Fishing in Sri Lanka: Mahseer Rivers and Highland Trout Streams

The rivers of Sri Lanka's highland system contain populations of mahseer, the legendary sporting fish of South and Southeast Asia, that have been almost entirely undisturbed by fishing pressure for decades. The country's freshwater fisheries are managed primarily for food production rather than sport and the sporting angling culture that has developed the rivers of India and Thailand has barely touched Sri Lanka. The result, for the angler who arrives with the right expectations and the right equipment, is extraordinary.

The Mahaweli Ganga and its tributaries in the hill country contain populations of the Putitor mahseer, the largest of the mahseer species, at sizes that are no longer found in rivers where fishing pressure is high. The section of the river below the Victoria Reservoir is the most productive and most accessible. The fish here are wild, wary, and large, and catching them on fly or lure requires genuine skill and patience.

Trout fishing in the highland streams above Nuwara Eliya is the other option, a legacy of the British colonial period when rainbow and brown trout were introduced to the cold, fast streams of the highest elevations. The trout fishing here operates through the National Aquatic Resources Agency and requires a permit. The streams are beautiful, the fishing is challenging, and the experience of fly fishing a mountain stream in the Sri Lankan highlands with the tea estates on the slopes above you is one of the more unlikely pleasures the island has to offer.