INDIANANGLER

Just reached Sriharikota and planning to fish at Pulicat lake. It seems to be a heaven for migratory birds as we have seen many birds such as Flamingos, Pelicans, Painted Storks, and many fish eating birds while going to Sriharikota via sulllurpeta in bus. It look like there are many fish in store for fishing and we are looking forward to fishing there.

Arish,

best of luck to your upcoming trip. It is a pleasure to watch migratory birds and hear them while fishing.

Post your report irrespective of the result.

Regards,

Ali.

Best of Luck Arish, happy Fishing & tight lines

All the best.

Returned home this morning after a trip to Sriharikota Island! Completely disappointed in fishing but excited in birding adventure

Detail of the report:

No. of persons:3(me, and my 2 cousin brothers)
Accommodation:Employees quarter.
Food:There are two canteens inside Sriharikota island which serves only Veg. foods(limited timing). As for the non-veg we can buy chicken n eggs to cook it ourself or we can go to dhabas in Sullurpeta during night.
Equipment for fishing: 20lbs lines, no.3 hooks and aatta as bait.
(no rods because of high security)



Sriharikota is a prohibited and protected zone under the control of Government of India. Satish Dhawan Space Center,SHAR, managed by ISRO(Indian Space Research Organisation) is located in Sriharikota Island. So question arises that how did i landed in Sriharikota despite high security. Well my cousin brother works in ISRO and he can get permit for us to enter into Sriharikota. He invited me because he is aware of my passion for fishing,birding and adventures.

Sriharikota is bounded on the West by Pulicat lake and on the east by Bay of Bengal. Water surrounds all over Sriharikota, even there are 2 small lagoons inside the north eastern part of sriharikota. I really wanted to do fishing on these two small lagoons as these lagoons are undisturbed by the local fishermen due to protection of island.

When we reached Sriharikota around 7:20 in the morning. My brother had to report his attnedence to office at 8am and he went immediately after dropping us into his quarter. He also presented before us one CISF jawan who is a good friend of him to give us tips on roaming around the island under high security. When we are into deep discussion with the jawan, this jawan looked at me carefully, recognized me and told that i looks familiar to him as he had seen me once during a marriage function in Hyderabad but i could not recognize him

We inquired him about fishing at the lagoons inside the island and he told that it is impossible for a visitors like us to go deep into the island otherwise we will lands up in jail . We also inquired about fishing in the pulicat lake so he advised us to try fishing outside the sriharikota island at sullurpeta-sriharikota link road(this is the only road that lead us to sriharikota). I asked him one more question that there are many fishermen with boats so that we should ask them to take us deep into the lake to do fishing by giving them money but he immediately warned us not to talk to the fishermen because they are known for their notorieties and there are many cased of them threatening tourists and visitors by forcefully stealing money, kicking and throwing into the road.

Morning view of the Pulicat lake at Sullurpeta-Sriharikota link road


Fishermen with boats


Discussion the the jawan longed for hours as he kept talking talking talking and we had to listen to him not to disappoint him (such as by saying let stop the tallk and allow us to venture around the lake to try fishing etc) because he had given us good deal of information without which we would have landed up in jail or attacked by the fishermen. by the time he leaves it was 11 am in the morning and we were getting dizzy because of hours of listening to him as well as sleepless night journey by train(a young toddler was crying too loud and we had to vacate one of our seat to worried parent in order to silence the little one). So we took a good nap for two hours, then went to canteen for lunch and finally to pulicat lake for fishing in bicycles which my ISRO brother burrowed for us from his ISRO friends.

while riding on the road we were greeted by these gull billed terns


close up shot of gull billed terns


We were now looking for a good spot for fishing and we kept riding till we reached a spot where we heared splashing of water by fishes when fishermen were wading through the knee deep water






We took few distance from this spot to do fishing because we feared these fishermen might raise a voice for invading/disturbing their territory. We are without a rod and we couldnot even find straight sticks from trees so we throws atta baited hook into the water by spinning it in the air. after throwing hook into the water we waited for over an hour for fish to bite but there is not a single sign of fish biting the bait, took second round of throwing and waited for half hour and still no sign of bites. Then we decided to find another spot and kept riding. On our way we spotted 1 Brahminy kite and 1 probably a steppe eagle or juvenile osprey flying past us.





Riding further in search of a good fishing spot we passed a fisherman fixing his net, a wind powered boat and small dead fishes strewn on the road on many spots







I wonders how many fishes like these are wasted each days had they been not wasted they would have grown bigger thus a good chance for anglers as well as many fish eating birds to fill their satisfaction. By looking at these dead fish thrown and left on the road at many spots we concluded that there might be no hope to catch fish here.

Then we had seen huge flocks of birds at farther corner and decided to have a close glimpses of them and kept riding to that place. Before reaching that place we passed these birds and clicked them.

A spot billed pelican and two white herons

during morning drive in bus we had spotted half a dozen pelicans together worth a sight to view them but this time only spotted one pelican.

Black winged stilts


Black winged stilts in flight


Little stints


Finally reached the area where huge swarn of birds we have seen earlier and they were Pintail ducks numbering many thousands.

Swarns of Pintail ducks


close up of Pintail ducks


Pintail ducks in flight after my cousin raised a big rhythmic Bonk sound


these are but only 8-10% of all the flocks present throughout the surrounding area in lake

Distance covered so far is 22km from Sriharikota

some random pics

Painted Storks


Painted storks with white heron and mixed egrets


other exotic birds spotted but could not manage to take their pics are 2 Flamingos(spotted them flying past when we were inside the bus), black drongo, yellow wagtail,grey heron, black ibis, little cormorant, ringed parakeet and some more whose name i don't know.

On the second morning took another bicycle ride and again ended with the same result as of day one


worst nightmare to remember is 0% fish caught!

Thanks Ali bhai and yes indeed it was a pleasure to do fishing amids the sounds of birds chirping and quacking!

sorry to bother you that my fishing adventure completely turned into birding adventure.

after all it been an experience to remember :)



Thanks Sayed bhai, You enjoyed much more than me. wanna love to beat your record


Thanks apoo for the wish, the best is yet to come :)

Arish,

It looks like a great trip bar the fish. Angling is all about being there, the fish will come and go, memories like this will stay forever.

Trips like this will make you a better angler, when starting off, I have had dry spells without catching a good fish that lasted almost 2 years (I know this does not sound encouraging ) but what I am getting at is experience is the best teacher. Why you did not catch anything is a question you need to answer and when you are able to answer this, you will catch your fish.

All the best.

Bobby

Sound like you guys had fantastic trip.
Going out fishing and getting back without any fish is something you have to expect on 70% (or even more) of your trips. Thats what fishing is all about. But one day (suddenly) you will be compensated for the entire trips that you would have made.

Hope you hit that "one day" soon.

Ravi

very true ravi.......

" Hope you hit that One Day soon---> after 70th empty trip??? { just kidding }

You can come to Murud for some action

Arish,

Thats an amazing location for any nature lover. Superb location and as correctly mentioned by Bobby "Angling is all about being there, the fish will come and go, memories like this will stay forever. "

Wish you all the best for future trips.

You pessimistic lion heart!!!!!!
Why dont you think it this way.................out of every 10 trips on three trips you will catch a fish!!!!!

Ravi

Nice pics...thanks for sharing...did you also use the dead fish as baits?

Nice pics. thanks for sharing.

HI Arish,

that is one mighty fine place to visit to be one with nature.

After looking at the pics, I made the following observations;

1. That place looks like it is a very flat area, probably the water depth isnt much. (Boats with outboard motors wont get you far here - hence the sail boats)
2. The presence of numberous birds mean that there bottom is rich in food supply for the birds - small fish which feed on little sand creatures. Due to this, presenting bait that is not naturally available as a food source, is very often going to be left untouched.
3. You will get to see some larger action, where a larger predator fish will get after the small fish, but hooking up into them is definately going to be a rarity.
4. You need to do your homework before fishing & find out what fish inhabits the water bodies that you intend on fishing in (a quick trip to the market, or watching them pull nets will give you a fair idea) & the kind of natural bait available. It is also advisable to find out how (technique, besides casting nets) the locals catch fish.

I'm sure that if you stop searching for the BIG fish & start being a part of the environment that you visit, every fishing trip will become more & more enjoyable.
I would be lying to say that I have not blanked out on numerous trips. Last year (season 2009 - 2010) I had a low of NO decent sized fish for @ 7 months, yet I looked forward to getting up & getting out of the house & enjoying every trip. Desmond (Teritex) too just came out of a 6 months dry patch (this ended only 3 weeks ago for him).

Pursue what you do, be considerate for the fellow angler / environment & appreciate nature.

Over all, have a good year ahead & good luck.

best regards,
Keyur

Pessimistic !!! who me ??? not at all Ravi !!! I am just putting your words in a diiferent way

@Bobby:

Thanks Bobby, every reply of yours is encouraging me to try more on fishing and every single explanation of your is worth more than a lesson to remember thanks a lot for your encouragement.



how wonderful is the rhyming scheme and how simple and meaningful is it!

@Ravi uncle:

Thanks ravi uncle yes we had fantastic trip and we even went to Chennai for one day!
coming without fish is what i was expecting because i was going there for the first time and i had no idea what fish lies there and what bait to use after all i have learned to get used to this lake and will soon try to go there again in future!

Insha Allah! i will hit that one day soon!

Thanks again for your encouragement

@manishhgin: Thanks :)

@Sayed bhai: 70th trip is a long way to go let reduce no. for me

@MM: Thanks

no i didnot used dead fishes as baits because there is no sign of big fish in the lake. only small fishes and prawns were seen from the fishermen's nets.

@Apoo: Thanks again

@Raj:Thanks

It was a wonderful location for nature lovers as well as bird lovers, in our town we see crows,sparrows,pigeons etc in the sky but at pulicat lake we can see herons,egrets,painted storks,pelicans etc as a common sights everywhere. Best season is the winter season. Now water level is fast diminishing near sriharikota and running towards southern parts like a river.

your camera can capture the true essence of birds life there!


@keyur: Thanks

I loves the beauty of Nature and even an ant do excites me!

as from your observation:


1.Yes the depth of water is not much in majority of the places as we have seen many fishermen walking in the water as if it just rained and the depth is few inches deep.

2.This is an eye opener. Very well observed! and it was for this reason that we gave up hope after seeing small fishes that were left on the road. also thinking that there is no space for the bigger fish in an inch deep water to swim.

3.There are fishermen's nets attached at every nook and corner of the lake and even at the bridges where water from northern parts runs into southern parts. So it hard to spot them. It seems like every predatory fishes are already caught before we come to the lake (i was expecting barras here).

4.Had done this homework when riding a bicylce to obsere and look carefully at every boats to see which fishes are there. Much to my dismay there are only prawns and small fish seen from their nets. Not a single big fish to be seen and even at market there are only prawns.

Thanks again for giving a detailed observation, got a good deal of information in it.

beautiful birds there... nice to see a fellow nature lover....

regards,

Dr. Prasad

Thanks Dr. Prasad

Look like you are also a Nature lover.

Dear Aarish,

Nice trip you guys have had. I have been to SHAR and the fauna of the Pulicat lake is fantastic.

The place is a bird lovers paradise.

Looking forward to more trips like this. Enjoy.

Tight ines.

Hi Sailendra bhai ,

Thanks for the complement.

Do you have any close one that works in SHAR? Entry into SHAR is only through permit which can be obtained for us by someone who works in SHAR.

Regard
Arish!

Arish Bhai,

I have a couple of collegues working with me in Bangalore who are ex-ISRO employees from SHAR. If you want to make another trip, I can talk to them.

Tight Lines!

Hi Sailendra bhai

Thanks for your help , im thinking of going during monsoon season, one of my cousin brother is also an employee in ISRO, he will arrange everything for me , however i wanted to ask you one question: is it possible for us to go to the sea shore from inside SHAR?

Restricted area. No fishing possible, Arish.

Great trip, loved the description and photos. Keep on doing it.

Regards,

Ali.