Sport Fisheries

Sport fishing is a source of recreation to millions of people from India and abroad and it deserves the status of family recreation. The recreation is an important element of enjoyment and satisfaction derived from the sport fishing. The medical authorities also say it is healthy for people to go fishing. Sport fishing satisfies diverse tastes and pursuits.

Most of the well known food fishes are also some of the best known game fishes. The true definition of a game fish or a sport fish is that any fish caught or angled on rod and line putting up some fight and not thrown back in disgust by the angler or sports man. Apart from this, the classifications of fish deal with small and big game fisher generally weighing over 50 Kgs. Trout’s, snow trout’s and Mahaseers, goonch etc. placed under big game fish category. In addition, there are different kinds of methods within the sport fishing or angling.

Principal Game fishes:

The sporting fish includes Mahaseers, trouts and large catfishes etc. The game fish inhabits both fresh and soft waters include small and large species. The brief description of each of the principal game fishes of India exhibits its natural habit at in detailed. Various characters used to distinguish each species from one another include body shape, nature and characteristics of fins, morph metric measurements and natural coloration. Based on their occurrence and ecosystem, the game fishes classified into two groups, such as (a) Fresh water game fishes (b) Estuarine and sea game fishes.

The fresh water game fishes listed as follows, Notopterus chitala, Chela argentea, Raimas bola, Tor Chillinoides, Tor putitora, Tor tor, T. khudree, Acrossocheilus hexagonolepis, Schizothoraichthys esocinus, Schizothorax planifrons, Catta catla, Labeo calbasu, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Wallago attu, Clupisoma garua, Silonia silondia, Pangasius pangasius, Eutropiichthys vcha, Mystus (Aoricthys) aor, Mystus seenghala, Bagarius bagarius, Channa striatus, Channa marulius, Anguilla bengalensis and Mastacembelus armatus etc. Eustuarine and Sea game fishes have the following species, Megalops cyprinoides Lates calcarifer, Eleutheronema tetradactylus, Lutjanus argentimaculata, Scomberomorus commersoni, S. guttatus, Sparus berda and Sparus datnia etc.

Fishing equipment:

The net and the spear are the earliest fishing methods. These are mainly concerned with the aim of kindling out of water some fish to eat and the equipment developed by them met this requirement very efficiently, devised lure or tackle. Gradually this follows the methods of spoon,
plug or artificial fly. The various units of fishing equipment or fishing tackle starting with the lure are in the sequence as follows. Lure, hook, leader, line, reel and rod. In addition to these certain accessories like sinkers and swivels are universally added. The lures are further sub divided in to (a) Spinners and spoons (b) plugs or lures with body and (c) Flies.

Sport Fishing and Tourism:

India, one of the many countries of the world, earns considerable foreign exchange through tourism including fishing. Among the carps of the India, several of which give (Mahaseer, trout etc.) good sport. Sport fishing satisfies diverse tastes and persuits. It is a source of recreation of millions of tourists.

Angling has already become a source of family recreation of people of all ages, and social economic strata of the society in different countries. Like any other outdoor recreation family-fishing must be geared to provide pleasant experiences to members of both sexes and widely varying ages. Besides the other elements of importance in sport fishing is natural environment, water quality, natural beauty, privacy etc. increasing numbers of people to go fishing.

Efforts to attract foreign tourists and anglers for Mahaseer fishing from different countries of the world, Air-India got the survey of the ‘Beasriver undertaken by Trek-N-Tour, Himachal, located at Palampur with the aim of developing Mahaseer fishing for tourism. Two English men Martin Clark and Robert Hewitt in 1980, visited Karnataka to fish the cauvery about 100 km from Bangalore. The camped near the river took the permission from the state to the wild-life – Association of South India (WASI). Using ragi-pasti, after a few casts the team had their first Mahaseer followed by biggest Mahaseer weighing 92 Lb (41.76 Kgs), 1.7 m in length and 1.0 m in girth. Within 2 months of duration, they caught 40 Mahaseers and later on released in back.

Apart from this holding of community activity like seminars, fishing competition and educational camps, encouraging people involved in conservation methods by granting awards for successful performance, and promoting national and international tourism through sport fishing. Besides this issuing of fishing license by the state fisheries department is another task. It should be cleared off immediately whenever the angler need the license for game fishing, so that the department can encourage the participants as well as gain the revenue to the state simultaneously.