a leopard sitting watching us ... we watched it for a good ten minutes, amazing to see as it moved about not realy bothered by the strong light in its face but it was a bit too close for the comfort of one guide who eventualy hurled a rock in its direction, it went up a twenty five foot near vertical rock face in two bounds, awesome to see, a rare privelige.

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Well what can I say about this ? there are still rivers in the Himalayan belt that hold massive fish and the Karnali is one them but you need to get off the beaten track to get up close and personal with the king of the river,Andy W did just that.

Sixty three pounds taken on a nine inch livebait; forty five minute fight, hundreds of yards of line taken etc etc, absolutlely classic stuff.

Well done Andy.

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These are fish that were caught by the Raji tribespeople. They come up from the plains in the low water period to net and nightline the Karnali for mainly small fish which they dry, then take back down as the rains set in to sell. We passed six small family outfits on our journey, on this scale I feel it is sustainable and its not till you get closer to "civilisation" that everyone seems to be hammering away at the river with all manner of traps and devices.


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This one however was fortunate enough to be caught by Andy B and lived to fight another day.

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Local transport. The Dunga, a hollowed out cottonwood trunk, used for all manner of river based work.

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A lovely rapid and probably a mile of superb water below it, sadly too close to people to have kept its fish, there are some beauties still there but nowhere near its potential ...

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The monsoon rains that sculpted this rock must be staggering to behold.

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This fish was taken from within the Bardia national park, it is the red finned mahseer, not seen as often as the true golden mahseer but absoloutely lovely none the less, she picked up a live crab from the bottom of another classic pool and gave a lively account before posing for the camera.

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Here she is in all her glory.

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Close up.

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A rickety bridge in the jungle of Bardia national park, the wildlife here is abundant, as we crossed the bridge we watched a mugger crocodile and murrel below us, Langur monkeys and a huge squirrel in the trees and birds all about, a proper tarzan experience !

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Here are a brace of twenty pounders taken by me on crab from another tributary of the Karnali. excellent sport on lighter gear. (battery went before I could get them out for a proper photoshoot).

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Early morning walk in the park ...


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Impressive sandstone cliffs on the Karnali. I am looking forward to seeing them in the light of the early morning.




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Hope you enjoyed the photos.


all the best


Rich.




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well ... cant get words to describe these.

thanks for sharing!

Cheers
Samit

great fish
keep up the good wrk

Awesome... That is one beautiful location.

What more can you ask for?????????

rafting , angling, location ......What a life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Fantastic and congratz on the catch.

Amazing...

Stunning, beautiful, awesome.. these are very nice pictures.

The 60 pounder is a beauty and so is the red fin, what a fine fish.. thanks for sharing these pics Rich, too good. Wish I can go there someday.. Thanks again.

Santosh

Thank you very much for sharing, real beautiful BIG Mahseer, both of em, never knew a place named Karnali existed and never knew it was as beautiful. Please could you let me know a few details on how to go about managing such a trip, was it a bunch of friends who got together and took off or was there some tour guide or resort safari trip booking made? etc. Any details would be much appreciated.

None the less, Thanks for sharing the great time you had.

Regards,

Omesh

Fantastic fishing!!

beautiful pictures. fantastic trip. 63lb mahseer is very rare, congratulations. did you use any artificial lure?

Some amazing stuff!

Great Catch, such beautiful pictures, amazing stuff, Congratulation.

Wao, Thanks for posting the the Golden Mahseers on the forum, had been long was waiting for someone to post
Congrats a gr8 Catch
Cheers!!!
Mayur

Thanks to you all for your kind comments, its a pleasure to share the photos with you.

Dr aamir, yes we caught several fish on lures, up to about sixteen pounds in weight. Mainly on small but heavy spoons, silver was the colour they liked.
There are some specimen sized Murrel to be caught in the rivers of Bardia national park, perhaps you should take a look !

Omesh, I will send you a pm later today.

Splendid mahseers caught. The pics are really beautiful and so are the fish. Thnks for sharing the pics and happy fishing.

Awesome catch. Splendid location. Congrats for the catch and thanks for sharing the pics.

Waowwwwwwwwwwwww
Amzing trip
Amzing Pics
Big Fish

Thanks for looking at the pics of the trip, the way you guys have described our expedition pretty much encompasses the feelings we had as we were doing it !! I think it is quite a special place/journey.

Jeen and Dr aamir, the karnali spills out of the hills at Chisopani and seperates into many channels as it hits the flat ground ... into the Bardia national park. It creates a good fishery for the murrel and one can spend a week fishing new water every day for them ...

The best news from this part of the world is that the Babai river has, in the last few months opened up to organised rafting/camping trips (first time since the N.P. was created). I have not fished the top end of the forty k fishery myself (I've fished the bottom end many times), but the outfit I have used for the last twenty odd years have run the only three angling trips down since the green light was given and the results are very encouraging. Many many small to mid size Mahseer caught, however the largest Murrel taken was sixteen pounds. I, and folks with me have taken similar sized fish in the past from the lower end of the beat and seen bigger fish cruising about,the potential is untapped. The river is gorgeous a fly/light line enthusiasts dream come true, I never thought our requests would be realised, but here we are at the beginning of the next stage ...


We have seen the difference betweeen the Corbet natonal park buffer zones on the Ramganga river (fish size/numbers wise) compared to unprotected stretches close by ... but This is inside the core protected area ! With a zero tolerance poaching policy implented ! Since the troubles ceased the fish are being allowed to populate a virtualy natural environment; pretty unique situation for this part of the world !!

Again, I would say that the key to good fishing in the sub himalayan region is getting away from people concentrations and this can be seen from my add on photo of this Goonch. It was "taken" (I dont think this one swam happily away from its encounter), within three miles of the spot that the big mahseer was taken (which was released back to the river) It was caught in 2009 on a livebait by a western angler using a "handline" it weighed seventy two kilograms.









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All the best,

Rich

Holy Shit! What did I just saw!

Yep, Arish,thats pretty much what I thought when I first saw it as well !! but these are the kinds of things you get when in this vacinity ...

toooooooooo gud.....wanna b u...

Yes I believe it that there are of course some big monsters thriving in the untouched rivers of Himalayan mountain ranges!

BTW Thanks for sharing, this is just mind blowing!

Have a look at this pic, pretty much similar to the way they are holding the fish

A Gau Mahi(barbus esocinus) from Northern Iraq.

OMG, Thats like a dream come true fish guys!!!
Simply Wao!!!!
Rgds
Mayur

Monsters of the Water in India.
Waow amazing.

wooww...some unbelievable sizes...just a thought of action while catching these fishes gives a high....one day we all shall see those moments!!!!!!

great catches guys!!!!

A very enjoyable post about a trip we can dream about. Congrats
Regards