Life in a Thai village: Fishing
My Thai wife Maem and her family have land close to a reservoir. We live in the village of Ban Namphon, 30 kilometers from Udon Thani.
This area is sometimes flooded to discharge the excess water through the locks. The family has built two small lakes that are then flooded. The fish in the large reservoir also swim into these ponds and sometimes grow into large fish
Country is drying up
In the spring when the locks are closed, the land dries up. Except for the lakes where the fish are located, because they are deeply dug out. There the water is then pumped out and the fish is ready for the taking. This is because the nets are laid on the bottom before the water enters the lakes.
Thousands of small and large fish are removed by hand and nets, often standing knee-deep in mud. These land fishermen have certainly not turned out dirty. I do, so I could never do that job. I therefore respect these hardworking people.
These photos of the lake were taken in 2009. Family and in-laws, friends and close acquaintances helped to get the fish out of the lake. The children had great fun and also swam in the lakes.
clean
The fish is brought home and cleaned there. Last night, Maem, her mother and eldest daughter were up until 4.00:XNUMX a.m. cleaning, brine, and put the first load of small fish in a barrel.
The fish is kept there for one year (Pla Neung Pi) and then used for all kinds of dishes.
Today the second shipment came in with larger fish for consumption. The relatives by marriage, friends and acquaintances all receive a share because they helped. Maem and her mother continued to clean the small fish today and will work again tonight. In total, I estimate the quantity at least 200 kilos of fish that is processed there
Do you have such examples from your area?
Text and photos by Marinus
– Repost message –
Freshwater fish is important in several Thai regions.
For example, freshwater fish is a basic part of the daily diet in rural villages in central and northern Thailand. The numerous pools, ponds, remnants of old river arms are invariably used to breed fish for consumption.
In the provinces of Sukothai, Phitsanulok and Uttardit, which I know best, fishing, as Marinus describes, is rare. Most freshwater bodies do not dry up completely at the end of the hot season. In the almost dried-out pools, a fork is then stabbed to prick a kind of eel.
“purchased” fish fry are released on almost all private “closed” water bodies in that region. Mostly fast-growing species. Plant eaters, such as pla tapian, pla nin, pla sawai, … They are fed with plant material that is abundant and that people can pick for free. for example, pak bung (a fast-growing creeping plant) or kanun (jackfruit).
When the fish weigh between XNUMX and XNUMX kilograms, they are caught with nets and traps to be sold fresh at local markets, or they are transported in barreled pick-ups or to town for sale there.
The floods at the end of the monsoon are feared by fish farmers in that region because the fish often disappear with the receding water after the floods.
Freshwater fish farming is not only important for the local economy and nutrition. On some ponds they let the fish grow big for sport fishing. In the region there is a whole circuit of fishing competitions on such ponds. Every fishing competition is a party with food and drink (lots of drink) … and of course bets. They pay entry fees and receive prize money. Of course they also gamble on just about everything. The first fish caught, on the largest fish, on the minute and second on which the first fish of exactly 1 kilo, 3 kilo, 5 kilo, etc ...
You will also find restaurants specializing in freshwater fish in that region. Some are very high culinary with ditto prices. You see little farrang and almost exclusively wealthy Thai families and a striking number of “company dinners”, business contacts and groups of colleagues who go out for dinner together.
Personally, I think pla chon is the tastiest. Pla chon with samun phai delicious. But that's a predatory fish...an entirely different story culturally. By the way, also a strong difficult beautiful sport fish.
Many Thais in the Isaan have fish ponds between the rice fields. The rice is grown around those ponds. But what they don't realize at all is the poison they throw on the rice fields goes straight through the groundwater into those ponds and therefore also in the fish. Since they are really not economical with spreading poison, they consume large amounts of that poison themselves. through the fish. If you point this out to them, they'll laugh it all off. You should examine that fish in a lab and push the data right under their noses. It is also in the husks of the rice. For that reason, brown rice is not that healthy at all without cleaning it really well and washing it several times.