Paul Stevens Returns From His Latest Research Trip In India On The Cauvery.

Paul Stevens, Angling Direct Holidays Consultant, has recently returned from a week in India, where he was on a research trip, sampling the fishing on the Cauvery and on the look out for what India has to offer. He wrote up a few words on his trip and shares them with us here:

What a great start for Dave Plummer’s group trip to India Mahseer fishing, with a huge amount of fish gracing the banks of the Cauvery. My trip was booked for the 3rd week and was counting down the days, as all I kept hearing from Dave’s blog was fish after fish being caught. Departure date was finally here and after wrapping everything up in the office off I go.






With the flight over, it was lovely to step foot in their new airport (which is apparently much better than what they had) it was straight through to be met by Angling Direct Holidays representative holding up a board clearly marked with ‘Angling Direct Holidays’. Once the greeting was over we stepped aboard the spacious Mini Bus for our journey to the camp.

I was told a bit about the journey to the camp by previous customers, that it is an experience all on its own…..and boy they were right. I have never seen such organised chaos, but it worked and not once did I see a crash. The little putt putts are highly amusing darting in and out of the traffic and I regret not having the opportunity to give them a go.

After a short transfer of around 2.5hrs, we came to a dirt track which led to the camp and 10mins later I was taking my first look at the Cauvery, and WOW what a sight it was in perfect condition and couldn’t wait to wet a line.

Dave was waiting to greet us with some toast and a choice of hot or cold drinks which went down a treat. Dave is your classic experienced guide and knows all you want to do is get fishing, so once the greeting was over and done with you were shown to your tent and explained a few of the basics i.e. how shower works, what you do with dirty washing etc etc.



A couple of guys choose to get their heads down, but not me I couldn’t wait to get my rods set up and get my first fish. So with rods set up off I went to check the river out. The first place I looked for was an area called the camp Beach, which is a 2min walk from the bar, as this is a real hotspot for some great action on light gear. I was feeling very excited as this was my first cast into the Cauvery and I didn’t have to wait long for my first pull, and boy do these fish pull. After a small scrap lasting 10mins or so I landed my very first Mahseer of around 15lb and it took my breath away. They are stunning looking fish and fight so hard in the fast turbulent waters. The rest of the afternoon was spent catching small Carp and Barbel.



The fishing slots with guides are split into two 4hr sessions one in the morning 8am – 12pm and one in the evening 5pm – 9pm. Dave asks for you to meet at the bar half hour before your session starts for a quick chat to see where people are fishing.

So with sun tan lotion on and small rucksack packed, off I go to meet up with the group for the evening session. I was so looking forward to meeting my guide and taken to some hotspots, he decided to take me to what they call ‘Croc Rock’ and he explained in his broken English that it would come clear why they called it croc rock, and he wasn’t wrong, on the far side there lay a 10ft croc sunbathing.



With the bait (hard ragi) hair rigged on my SSW Owner 8/0 out she goes to ¾ of the way across the river. After around an hour one of the other lads who was there for 2 weeks had a cracking 59lb Mahseer, we all went to photograph and to congratulate the angler. My evening went past so quickly with only a couple of dropped takes so 9pm came round and off we go for our dinner and a nice cold beer.

Day 2

7am and the tea coffee boy wakes you up with fresh coffee and some biscuits but be quick as the monkeys love biscuits…. By 7 30am everybody is sitting round the breakfast table with thoughts of what the day ahead holds for them. 8am and I am sitting there holding my rod with great expectations of the forth coming week. I didn’t have to wait long as my rod started to pull over, with the power of a great Mahseer so once I had let it go tight I bent in to the fish only to fall backwards off my plastic chair!!! There were huge laughs coming from the guys that were near me, and to top it off I lost my first proper take not happy. Lunch time, so back to the camp for our lunch. With every body sitting round we started discussing what had been caught that day and I was amazed of the amount that were coming out, nothing massive yet and most of the fish caught were on light setups.



The evening session was here and was ready for another go, so off we set to a different area upstream. This is more what I had expected from the Cauvery with rapids all round me and big fish rolling. The coracle was fetched to where we were fishing so we could enter the rapids and fish from the centre rocks. This was an experience that I won’t forget for along time, the guide ‘Ramo’ was an expert at controlling the coracle through the turbulent waters. This was the most confident I had felt so far, as so many fish showing. It didn’t take long for the rod to nearly be pulled from my hands as a Mahseer decided he liked my bait, and took off downstream with me following.
Once we had got to a deeper pool I got the upper hand and with one last effort we managed to beach my very first proper Mahseer at only 29lb, it wasn’t massive but it fought like a demon and cant imagine what a 50+ would go like. With pictures taken we let the great fish go, I was so pleased. The rest of the evening went past with no other takes so back to the dinner table and on my arrival at table the word had gone around that I had had my first fish so beers were on me.



Day 3

Days 3 – 4 went past with not much action as the river dropped 5ft in two days, there were other fish caught but they seemed to be just at night time from the deeper areas, plenty of small fish action on light rods up to 15lb.



Day 5

Today the river was more settled and I was much more confident with what lie ahead. Today I choose to fish live baits for a change, I heard that this works well for the bigger fish. Once our fishing spot was decided out goes the live bait, (loach) on the same setup as before. Again it didn’t take long and whack goes the rod and I was in again this time it felt much bigger with a strong steady run upstream taking 30 or so yards of line, after freeing it from the many rocks we eventually got it to the edge and the guide grabbed the fish, and a huge roar went out as this was a large fish for me. I was made up with the fish that lay at my feet it looked huge. I thought it was 40lb or so, once we had her up on the scales she went 49lb 15oz I was over the moon just think while I was playing this fish in stunning surroundings the guys were back at the office working hard picking up my work load ha ha. When I got back to the camp everybody knew of my fish and a great round of applause went up as I entered the camp, beers on me again but it’s a small price to pay for such a great fish.




Day 6

Last day and last chance for some of the guys, after my fish last night I wasn’t that bothered what happened. Talk about last chance saloon two guys that had not had luck on their side, managed a fish each of 44lb and 49lb they were so made up, beers were on them that night…

Departure Day

The guys that are leaving today were asked to have bags packed and bar bills paid, ready to load onto the mini-bus by 11am for the transfer to a hotel in Bangalore for the night. So you can have a sort out of gear and grab a nice hot shower. The flight home leaves in the morning, so you get a wake up call an hour before the bus picks you up and a nice fresh breakfast box is given to you, and away you go for your journey home.