Mark Nicolaides

Everyone’s heard of the mahseer, right? You know... that mythical fish that swims in the rivers in India.

Throughout the years, there’s been plenty written about this fish and a few films made, too. Years ago there were the programmes made by John Bailey and Paul Boote, but my first ‘exposure’ to mahseer came through two programmes John Wilson produced for mainstream TV called, Go Fishing. You may have seen these two half hour long programmes yourself.

As interesting as these programmes were at the time, I never really thought that I’d actually go out and catch one of those legendary fish for myself. I suppose one of the reasons was because in those two programmes made by John Wilson, he never actually revealed the exact location… he just said that it was ‘somewhere’ in India. More importantly, though, was the fact that although seeing John Wilson catching those huge mahseer was quite exciting, the mahseer never really caught my imagination like the thought of one day catching a blue marlin… that to me, was the ultimate fish.

But as time went on, I started to see the appeal of mahseer. Mainly because I think they’re probably the best looking freshwater fish I’ve ever seen a picture of. Particularly the smaller specimens. They just look so beautiful. They’re perfectly formed. Nearly every specimen seemed to be scale perfect, well proportioned and built for speed. Some of the fish are nicely coloured, too. Some are golden, some silver, black and, even, a bluish colour. Sometime around May last year, I got an email from Angling Direct Holidays advertising their mahseer trips to the Cauvery River running in the first few months of 2010. These would be escorted and guided by Dave Plummer. I knew Dave Plummer had been guiding people to all sorts of places for many years and knew he was a brilliant fisherman in his own right. So I made my mind up very quickly and booked up straight away.

The months leading up to the trip, passed quickly and before I knew it, it was soon January and it was only a matter of time before I’d be on the banks fishing for the mahseer myself. I needed to start making preparations. But where do I start? Most of the overseas trip I go on, the tackle and all the other paraphernalia, is all taken care of for you. It’s been years since I’d had to take fishing rods and terminal tackle over with me. But what do I need to take? That was the question constantly going through my mind.

Normally, if you’re going off to a new venue, you do some reading up on it, speak to a few people who had been there before, etc… But I didn’t know anyone who actually been and done it. Plus, most of the articles that had been written on it, concentrated on describing their experience and, typically, because they’re writing about it, they’ve probably caught some huge monster and had some other out of the ordinary experience that prompted them to put pen to paper in the first place.

What I needed, was to speak to someone who been before and could give me some general information on the place. But the trouble was, I couldn’t find anyone. I did get in touch with Gary Newman, from Angler’s Mail. He was very helpful. I emailed him a couple times and both times I got a long detailed response. Gary was very generous with what he passed on to me, as too, was Bob Roberts.

As useful as the information was I got from Gary and Bob, I needed more details. You know what I mean. You’ve got a hundred and one different questions you’d like to ask, but because you’ve got to respectful of their time, there’s only so much you can hope for. So that’s the point of this series of articles on mahseer fishing in India. You see, what I want to give you is an idea of what it’s like out there.

I’m not a famous angler who’s sponsored, or anything like that. I don’t get any free tackle. I don’t get any free trips. I don’t get any free bait. I don’t get paid a single penny for writing articles, or anything like that. In fact, apart from reading what you’ve seen on this website, the chances are you’ve never heard of me before. I’m a complete unknown. When I stop writing, the chances are, you’ll never of hear of me again. And that’s the whole point. I write on this website because I want to tell you what it’s like from the point of view of an angler who would describe himself as ‘average’. I don’t pretend to be ‘good’ at fishing… just someone who reckons fishing is the bees knees. This series of articles will give you and idea of what’s it’s like spending a week on India’s Cauvery River. It will give you an idea of an average week’s fishing. Okay, let’s start.

Over the next few days, I going to tell you about tackle, methods, location, the best time of year to travel and other things appertaining to a week’s fishing at Galibore Fishing Camp.

All this information is basically derived from my own experience from when I spent a week there earlier this year and from someone who is very experienced with the fishing on the Cauvery River, Dave Plummer. It’s the first time I’d met Dave Plummer and this man is the best fishing guide I’ve ever fished with. He’s brilliant. He’s friendly, helpful, knows what he’s talking about, shares with knowledge freely and knows what it takes to bring out the best in people. Dave Plummer has helped many anglers catch a fish of a lifetime and I’m sure you’ll find what he has to say very interesting and helpful to you in your own angling.

To be continued…………………….