I'm now right in the north of India, in the Ladakh region of Kashmir.
It's spectacular here, almost beyond belief. It's a cold desert at an elevation of 13500 feet. Freezing cold at night, the sun during the day will burn you in minutes. I've never seen a sky as blue as this.
Anyway enough of that melodramatic claptrap, this is a fishing site.
I've sill to catch a fish in India. I've had 2 short sessions on the local river; the Indus. Any geography nuts out there will know that it flows east to become the major river in Pakistan.
Around here it's a glacier fed river, maybe 40-50 yards wide. It's a bit like a northern Game river, having long riffles with occasional pools.
This area, despite being in India, is predominantly Buddhist. This is great if you want to meditate, or perhaps see religious buildings (Gompas).
For the avid angler though, it's not great, as this religion sees all animals as being entitled to respect, and life.
Unfortunately, as I was to find out, careful catch and release is not seen as adequate respect towards fish!
Anyway, despite this, I decided to fish. Maybe I'm bordering on being obsessed with fishing, or perhaps it's my Mancunian upbringing. Whatever, this lad was going to be guesting, big style.
My first session was a complete blank. It was only an hour or so at the start of a 4 day trek, so not much to go off really, but I liked the river.
A week later my recently purchased mountain bike took me to (I thought) a nice quiet spot on the river.
I parked the bike and made my way along the river; alternating between various flies, and small spinners/ lures.
After 2 hours I came across a pod of rising fish. I've no idea what they were but they were big; giving huge slashing takes to Mayfly-like creatures that were floating past.
No sooner than I had tied on my biggest dry fly, as I was about to make that precise cast on to the snout of the mysterious beast that lay hidden within the green water, there was a tap on my shoulder:
I turned round, this old woman started jabbering in my face in her language. It seemed that she didn't approve of fishing. 'No, no, no! she yelled. I tried my best to explain that I didn't intend to harm the fish. My best efforts at sign language; including pretending to rock fishy cradles didn't have any impression on this beast of a woman.
The final straw was when she grabbed my arm, started shouting 'Gompa! Gompa!' while making face-slapping gestures. I love my fishing, but I really didn't fancy being led to the local Gompa for my due punishment.
So, I'm still to catch in India.
Next stop Dodital Lake in Uttaranchal. It's 5 days by bus from here, then 2 days trek with Mules. It's supposed to be full of Trout and Mahseer. We will see.
Regards to all
Ric
It's spectacular here, almost beyond belief. It's a cold desert at an elevation of 13500 feet. Freezing cold at night, the sun during the day will burn you in minutes. I've never seen a sky as blue as this.
Anyway enough of that melodramatic claptrap, this is a fishing site.
I've sill to catch a fish in India. I've had 2 short sessions on the local river; the Indus. Any geography nuts out there will know that it flows east to become the major river in Pakistan.
Around here it's a glacier fed river, maybe 40-50 yards wide. It's a bit like a northern Game river, having long riffles with occasional pools.
This area, despite being in India, is predominantly Buddhist. This is great if you want to meditate, or perhaps see religious buildings (Gompas).
For the avid angler though, it's not great, as this religion sees all animals as being entitled to respect, and life.
Unfortunately, as I was to find out, careful catch and release is not seen as adequate respect towards fish!
Anyway, despite this, I decided to fish. Maybe I'm bordering on being obsessed with fishing, or perhaps it's my Mancunian upbringing. Whatever, this lad was going to be guesting, big style.
My first session was a complete blank. It was only an hour or so at the start of a 4 day trek, so not much to go off really, but I liked the river.
A week later my recently purchased mountain bike took me to (I thought) a nice quiet spot on the river.
I parked the bike and made my way along the river; alternating between various flies, and small spinners/ lures.
After 2 hours I came across a pod of rising fish. I've no idea what they were but they were big; giving huge slashing takes to Mayfly-like creatures that were floating past.
No sooner than I had tied on my biggest dry fly, as I was about to make that precise cast on to the snout of the mysterious beast that lay hidden within the green water, there was a tap on my shoulder:
I turned round, this old woman started jabbering in my face in her language. It seemed that she didn't approve of fishing. 'No, no, no! she yelled. I tried my best to explain that I didn't intend to harm the fish. My best efforts at sign language; including pretending to rock fishy cradles didn't have any impression on this beast of a woman.
The final straw was when she grabbed my arm, started shouting 'Gompa! Gompa!' while making face-slapping gestures. I love my fishing, but I really didn't fancy being led to the local Gompa for my due punishment.
So, I'm still to catch in India.
Next stop Dodital Lake in Uttaranchal. It's 5 days by bus from here, then 2 days trek with Mules. It's supposed to be full of Trout and Mahseer. We will see.
Regards to all
Ric
