India part 2: Ramganga river

My next stop was the Ramganga river in the lesser Himalayas, just outside of Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve. I booked a trip through a flyfishing outfitter for nine days. Unfortunately the service was not what I paid for, and apparently the timing was off on the trip. The water was still to cold for the fish to be aggressively feeding. I had a few chances at some really nice fish, but could not connect with a big mahseer on the fly. Another angler in camp landed a 25 lb. plus fish the first evening's fishing, and then he struggled to land anything of size the rest of the trip as well.

There is a lot of wildlife around the park. It can be a little difficult to concentrate on the fishing when there are a few dozen monkeys on the opposite bank jumping from tree to tree and making apes of themselves. Pictured is a Langur.

There were definitely plenty of fish. The pool this picture came from held at least a hundred mahseer. Between another angler and I we caught two of them. Not good odds. Also note how clear the water was. It is at least four feet deep right here.

This one was caught on bait. Would have felt a lot better on my fly rod.

This was like the majority of the fish we caught. Small, but really pretty fish. With a five weight these would be great sport. Some days we couldn't even tempt the little guys. Statistically I don't think the little fish were any easier to hook than the bigger fish, but there were a lot more of them, and landing them was a whole lot easier.

This is a steel spike collar they attached to the dogs in camp to protect from tiger bites. These dogs were fearless and there were plenty of tigers around. The first night at camp we could hear a tiger growling in the dark right across the river. Definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Another morning we found wet pug marks in the ground on out walk upriver. The picture below shows a really big print that stretched about ten feet in between marks.

India part 1: Assam

Here are a few pictures from my first leg of last winters India trip. My first stop after a brief rest in New Delhi was the eastern state of Assam. I met my friend Apoo, shared some whiskey with his friends and family, then left in the morning for Nameri eco camp on the river Bhorelli. The camp was comfortable with tents under thatched roofs.











We spent three days floating the Bhorelli in Apoo's inflatable raft. The river is wide and slow in some areas, and swift in others. The fishing was a bit slow, but we managed to find my first Indian fish.


This was the first fish of the trip. The fish is a Chocolate Mahseer, or Boka of average size. Unfortunately Apoo hooked this fish on his first cast and jinxed us for the rest of the day. We hooked nothing else. These are beautiful fish and don't put up a great fight on heavier tackle, but I think these would be a lot of fun on a fly rod.








This is my first Indian fish. A snakehead that struck a jointed Rapala in shallow water.

Fish number two was what I came for. A Golden Mahseer. These are really beautiful fish that I have yet to see any photo do justice to. The colors on these just light up in the sun. This isn't a particularly big specimen, but it was enough to keep me happy.

A forest ranger on patrol by elephant.


Tiger
Spinning rod on elephant tracks