Cauverypattnam. Fish Collection, Habitat Study and General Funtime Trip, by R.R. Sriram

Cauverypattnam
A fish collection, habitat study and general fun time trip

by R.R. Sriram of Chennai, India
Photocredits: Deepak Brid, Ravi
Aquarticles

It all began with a simple posting from Madan for a fishing expedition to Mettur Dam. The simple thought caught on like wildfire and around 25 IAHians (Indianaquariumhobbyist.com forum - ed.) decided to embark on the trip. The date was fixed as the 12th of September and each one of us was eagerly waiting for the eventful day.

The trip was planned in such a way the guys from both Chennai and Bangalore would meet in Mettur, and collect fish and visit the various biotopes in and around Mettur.

Ravi (in his 4x4 Scorpio), Muthu, Venket, Shankar, Sriram, Veera and his wife started to Mettur on the 11th of September at 1:30 PM. The trip was enjoyable and as usual Muthu and Venket were the scapegoats for the rest of the gang for leg pulling. We stopped at various small biotopes on the way to investigate the possibility of going there some other time. What did we find in those various biotopes? - Aponogetons! Also we had to stop for Veera in his Santro to play catch with Ravi (you guys know how he drives right?). After many hours of travelling (around 7 hours), many coffee/tea/smoke and biotope stops, we reached Salem at around 8:30 PM.

Lake at Cauverypattnam

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When we reached Salem we got the news that Adip was dropping out. We also got the information that Mettur had lots of water and it would be slightly dangerous and futile to venture there. The venue was changed to Cauverypattnam. It’s a small tributary of the River Cauvery. Had we known this earlier, we would have started in the early hours of 12th and reached Cauverypattnam by 9:30 which would have saved a lot of Vitamin M.

The Bangalore guys (Baliga, Nag, Sriram, Nikhil, Deepak, Shivkumar (Diskum), Biju, Puroshatham, Ravindran (who is from Chennai), Krishnamurthy the fisherman and his 3 apprentices started on the 12th early morning and reached Cauverypattnam around 9:00 in the morning.

The group

When we reached the place (around 11:00 AM), the net was cast and fish were gathered in the net for selection and identification. The place is very close to the bridge and we parked our car right on the river bed. This place is being used as a bathing place for people, a Dhobi ghat and sewerage let out for the nearby towns. Not much water was flowing and whatever was flowing was dirty. (Sad! but that’s the reality).

Murky water, with tilapia

Not sure how the fish could survive in this water, but to everyone’s surprise there were many fishes to be caught in these murky waters where visibility is probably measured in inches. The guys from Bangalore brought an oxygen cylinder, plenty of plastic bags and rubber bands for packing the fishes.

Collecting

Once we all were at the place, the identification of fishes started and they were packed individually in different bags. Ravindran took over the mantle of catching the fish from the net and transferring it to the plastic bags and did an amazing job. He is truly becoming a professional in fishing (don’t know what). The fishes that were caught were:

Tilapia (in dozens)

Orange chromides (in dozens)

Indian glass fish (around 10)

A water snake (which was let out because no one wanted it)

And also sleeper gobies (2), shrimps (around 10), and weather loaches.

Veera and Nikhil took the Indian glass fish, Venket took one sleeper goby, a few orange chromides and a few shrimps, Sriram took the remaining orange chromides and Baliga took some tilapia.

After packing the fishes that were caught and found to be healthy, we trekked back (a short distance) to the cars where we had good lunch brought by Nag, Deepak and co. Of course PMDD was also available in the form of Chivas Regal and Chardonnay. After consuming a good lunch we split, with Ravindran joining us on the return journey back to Chennai. Veera did not want to take a chance with Ravi’s driving and told us to carry on and not bother about him. We left Cauverypattnam at around 2:00 in the afternoon and reached Chennai at around 6:30. Very slow considering that Ravi was driving.

Thanks a lot for all the guys who made this trip possible. Through we were driving most of the time, it was enjoyable and it was good fun meeting all the guys from Bangalore.