Yesterday was a confidence
crushing day. Ten miles of hiking, at
least a thousand casts, 100º temperature and I acquired some
sort of respiratory issue and not a damn bite.
To make things worse, this respiratory thing advanced last night and has
me gasping for air and coughing like I have emphysema. It’s a real bummer and somewhat scary when
you think about where we are.
All that said and I have a
job to do – catch a big mahseer. Two
days ago the 9lber was a huge victory. But
I’m never satisfied. Mahseer get a hell
of a lot bigger and I want bigger. At
4:45 AM I was up without an alarm re-rigging my Ross rod and reel. I checked my fly line for nicks and put on a
new straight 20lb leader and a Misty tied sculpin type fly. The hook was deadly-fresh-sharp and the metal
felt sturdy enough it wouldn’t bend.
Once rigged, I straightened up to inhale the air. Man was I aching. My hips, back, casting shoulder and the rest
of me are wrecked. My vision isn’t its
normal eagle-eye self and my skin is tight and cracking under pressure from
this intense sun. India is taking
its toll.
Nothing will ever stop me
from fishing. After we slammed some
coffee, Chris Patterson and I began an unhurried two mile hike to the
confluence where the Saryu River meets the massive
Mahakali. I moved slowly with pain but
soon the amazing sites of colorful locals, amazing birds and scenery took it away. Best of all, I felt the presence of a big hungry
golden mahseer entering the Saryu.
The Saryu River is now crystal clear and the Mahakali River is roaring five feet higher than
when we arrived four days ago. The
Mahakali is so gray with sediment you could stand on it. My theory was that the mahseer should be
smelling the clear water of the Saryu and moving in with smiles on their
faces. If only they would be hungry.
I eased my way into the water
100 yards above the exact confluence.
Chris hiked up to the temple and hung with the baba and some pilgrims
and set up his tripod to shoot the scene for the movie Waypoints. Cautiously I
eased out my casts adding a long strip of line each time. I was methodically fishing every inch of
water, especially that close to me to be sure not to spook any nearby
mahseer.
Unlike when I woke up, now I
had fantastic confidence. I still sensed
a large scaled fish nearby. My feeling
was he was under the mud line where the two rivers meet. But I wasn’t going to rush down there. I continued to systematically work my way
there with every cast.
An hour of prime time passed
and not a bump. Finally, I could reach
the mud line where the Saryu and Mahakali meet.
It wasn’t an easy cast with sinking running line wavering in the current
below me but with a loop around every finger I ripped the long one. Sometimes you just know when it’s going to
happen. When the sculpin fly landed I tossed
an arms length of slack downstream and let my fly swing. As mahseer often do, one gave my fly a soft
touch, then he came back and absolutely crushed it – FISH ON!
Of course two days ago I
hooked a big fish upstream 50 feet and he took me down the Saryu into the
Mahakali and that was it – bent hook and sad times. Now I had the gall to cast into the Mahakali and
hook a fish. When I struck I could feel
the weight of the golden fish. He was
heavy. Rather then lay the wood to him I
took it easy. He was distraught but
evidently he didn’t want to enter the Mahakali, instead he started up the
Saryu.
Once he was up a ways I
started to fight him. I knocked him off
balance and he surged further upstream just like I hoped. But then the distressed mahseer had a change
in plan, as if he knew his only escape was back into the oversized
Mahakali. By now Misty arrived and was
charging down to help.
I won’t bore you with five
paragraphs about the fight but I’ll tell you this. When this big boy headed down and out into
the oversized Mahakali I had a slim to no chance of landing him. But I am determined like no other. Despite Misty’s pleas for me not to go near
the mouth of the Saryu, I charged down exactly to the dangerous spot and stood
my ground. A slip or a trip and I’d go
down the Mahakali with my mahseer most likely never to be seen again.
A miracle happened this
morning, one I’ll take. I landed a huge
golden mahseer on film. Chris got the cast, the hook up, the fight, the
pilgrims who were my audience, me wading brainlessly where no human should
stand, underwater stuff and you name it.
He’s the best in the business and I guess I’m the luckiest fly fisherman
in the world today. Waypoints has a big mahseer in its India segment!
To put the difficulty of this
fish in perspective, that was the only bite we had all day. Yes, indeed after I released this fish, I
took a short breather and started fishing again. That’s right – I’m never satisfied!
Being filmed doesn’t allow me
to take pics. A SPECIAL THANKS is in order to Jim Klug and Chris Patterson of
Confluence Films who not only brought me on this trip but also provided most of
the blog photos.
Again, please toss my old
hotmail email address that I can no longer check and let’s reconnect at jeffcurrier65@gmail.com THANKS!
Now that's a fish story! Your patience and persistence are remarkable. Congratulations! Love to see the video!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your segment in the film, I will defiantly purchase it!
ReplyDelete