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mahseer

Steven Brown

Steven Brown

Senior Member
im off to southern india soon, i have a good idea of what rods and reels i need but thought id ask on here for any advice!
 
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It's been 10 years since I last fished for them, I assume you're going to the Cauvery?
I used to use a rod made on a North Western 3.5TC pike rod with an ABU 10000 but any decent uptide rod capable of casting 8oz+ and a reel that holds 250 yards of 40lb line will do the job.
 
yes i am going to the cauvery and cant wait. ive looked at the abu 10000 reels and heard some bad reports about them breaking! been looking at some shimano and diawa reels but not rushing into buying as ive plenty of time, thanks for the reply
 
Try and find an old-model 10,000C. Mine is thirty years old, has never been serviced (except oiled occasionally) has landed umpteen big mahseer and other stuff and, if placed on a railway line, would comfortably de-track a train and still be fishable.
 
I agree with Paul, I should have been clearer about the model to go for.
Avoid the 10000CL as the level wind mechanism has a tendency to pack up and you find the line winding on to one part of the spool only, also it restricts casting distance.
 
I thought you might be interested in my thoughts.

I've used a variety of ABU multipliers on the cauvery and my choice at present is the ABU Morrum 7700 range, but you would need to acquire them off ebay as they are no longer made. They have a strong body as they are machined from solid aluiminum and very strong, able to take a lot of punishment on the rocks etc. They also hold slightly more line than the very popular 7000 series used an have excellent smooth drags too. I find you can get about 170yds of 40lb big game on a 7000, amrrum adds 30 more yards or so.

The downside consideration is they aren't cheap, they are especaily sort after by US anglers not so over here, so if you see one on sale in the UK it'llbe cheaper. Also, and this is important you should avoid those used in sea fishing as they do corrode with sea water use, especailly if they have not been washed after use. I acquired one like this (a UK source so it was cheap) but it was basically rebuilt internally, runs lovely now.

Although these probs may appear a pain they are cracking reels. I was put onto them by Peter Coogan, who is an expert in servcing ABU reels - and he didn't supply me he's just a very knoweldgable and friendly man to speak if you are looking at ABU ranage. He services John WIlsons reels too, and mentioned JW believes the ABU real cast much better than others. I think JW uses or used the 9000 and 10000 reels on the cauvery.

I also used 10000 for thier extra line capcity (and 9000 which are less so). As mentioned before I have searched for good condition, older (mine are 20+ years old) as these seems to be better then the far east made ones of today.

I started off with new ABU 7000 c3i's which are lovely smooth reels, with a fine drag. However, the real handles are offset quite away from the body of the reall and I feel this can upset the balance of a rod when cranking in. Nut, the biggest issue is with with the handles.

The new big handles really need to be swapped to older smaller handles. This is because the momentum from the large knobs can kick the reel in to gear mid cast. Causing much merriment to those nearby but can knacker the gears. This happened a few time to me, my pal and the guides and took a while to figure out the cause. Not what you want!. Replacing the handle fixes this.

In terms of the level wind, the newer reels seem to suffer from problems. I have had 2 of mine replaced on the ABU 70003ci. the older reels have been fine but to be honest never they seem very substiantail to me. I do have a Morrum without a level wind that I use for lure fishing to maximise casting distance.

However, for me the level wind is very useful to lay the line out nicely and stop diging in. You can get a fair bit of this from snags and catching the odd fish! And as for casting distance, this hasn't posed a problem for me, you rarely cast more than 60 yards, easy with raggi, but distance is more of an issue when using chilwa (live/dead baits) as they have less weight but I don't
think its a real issue in practice.

Some guys I know use and have used for many years, big fixed spool reels and have caught many big fish. As did the mahseer pioneers. However, I've only used them for lure fishing, caught a few (small ones) from the Cauvery and some biggers from the North.

For what is worth I;ve used my old Gt4500 Shimano bait runners but now preferr the 5000 & 10000 XTEA. I have found when lure fishing the thicker line is difficult to control when casting on spinning reels, hence the move to multipliers (although they have there little problems too!). I would say that the spinning reels with instant anti-reverse are a must as my old gt4500 have about half a turn before they engage & stop and this easily allows line to spring off with subsequent birds nests.... I have a great video of a pal of mine trying to disassemble a mighty birds nest.

Blimey, I've gone on a bit here! I hope it is of interest but please note the above is my experience from several visits to India for mahseer but I wouldn't class myself as expert. I've also not had any experience with other manufacturers reels that I have seen in use. My friends, who are seasoned mahseer men used ABU's so seemed senisble to follow suit.

Finally, If you do buy a second hand reel I would recommend getting it serviced & checked before use.

Good luck on the cauvery, have some practice casting beofre you go it'll save some time and fustration later, you'll find the guides will cast for you if you want them to.

BTW, I'm going next year too, can;t wait:)
 
thanks for the reply mark thats very interesting and helpful. good luck to you too and let me know how you get on next year if you dont mind.
 
Sure, will do & it would be interesting to see how you get on as I suspect you'll be fishing high water condidtions, something I haven't tried and I hear the river is quite something then.

Good luck.

Mark.
 
Take a spinning rod for high-water fishing - if the water clears a fraction a blue-silver, shallow-running, floating plug can be lethal all over the river, i.e. not just the usual well-known, well-flogged spots. Similarly, running deadbait on heavy tackle - big rod, big multiplier.
 
no, its january 2012 when im going but am still taking a spinning rod. i know its 18 months away but i cant stop thinking about it, thats why there's no rush with buying the tackle, just picking bits up every now and then. thanks for all the info its great
 
December - mid January - still considered high-water season, compared with the big heat and lower to ultra-low levels of mid Feb through mid April. It wasn't for nothing that the Van Ingen brothers and stayed-on Brits like Major Radcliffe of Ooty, the old-time, great mahseer fishers of the South, fished the Cauvery with spinning tackle, covering lots of water and long lengths (miles) of river by coracle, camping as they went, at this time. I have done the same, even taking big mahseer on bits of the Cauvery that are unfishable owing to density of human population and fishing pressure (fished out) normally, water miles from the usual camped-up honey holes - the fish in the post-winter monsoon high water are all over the river, not pooled up, Spoon, plug, running deadbait and a roving, non-static approach has yielded me a fair few fish in no-name spots on no-name stretches and given me some great exercise, too.
 
You will laugh about the spoons...

On my first big Indian trip in the 1970s I took a bagful of readily available, heavy, Abu spoons - Toby & Salar mostly in 2 to 4 inch sizes. Both types caught me fish, but were not heavy enough (often a big mahseer will stare straight through - be wary of - a big 4in-plus spoon, yet readily inhale a 2 to 2.5 incher (not to say, though, that in "thick" water, you don't need a big - longer - spoon). In my bag, I had some Norwegian "Paravan of Norway" spoons marketed in the UK by Efgeeco - heavy spoons for fast-water salmon fishing - one was called the "Salamander", the rest had weird, unpronounceable Norwegian names with funny accents on some of the vowels. These spoons WORKED. So, with the help of some great mahseer fishers I had met and become firm friends with in North India - Jumna and Ganges fishers and great, homemade-tackle makers - I had some of the successful spoons CAST IN BRASS in the metalworking lane of their local bazaar, for my friends and myself, by the kilo - lots of kilos!

So, spoons today - Toby in 3/4 and 1 ounce (silver, copper) and any really heavy 2.5 to 5 or so inch spoons that you can find. Some spoons that are wide and well-scooped or -bowled, so giving a strong actiion; most spoons being Toby-like, giving a more subtle, wriggling action.

Tip: many a time that I have taken a Cauvery or North Indian rock to a Toby and beaten it a bit flatter to reduce its action.


Plugs?

No time at present for a deep think.

Same applies, though - some with a big wobble, other with a wriggle (like a big Rapala). 4 inch for clearer water, up to 6 -8 inches for very big water. Don't overdo the size - I have caught and have seen caught forty- and fifty-pounders on the Heddon Tiny Runt, the Gudebrod Basspirin and the old, French, "Floppy" plugs - barely two inches overall - tiny!
 
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Oh yes, and don't forget "rubber fish" - Super Shads and the umpteen versions around these days. In a blinding moment of inpiration in late 1979, whilst planning a big second trip to India in early 1980, I bought a Redgill Pilchard lure or two after seeing them in the sea section of a London shop. 4 or five inches, waggy tail, blue and silver ... I wonder...? Third cast into a Cauvery rapid a few weeks later - BANG! - little 9-pound mahseer... "Hmm. That'll do...". Other bait makes (from France and America initially) and bigger mahseer followed over the years.

3 to 7 inches, I'd say.
 
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Now, Haydn mentioned the tiger programme - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ty6b0/Lost_Land_of_the_Tiger_Episode_1/ - in his "Charity" thread in Viewpoint. Do watch the programme - the heroic Bruiser the Dog and some very fine country.

In the very early 1980s, camped on the Indian bank (opposite bank, Bhutan) of the Manas River, mahseer fishing, some really well-equipped people (about a hundred of them), tents, servants, Army and all, appeared on the opposite bank, then a few of them started fishing, then, on seeing me, they sent a boat with a big outboard over - "Join us, you two [two meaning me and a girlfriend]! Let's do some fishing! Stay for dinner! We'll drop you back in India later...".

Two of the Princes of the Kingdom of Bhutan, their lovely ladies, their servants, guards and entourage. A lovely few days were had by all.
 
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