Bangshi Expedition – Final Success

The Eid-ul-Azha vacation started from 04 November, 2011 in Bangladesh. There had been Eid rushes everywhere around the country because of the great festival, one of the two biggest religious festivals of Muslims. Anyway, I was planning for fishing in Bangshi river after the unsatisfied tour of Dhamrai. Its not that we couldn’t catch fish. We did catch fish at Dhamrai. Shawkat Bhai came from Chittagong for this fishing competition. The organizers apparently cheated us by informing us that there were big catlas in the pond as well as other big fishes like rohu, mrigal etc. Unfortunately all was
bogus. Whatsoever, planning of going fishing just before the Eid day was settled. So, I am back on my track with ‘Bangshi Expedition’.

The Chaira channel is a small canal emerged from the Bangshi river. It’s a good hot spot for anglers. Last month a 19.5 kg rohu was landed here. At around 6 am we reached the place. Shortly the lines were set. Here my companion was Shahid, one of my childhood friends. Shahid is not an angler but he has an interest in angling. So, he went with me and after a short while he was feeling badly sick. So, I called a friend at Savar to bring with a car and shortly we shifted Shohid back to Savar. Then I was all alone on my own.

Time was passing in its natural way. There was nothing to do at this point except changing the baits and checking the hooks. At around 2 pm one of my lines was dragged. The strength was fascinating. It was giving me the fight like a 10 kg fish. The catlas of lakes or pond are no comparison to the wild catlas of rivers. It requires not quality equipments only but good techniques as well. Anyways, after about 20 minutes struggle the fish was coming closer. And finally about 25 minutes after it was hooked we managed to land it safely. It was a tremendous experience for any angler.  The local people were that I was the one who has caught a catla in two years from Bangshi river. Thus ended the Bangshi Expedition with a 4.2 kg catla just before the Eid-ul-Azha. A beautiful Eid gift indeed from Allah.

By: Nasim Hasan