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In the sea the fish remains short and thin, and does not taste good. As it enters the inland rivers, both its size and taste increase. The fish is anadromous, with a life cycle that follows the general pattern of breeding upstream in fresh water and the larvae hatching from the free-floating eggs. The immature young stages grow in river channels and then descend to the sea. This is the period of feeding and growth before returning to the rivers as mature breeding adults to complete the  cycle, unless misfortune tends them to turn into a delicious item in the average Bengali dish. Immature hilsa fish (6-10 cm), known as khoka, are extensively caught during their seaward migration in some of the major rivers of the India and Bangladesh. Although hilsas reproduce more or less throughout the year, they have a minor breeding season during February-March and a major season in August-October.

It is for this reason hilsa is also a seasonal fish. Monsoon with pitter-patter raindrops or Ilshe-guri in Bengali, with eastern wind and cloud in sky marks migration of hilsa. During this season the 25A and 25B lock gate of Farakka Barrage in India are kept open to help in the migration of hilsa in Ganges. The coastal fishermen also catch hilsa during the dry winter months from October to February. Hilsa is an extremely soft kind of fish and tends to rot very quickly.           

So it needs immediate freezing or cooling with ice as soon as it is caught. Often this facility is not found in the catching grounds. The price of the fish, therefore, fluctuates with the factors of transportation, freezing and size of the catch.