I am being sitting here in Karachi with less knowledge of freshwater water fishing around Punjab often judge the ambiguity in words and actions of most of freshwater anglers, it’s not uncommon now to read the word “release” in the majority of freshwater reports but in reality when one go look into the videos and pictures of catches at FlickR, Facebook etc. it Cleary visible much more killing then what stated by members in reports, The idea of writing this message pops-in my mind after reading a detailed message by fellow angler Hammad Q (Thank you).
We have Catla, Common, Grass, Mrigal, Rohu, Malli, Singhara, Mahseer and Snakehead in our water out of them Catla, Mrigal, Mahseer and few more are quite rare to catch, this lefts Common, Grass, Malli, Singhara, Tilapia and Snakehead in plenty which we can catch all year round with almost no bag limit by PGFA so far and I don’t see any need to talk about releasing them in start while we are still in early phase of building the “catch and release” culture in Pakistan.
Now our native species which we really have to care are Rohu and Mahseer, especially when they are breeding in monsoon, Their “mating system” is very very fragile as it requires them to move up streams where they need fast flowing currents to spawn and little like salmon females of Rohu, Mori, Thela, Mahseer etc lays eggs and male fertilize them by spraying the sperms. It makes this behavior nearly Pair-bonding all within structured and calculated process developed in thousands of years.
This makes these species an easy target when they move upstream from inlets, thanks god we have few main streams still left where we don’t have bunds/dams moreover it’s quite contrary though but most of the “thekaydar” stop fishing in these areas to let the fish spwan but this still left anglers and handliners allowed to fish with no bag limits what so ever?
We can clearly see the trends of fishing since last three years in PGFA’s reports specially in breeding time when angler visibly move close to these inlets and relentlessly kill whatever they catch. I being a member of PGFA urge these anglers to please stop killing Rohu and Mahseer.
For information both the rohu and Mahseer maturity length is 16” and 19” in that order so we at least need to give them a change before we kill them in addition the bigger the fish is the better the number of eggs it will lay in carps.
Next time before killing an immature Mahseer or Rohu, give it a second though and take a photo instead and release back to help this specie survive. Rohu is almost extinct close to the Indus outlet in Sindh and if we continue killing them ruthlessly it will be vanished in few years from all the main Indus streams and reservoirs exists in Punjab like already depleted Mahseer we can see.
Even Qurbani is prohibited of expectant cow???? Then why can’t we stop killing of fish full of eggs? its happening all around we can see many examples from killing of Barracuda/grouper by spear fishing around Churna/Chuta churna to catching Mahseer and Rohu by anglers in breeding season around inlests.
To me it’s a sin as well as Unethical Angling, we at PGFA will officially take actions in coming time and will ban such members.
Help us protecting these freshwater species.
Ali Saeed
