Packed for India

 

Tomorrow afternoon I leave for India.  I’m packed and ready.  This will be my third trip to India.  This trip is special because we are making a segment for Confluence Films next movie, “Waypoints” with one of my great Indian friends, Misty Dhillon.  Misty is the owner and founder of the Himalayan Outback.

 

 

Most of you remember Confluences last movie, “Connect”, where I was the lucky guy fly fishing for giant Tanzania Tigerfish in Africa.  I was fortunate not only to catch numerous tigerfish but also catch this monster.  India will be much more challenging because we will be fly fishing for a much more difficult gamefish, the golden mahseer.

 

My first trip for mahseer (there are many species) was with Granny in 2002.  Granny and I traveled by buses and trains all over Nepal and India.  It was the most difficult trip or our lives and we didn’t get into fish until the last week of our THREE MONTH trip.  Neither of us landed a big one on fly but we did dredge this silver mahseer out of the Cauvery River on the famous ragi.

 

 

After that trip we decided that India stands for I Never Do It Again.  I was wrong.  In 2008 I met Misty and he invited me back.  In ten days I landed three large mahseer including this IGFA Catch and Release Record of 27lbs.

 

But read in to this – two trips, one extensive, and only three big mahseer landed.  These fish are rare, don’t take flies well and when you have the good fortune of a hook up their strength is shocking.  They usually get away.

It only takes one fish to make an incredible segment and Misty and I will do our best to put at least one beast on film.  This trip is a ten day float on the Mahakali River which separates India from Nepal.  This should be an extraordinary adventure.

As always I will post my day by day accounts of the trip here on the blog.  But as usual, this fishing is so remote that I won’t have internet and most stories and pics will post upon my return.