Fishing Gears of assam: Mass dhora Xojuli

Fishes are important resources worldwide, especially as food. fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages. Assam is gifted with many extensive water bodies commonly known as Beels that are the only source of fish for the poor people in the surrounding villages. Beels are major fishery resources contributing to about 25 % of the fish production in Assam. Assam is bestowed with enormous Water resources covering as much as 3.65 lakh hectares of water spread areas. This constitutes about one twelfth of the Country’s Inland Water resources. Here we have listed some of the gears generally used in fishing:

                               

JAKOI: It is a pouch of bamboo matting, which is triangular in shape with a wide mouth (2 m circumference). It is made of bamboo sieves.A bamboo rod is fixed across the mouth from the middle of the base of the triangle to the vertex and is prolonged to a short handle. The fishermen plunges it into the bed of shallow water with the mouth facing him and dances on the ground driving the fish at the bottom into the pouch. Then he suddenly lifts it up in standing position. It is also pushed along the ground. The catch composition comprises mainly small fishes with surface and bottom feeders.

 

             

POLO

                           

POLO JAL: The polo jal is a bell shaped slit bamboo trap with a small opening on

the top (15 - 25 cm) and bottom (60 - 90 cm). It usually 0.6 - 0.9 m in height and is used in

shallow water for catching all kinds of fishes. The fishermen walk into the water press down the

polo in front of him and the stopping down plunges his hand through the opening at the top and

gropes in the mud for fish that are trapped.

JULUKI

                     

JULUKI: The design detail of Juluki is very much similar to that of polo with few

exceptions like the circumference of both the top and bottom opening are almost equal.mouth Rice bran bails are used to lure the fishes which facilitated easy trapping.

KHEWALI JAL

                         

KHEWALI JAL: It is a circular net having the shape of a large umbrella. A

strong cord is attached to the apex of the umbrella and a number of lead or iron weights are fixed all along the margin. The fishermen throw the net fully spread over the water, keeping the long rope in his left hand. This has to be done skillfully so that the net falls on the surface of the water fully expanded. The net sinks to the bottom and the circumference closes due to the weights attached to it. All kinds of small sized fish are entangled in the net, which is then pulled out by means of the cord.  

CHEPA

                                        

CHEPA: It is most commonly used. It is a drum shaped sieved bamboo trap, tapering

at both ends. One opening is closed by a piece of wood while the opening on the other side is

half closed by another piece of wood. There is also an opening at the side of the trap with

bamboo stripes extended inwards so that fishes get an easy entry to the trap while extended gill

like bamboo stripes prevent them from escaping. The trap is facing the opening against the

current. it is generally used to catch minor group of fishes .

                      

MUSHARI JAL

                  

              

MUSHARI JAL: It is used extensively all through the year except monsoon season. The net is made up of 2 - 5 pieces of rectangular nylon nets of mesh size 1 - 1.2 mm. Each piece of net varies 20 - 30 mm in length and 6 - 8 in breadth, tied together by nylon threads. The upper margin of the net is attached with a stout jute rope that is known as head rope likewise the lower margin with another jute rope, the ground rope or the foot rope.The net is taken into the deep portion of the beel, stretched and the bottom rope is allowed to settle. The two nets are dragged towards the shore and brought together. As the central portion of the net comes to the shore, the net is lifted to form an effective bag. Generally 8 - 14 persons are required depending upon the size of the net.

PHANSI JAL: Phansi jal are gill net of which the design detail is similar with that

of langi jal with few exceptions. It is also a rectangular net provided with head and footrops.

Unlike langi lals, the footrops is generally devoid of sinkers but is much thicker. Phansi jals are

made of light materials, i.e., nylon or cotton.

SIP BARASI: It is made up of Bijuli bamboo, which measures about 20-24
feet in length. At the top of the bamboo, a nylon rope with a hook is tied with a grasshopper
taking as bait. The nylon rope measures about 4 to 4.5 feet length.

DHAN BARASI : It is a ground line consist of a short and stout line, one end
of which is tied to a bait, while a number of finer lines, carrying baited hooks are tied at intervalsto the last yard or two of the other end. It resembles like an ear of paddy, so known as “Dhan Barasi”. It is also known as “Khuti Barasi”.