Sportfishing - Spinning

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One of the biggest reasons the mahseer is considered among the world's premier gamefish is that it takes artificials quite readily at certain times, in certain places. This makes the affair one more like stalking blindly rather a static game of 'bait and wait'. .......................................................................................................................................................

Although the best part of a mahseer's diet is vegetation and insects, they seem to respond most reliably to spinning gear- spoons, plugs, fly-spoons. Combined with the water where it is found and the necessity of presenting it with bait in the right spot, spinning happens to be the best way of doing it.

There does seem to be some zen involved in spinning for mahseer- especially if the angler is of the contemplative type. There is much fulfilment in selecting a lure, a patch of water and plying the rod to lure a fish. Best thing about spining is that anything can happen- a 2lb fish can take a 6" lure with the same abandon as a 50lb one. And we've caught 60lb fish on 2" plugs, too so there's no telling what may attach itself to the end of your line. To date some of the best fish have been taken on spinning gear.

Best time for spinning:
February-April:
Spring sessions are very fruitful in springfed rivers. Spinning requires fish to be feeding on baitfish which is what they start doing in spring. The larger fish need more than insects hence the reason for chasing baitfish. Stalking is possible in spring. One needs to walk along the river waiting for signs of hunting mahser and stalk them before presenting a lure. Early spring fishing is mostly in pools for bigger fish and 'anything goes' in the rapids. Spring fishing is definitely more hectic as the game happens at any time in the course of the day.
May-June:
Summer heat, lots of migratory predators and low oxygen levels make the fish restrict activity to very early mornings and late evenings. This is a great time to be fishing snowfeds, especially near confluences with smaller rivers. Most fish wait for the rains to open up before ascending the smaller rivers. We don't fish confluences at this time since we've found it disturbs the concentrations before the migratory run. It is more sporting to fish above and below the confluences as the fish are in the vicinity and the largest fish hang out in the bigger river.
September-November:
Mid September or so (depending upon the cessation of the rains) the fish start descending to the lower sections of their abode. At this time it is possible to catch the descenders in good numbers. The water conditions keep changing till mid Oct or so and the fish hang around if undisturbed for a long time. By mid Nov the spinning game slows down as the baitfish and insect hatches begin. The water also goes colder and the bite slows down.

Ideally, for spinning, you should choose either Feb-April or Sep-Nov timings to gainfully fish for either large sizes or large numbers of fish.

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