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FISHING IN FAR KASHMIR Sporting Vacation of an English Offi cer and His Wife in East ami Aoldu Trunt lu VarluiiM JSfrcaiiis of the Indian Bortlcrlainl llavih l ecn jniprcd sonic rerit after nearly four years incessant work oit active service and in jire jiarhiK men for the field I thought I might as well try Kashmir which I had never visited except oifn ten days trip about thirty years ago in order to try the trout fishing of which one had heard S much My wife and I reached Srinagar about the middle of June after i most disgusting motor journey of IfiO miles in which the car broke down on nine occasions the least of which neccssi tatod the removal of a tire and there we had to wait for a week for our kit though it had been booked to arrive six days before us We were both much struck with the resemblance of the place to Nome parts of Germany r the rojids lined with pop ¬ lars the architecture of many of the European houses the orchards with their orderly rows of apple and other fruit trees the corn fields without fences and even the style of the villages but there the resemblance ended for there was no bundobast that is arrangement about anything else elseAlthough Although there existed endless printed rules for the guidance of visitors which even contain the rites of wages one should pay for boatmen for hire of boats transport etc the rules seem to be more noticeable in their breach than in their ob ¬ servance As the eleventh edition dated 1918 of oiie guidebook says Visitors should obtain re ¬ liable information as to real current prices and re ¬ sist the constant attempts at imposition This is i necessary warning for the war has been made the excuse to enhance tlm price of everything and the monthly hire of a small houseboat which four years o was about 10 is now three or four times that price priceWAYS WAYS OF KASHMIRI PEOPLE PEOPLETw Tw Xontinne from the guidebook If left finite to himself he the Kashmiri refuses to sell his fanii produce except at exorbitant prices and he declines to assist travelers The higher the prices the less h vjnopds to work This we found most true If one arrived anywhere instantly a small crowd would assemble to watch our doings and the most effective way short of telling ones dogs to turn them out was to tell them to lend u hand or ell fowls or rice The men in every boat one passes on the river exchange a few remarks with ones own boatmen to ask who one is what one is doing and where one has come from or is going to so I cannot understand how it is people constantly evince surprise at the native being so well posted in their affairs Wi had heard a lot of the lieuity of the Kashmir womiii BxaiwKition gumrally produces disap ¬ pointment ami did In this case They certainly Jiuve good features but it is the exception to see one with a pleasant face or neatly and cleanly dressed Their geueralappearance is more that of Arabs tbanof native of India Neither wen nor women wash their clothes or at any rate they do not appear to but wear them till they fall to pieces Both soxes wear long shirts down to tlivir knees liko a jiblia This custom the men say was instituted by their Mohammedan conquerors as a punishment for the valor with which they fought hut I should say it is more likely to be because they fought or did not fight like women the cowardice of the Kashmiri being proverbial throughout Hindustan and fear the chief word in his vocabulary Consequently the Maharajah employs few if any of the natives of this country in his regular army which is mostly composed of Gurkhas Dogras and Sikhs SikhsMANY MANY REGULATIONS FOR FISHING FISHINGThe The scenery of Kashmir has bucn frequently de ¬ scribed so I will say nothing about it beyond re ¬ marking that it comes un to all ones expectations As I came to fish it was necessary to obtain some information as to tho mips and this was easily got on application at the office of the amc Preserva ¬ tion Department where I received nil abstract of the regulations which consisted of a pamphlet of twelve pages of foolscap in which were laid down in somewhat involved phraseology the various trout waters reserved waters protected waters and sanctuaries as well as the methods of taking fish Trout waters are those in which trout have been put out but it docs not follow thty remain there still Of these there are about twenty lakes and streams whore only rod fishing is al ¬ lowed The mode of fishing in the other waters varies from a cast net twenty feet in diameter to a walrnz which is a long linn with hooks attached limited to five hundred yards in length a really useful sort of night line A license costs from about halfacrown for fishing in protected waters with rod and line to 20 for the season or 32s u week in the trout waters In the latter one must also have a permit a most sound provision as it insures no river being overcrowded or over fished fishedThe The permit is usually limited to a week on any stream or part of it The season for trout extends from April 1 to September 30 In addition to trout many of the rivers designated as trout waters swarm with local fish which are chiefly choosh chirro and khoont also snow trout in those which are glacierfed glacierfedWAYS WAYS OF KASHMIRI FISH FISHTin Tin first named is quite a good fish to catch He rises well to the fly takes practically any other bait and jumps like a trout when hooked though his other movements ar more those of a grayling In appearance he is something like a tench only yellow on the sides The chirro is a handsome fish silvery with black spots only longer and thinner in proportion than a lioosh He does not fight badly either one of five pounds I hooked by tin tail on a fly in rapid water gave me quite an ex ¬ citing time on a tenfoot rod All these are poor eating being bony bonyOf Of the trout one cannot speak to highly from a sporting and culinary point of view They are thicker and better conditioned than any fish I have met with in rapid streams at home In fact the large ones are too sturdily built to be really hand ¬ some They are somewhat dour risers possibly because one seldom soes a proper hatch of water flies coming down a Kashmiri stream by day Flies seem mostly to hatch out after dark in India As tlu limit tf trout to lit taken in one day is four vor nine inches in length on all trout waters ixcept cue where it is six It is perhaps as woll then is not a proper rise otherwise ones days sport might be over in half an hour One generous and sensible rule is that if one gets an undersized fish wliicli is badly hooked and unlikely to recover one may keep it but not count it toward the total catch The trout are found at altitudes of from 5000 to 12000 feet feetASIATIC ASIATIC BROWN TROUT RUN IARGE IARGEAs As Mr Mitchell the director of fish culture who gives his valuable services for nothing beyond the sport he gets wrote to me The highlevel lakes and streams are what require attention if the brown trout is to become more than an exotic in India The area I am now in 11000 to 12000 feet is well stocked I am distributing from here to other areas as I can catch fish small enough to travel The lakes are strongholds which will always keep well stocked as they do in Scotland in fact the climate and fishing are similar It would cheer your heart to see the lake trout more like sea trout than brownies Ive killed fish up to seven and onehalf pounds here and the trout in the lakes average about one pound and a half and the fry have gone downstream about nine miles milesThis This at any rate looks as if the trout in Kash ¬ mir were established as a nermanency I spoke to him about the local fish being likely in my opinion to swamp the trout and he replied Your remark was made to me by an American expert about twelve years ago and I disagreed with him In some streams the trout have cleared out the native fish and fattened on them This is quite true and probably accounts for the trout in those streams where the native fish abound being dour risers in addition suggestedSome to the reason I have suggested Some of the waters will never be any more than artificial trout streams as they have no decent spawning beds and some are a series of irrigation canals In these the supply is maintained by yearly stocking On the other hand some are ideal High ¬ land rivers like the Brora or Uelmsdale in places torrential in others composed of lovely pools and shallows with banks covered with bushes and their beds full of bowlders under which the trout can lie in comfort Some are even too rapid for trout to stay in them themANGLING ANGLING AMONG RUINED TEMPLES TEMPLESMy My base of operations was our houseboat and from it I used to ride or drive daily to the scene of action One of the first rivers visited was the Atchibal which rises in an old garden one of the many made by Jehangir at the beginning of the seventeenth century These of which there are several either in ruins or still kept up in Kashmir were constructed by the Moghuls for the comfort of themselves and their courts so as to escape the heat and strong winds which they hated All of these gardens are absolutely symmetrical and con ¬ sist of terraces planted with stately shadegiving trees with a broad watercourse flowing down the center which falls in cascades at the various ter ¬ races over which are stone platforms where the emperor and his retinue use to sit to enjoy the sound of the splashing water In each garden were summer houses under which the water flowed and in front of these arc square tanks with rows of fountains The stone work in all these gardens is largely composed of the remains of Hindu temples and it was interesting to note that most of it bore the masons marks now used by us of the craft as masonic signs In many gardens are the remains of Turkish baths bathsTho Tho source of the river gushes out from the one at Atchibal and in this spring a fine twopound trout waf lying lyingLeaving Leaving the garden the stream flows through rice fields its bank shaded ulmost all the way for a dozen miles with willows which considerably interfere with casting but add to the beauty An ¬ other drawback to these trees was the fact that at all times of the day one found the lazy natives sleeping in their shade and when one approached they often got up and ran away thus disturbing the fish fishFIFTEENPOUNDER FIFTEENPOUNDER PLAYS SAFETY SAFETYThe The water during the summer is generally some ¬ what discolored by the drainage from the rice grown in water in which the natives are constantly paddling attending to the crops cropsThe The Atchibal contains a great many good trout and is absolutely stiff with local fish which can be seen flashing in the sunlight wherever the water is shallow In one pool a fifteenpound trout is said to exist which breaks away from several sportsmen every year I was not lucky enough to hook him or see him myself but was told that when he feeds the children from the village overlooking his abode assemble to watch him chasing the small fish on the shallow at the end of the pool I stayed a week on this river and bagged twentysix trout weighing nineteen pounds those under nine inches bMng returned besides fiftyfour choosh and chirro running up to three pounds poundsThe The next river was the Veshau The fishing herd is in two offshoots which supply the cultivation with water Both these are much more easily fished than the Atchibal as the banks are more open and runs and pools have been constructed by throwing stone weirs across acrossIt It was most extraordinary that the trout were only found in both these branches between certain limits though the conditions above and below seemed identical From what I observed myself and from what Mr Mitchell says it seems as if the trout in Kashmir do not possess a strong in ¬ stinct of working upstream In the week I spent on the Veshau my bag was seventeen trout weighing twentyone pounds and a hundred and two other fish up to five pounds Two days were spoilt b3 storms stormsCOOLIE COOLIE SEEKS TIP FOR BIG TROUT TROUTThe The best trout was five pounds three ounces and I got him by a fluke I was moving across a stony trickle and threw my fly over a patch of weed into some deep water so as to prevent it getting stuck up The fly of course sunk and when 1 was lifting it out again there was a tug and a rush of about forty yards downstream I followed on and the fish turned and came back making for the weeds I told the coolie to get into the water and beat the weeds with this landing net which kept the fish out of them and he then fought it out in the open water below It was not until he was nearly done that I found I had hold of a really good trout and was dreadfully afraid that the small hook would not hold However it did and when the fish was in the net the coolie brought him up the bank went down on his knoes and salaamed to congratulate me in expectation of backsheesh a thing a Kashmiri never fails to ask for on any or often without any excuse excuseThe The landing net was taxed to tho utmost to hold tho trout for it was made from an old badminton bat as a war economy I cut through the hoop at the top straightened the arms thus formed strutted them open with a bit of steel wire bound the shoulders of the handle with six turns of a boot ¬ lace and then attached the net to the holes where the gut had been and the result is a most handy little net netCOMPLAINING COMPLAINING NAWAB BAD FISHERMAN FISHERMANThere There were many really good trout in these branches and 1 got two others over three pounds while there A Mohammedan nawab who was fish ¬ ing at tho same tinn as I caught a four and one halfpounder the first cast he made but got few others anil when ho left his secretary wrote in the trout register The scarcity of fishes is intol rablo That ho got any was rather surprising for he was always followed in native fashion by about seven attendants who never attempted to kcdp away from the bank his tackle was stout and his flies made by his boatman resembled nothing I had ever seen before His rods were by Hardy and he bad paid someone in India through the nose for them for he saiil a Houghton tenfoot rod had cost him 0 Hu was a most excellent fellow and told mo what hail started him fishing in the English style was that three years ago a friend had lout him a rod and told him to try trolling on the Jhcliim He caught a fiftypounder the first day and that bit him so now he goes fishing for two or three months every year He had served as an officer for six years in the cavalry and been invalided paradeFrom for an accident on parade From the Veshau I went to the Madmati which flows into the Wbolur Laki at Bandapur The lake so called in tho late summer is really a pesti ¬ lential swamp covered with a species of water nut in which tho natives do a great trade as dried and ground it forms a staplo article of their food Bui led it tastes something like a chestnut but is difficult to peel as it Is shaped liko a calthrop or crows foot having a long sharp thorn at each corner ono of which gonerally impresses itself on ones notice when peeling the nut nutMADMATI MADMATI FISH ARE FIERCE FIGHTERS FIGHTERSTho Tho Madmati is a typical Highland river and its banks aro not too much overgrown It contains few other fish l esirlfs trout which rise well fight like demons and run to a good size 1 rose OUR to a big yellow bumble at least six pounds but could not move him a second time A trout seemed to be behind owry bowlder where there was an eddy I saw ono of about four pounds in such shallow water that his back fin was sticking out and when I hooked him he jumped straight out and began flapping about among the dry stones I put down the rod and tried to get him but he became un ¬ hooked and cot back before I reached him which I do not think ho would have had done had I been less rheumatic My bag hero was twentytwo trout weighing over forty imunds tho best four and one half pound though for two days tho riv r was quite unfishable owing to storms My last day re ¬ sulted in four trout four and onehalf pounds three and onehalf pounds three and onequarter I and three pounds besides four others from two 1 pounds downward returned quite tbe Vest for average size I have ever had My only regret was there were no friends near to send some to One evening previously I had sent a nico trout to a houseboat tied up alongside ours thinking the occupants would enjoy it when they came in from a long march I sent my card with it All the acknowledgment I got was my own card back with Many thanks and an initial scribbled on it so I never knew who got it itI I only tried for big fish and covered alwut three miles of the river to get them It was this day I rose the sixpounder The watcher on first meeting him showed his energy by wanting to measure my fish for which he produced a two foot rule and native fashion of course measured from the end marked 24 24POOR POOR SPORT ON ERIN AND MANISBAL MANISBALMy My next venture was the Erin River but the less said of its fishing the better as only five trout bad been taken in it this season and last In my opinion it had been most effectually poisoned as there were few local fish in it either for had they been there they would have been visible As there were not my first day was my last lastFrom From the Erin River we proceeded to the Manisbal Lake a most beautiful bit of water lying among the hills which contains some rainbow trout among other fish It is about two miles long and deep On its north bank are the remains of an old ter ¬ raced garden made by Jehangir for his favorite wife Nurjehan It looks like a fort with battle ¬ ments which are reflected in the water At the far end of the lake is a cave about thirty yards long which was tunneled out by an old fakir who intended it for his grave and then by the irony of fate was not buried in it Fishing in this spot was not a sncess either for I had only just started when wo were caught in a terrific thunderstorm which lasted about an hour and wo only made the bank just in time When tho storm was over we found our senants coming along the shore with umbrellas and waterproofs They said our cook boat had been sunk and heard that the boat we had gone out in had also gone down so what use they thought our waterproofs would l c in that event was more than they could tell us By this time we were both soaked through so gavo up any idei of sport My Airedale was so much upset by the storm that he lay down in the lake tu get out of the wind and driving rain rainPOOR POOR ANGLING IN RUSHING WATERS WATERSFrom From Manisbal we went a days journey by houseboat to Ganderbal on the Scinde River and thence marched twelve miles to Kangan for the Wangat stream This is such a torrent that tho trout evidently cannot stay in it The trout diary showed that only thirty five of which many hail been returned bad been caught in the last ton years I contributed nearly an average seasons bag by catching three weighing two and three quarter pounds and this only by fishing every bit of likely water for about five miles for two days One of them had evidently been caught before for ho had only one eye The scenery was magnificent and the climate delightful so the trip there was not regretted especially as the flics and mos ¬ quitoes did not trouble us as they had in overy other place and we saw none of those peculiarly horrible midges which are just as much at homo in the water as in the air airThe The Scinde River from Kangan to three miles below Ganderbal forms the chief breeding ground for native fish in Kashmir and has latterly been entirely closed for all sbrts of fishing during the months of May and June Years ago in thesu months it was a great resort for anglers and I am told that the fish were so thick that fully half those caught by spinning were foulhooked At Kangan the Scinde even in August when the snow water has practically ceased to come down is a raging torrent and it is astonishing how any fish can lie in it but the choosh in particular seems able to keep his position in any sort of water without anything to broak the force of it Ono constantly sees them lying in midwater in tho direct rush of the current at the top of a pool where a mahseer or trout would bo lying at tho side and rising as if they were in the calmest water One wonders seeing the amount of exercise they take that their flesh is not firmer firmerKASHMIRI KASHMIRI FISHING SUPERSTITIONS SUPERSTITIONSThe The theories the Kashmiris hold about fish arc extraordinary A watcher on the Veshau told n that all the big trout were demons localise donl mens spirits enter into them The Maharajah a Dqgni Hindu evidently is a strong believer ii this superstition for he closes certain places for sport whenever his priests tell him that tho spirit of one of his relations has entered into a fish for fear that fish should be killed and tho relative consequently have the discomfort of shifting some ¬ where else an annoyance which might be visited on him It is surprising therefore that more of forts are not made to keep down herons and otters The former are particularly numerous At tho Veshau one day I saw nine standing in one shallow less than fifty yards long and have often caught fish bearing the scars of their beaks One morn ¬ ing when fishing the Madmati a great otter rosu to the surface within three yards of me and re ¬ mained paddling like a dog watching me until I tried to hit him with my rod when ho promptly disappeared The natives say that rising fish aro generally drinking and when asked why they cannot drink at the bottom or in midwater as well as at the top the reply is that if they did the water would fill their mouths and bellies and drown them themWhen When at Wnngat a most unfortunate incident oc ¬ curred I sent tho coolie whom I had always em ¬ ployed to carry my not and basket on ahead the night before and gave him my rod also I told him on no account tr tako it out of its case where ¬ upon he asked why I should think he would want to do such a thing thingNATIVE NATIVE TINKERING RUINS TOOLS TOOLSWhen When we arrived at Kangan ho met mo in thn village and said he had committed a small fault and put tho rod together and now it would not conn apart I went into tho rest house and found the two bottom joints leaning against the wall On looking at it I saw the butt ferrule was l fnt and hopelessly jammed Avith the rings of ono joint on the opposite side to those of the other On inquiry I gathered that lie had put it together to show the caretaker and as it had Lloyd joints the sleeve of the middle joint had somehow slipped down Tho coolip not knowing the dodge of it saw his dis ¬ obedience would be discovered if he could not get tho rod apart so took it to tho village black ¬ smith who put in it a vise and with a pair of nip ¬ pers tried to screw the joint out After at least six efforts plainly visible on the ferrule he man ¬ aged to force it round in spito of the fastenings and then it finally jammed so the coolie made up his mind to face the music When I savy what had happened he made tho music and continued to do so for somo time Had ho been able to got tho joint out of course thoro would have been no nc connting for tho damage except that it must havts IM some time ago However by shifting tho rings and reel fittings I managrd to mako tho rod usable and have learned a lesson never to trust it to a stranger again A European work ¬ man ninetynine times out of a hundred would have refused to tako on a job he did not under ¬ stand but there is nothing tho native of India will admit lie cannot do from governing the country to mending a watch whether he has been trained to it or not I shall never forget our mess cook in Mesopotamia who gave out he was an experienced watchmaker and did a fine business for himself among tho sepoys I had given my orderly a really good silver watch which ono day ho brought to me because it would not go I opened it saw the works covered with dust and dirty finger marks so remarked I thought I had told you never to open this What have you been doing He replied It stopped before so I took it to the mess rook who knows all about watches I asked What docs ho do to them Tho man said Oh he just opens them stirs them up with a pin ami then they go A pin would not put all this dirt into the watch No that was caused by a shell which burst close by just as he was stirring up the works Watchmaking under firo is a trade I never hoard of being practiced in the trenches in KlanilcrsLioutCol Alban Wilson D S O in Fishing Gazette
