The Mekong

Catfish

The disappearance of the giant Mekong catfish (Pla Beuk ปลาบึก) is a sign of the decline of the river. The giant catfish needs long stretches of the river to migrate and also needs specific water quality to move through its life cycles of eating, breeding and spawning.

The giant Mekong catfish has been listed as Endangered because there are indications that populations of the fish have declined over the years. Not that long ago, the giant Mekong catfish was found all throughout the Mekong River and fishermen harvested hundreds, even thousands, of them per year. Recently, the catch has fallen to five or ten fish per year and the species has disappeared from almost all areas where it once roamed.

Giant Mekong River Catfish

Comments

Thank you for your time and comments.

Bread

Inventors

Many of us mix up all kinds of concoctions to use as bait in the hope that it will be the pied-piper of baits, attracting fish from miles around. We also spend hours dreaming up new rigs and tweaks which will give us an advantage over our scaly friends. 

Generally, these ideas have a 50/50 success rate. When they work, we chalk it up to our ingenuity and expertise as anglers. When they fail, its because of the weather, the fish having an off day or any other excuse we can think of, but it most definitely is NOT our fault. 

Picky Eaters

Fish don't determine their next meal by taste. Although they have taste buds, the biggest deciding factor is the smell. This is why many of us like to experiment with all kinds of foul smelling, diseased ridden, vomit inducing baits. Smell is very important when you are fishing in a river or a large open body of water such as a big lake. Fish in these places are sparse and something is needed to attract them.

Overdoing it

Some fishing parks here in Thailand are extremely well stocked, almost to the point of being overstocked. This is great news when we're just looking for a bit of fun with minimal effort. I often see fishermen in these parks with elaborate set-ups and some of those inventions we talked about earlier, yet they never seem to do any better than others in the same taxed puddle.

Back to Basics

Sometimes its best to just revert to basics. With the abundance of fish residing in these glorified puddles, you are guaranteed to have multiple fish swimming near your bait throughout the day. This negates the need to attract them from a distance with something that smells worse than dog fart. 

The next time you are headed to a fishing park, leave all of your expensive gear, smelly concoctions and inventions at home. All you need is a rod, a reel, a hook and some plain breadcrumbs. 

• Put the breadcrumbs in a bag or bucket and add a little water so you can squeeze fist-fulls of it together. 
• Tie the hook to the end of your line with nothing else, not even a weight. 
• Grab a fist-full of breadcrumbs and squeeze it around your hook. (If it's not tight enough, not wet enough or too wet, it will fly off when you cast. At just the right consistency, it will stay on and act as a weight). 
• Cast out and see what happens.

The End Result

Of course using this method, doesn't give us a whole lot of time to sit back and relax as we need to continuously re-bait due to fish picking at the bread. Re-baiting often will pay off. 

You'll find that you will most likely catch more fish than others around you. Thai fishermen never believe it when they are told it's just plain bread. They will smell and even taste it to learn the secret to your success. They use bread too but the difference is, theirs is surrounded by multiple hooks, beads, coils, floats and anything else they can get their hands on until the end of their line looks like something you'd put on a Christmas tree. 

My Take

I think using bread on a hook with nothing else allows it to sink a lot slower than it would with other contraptions attached. This gives it more exposure at all depths allowing inquisitive fish more time to decide on whether to chow down or not.

So the next time you go to a well stocked fishing park,give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Comments

Have you tried just using bread? If not, do you think it would work? What are some of your favorite 'basic fishing' methods? Hit 'comment' to leave your responses. Thanks for your time.

Mosquito Bite

Dengue Fever in Thailand

This year, dengue fever is a big problem in Thailand. Although you shouldn't worry about it too much, you should definitely take some precautions when outdoors.

Mosquitoes find their victims by smell. Their senses are trained to hone in on carbon dioxide and lactic acid because these chemicals are emitted by warm-blooded animals, like us. 

Chemical repellents are great at repelling mosquitoes because DEET masks the smell of carbon dioxide and lactic acid. When you wear DEET, mosquitoes cannot smell you and tend to leave you alone.

Why Do Mosquitoes Like Some People More than Others?

You may have noticed that mosquitoes are more attracted to some people than others. This is because of smell and has nothing to do with blood-types.

Each person has a distinctive smell. There are about 400 compounds that make up the human scent and of those, about 30 have a masking effect. If any of these 30 compounds are more prominent in someone, it tends to make them less visible to mosquitoes. Of course, where there is one extreme, there is always another which means that some people are mosquito magnets.

Will Garlic Help to Keep Mosquitoes Away?

Eating garlic offers mild protection from mosquitoes, both from the odor on your breath as well as sulfur compounds that you emit through your skin.

The smell of garlic is known to repel mosquitoes. For example, you can buy garlic sprays to put on your garden if you don’t mind the yard smelling like an Italian restaurant. Smearing your body with garlic-scented lotion is apparently effective as well, although it will probably repel more than just mosquitoes. Eating garlic may also give you some mild protection, both from the odor on your breath as well as sulfur compounds that you emit through your skin when you eat garlic.

In the end, though, scientists estimate that genetics account for about 85% of our attractiveness to mosquitoes, so we mosquito magnets may have to reconcile ourselves to our fate.

Another way to be less visible or less attractive to mosquitoes is not to exert yourself too much when mosquitoes are around. When you exercise, you give off more lactic acid and more carbon dioxide, which brings them running (well, flying). This will be the one and only time when I’ll be advising you to be more sedentary, so make the most of it!

Foods which Help You to Avoid Mosquito Bites ? 

Eating certain foods, especially foods that are salty or high in potassium, will increase the amount of lactic acid that you give off. We all know which foods are salty. As for potassium, the richest dietary sources are fruits and vegetables and I don’t think I can quite bring myself to recommend that you eat fewer fruits and vegetables—not even to save you from the mosquitoes. The farthest I’m willing to go is to suggest that you select blueberries, apples, watermelon, cucumbers, cabbage, and green peppers, which are relatively low in potassium, instead of potatoes, prunes, raisins, spinach, bananas, lima beans, and acorn squash, all of which are particularly high in potassium.

Other Ways to Avoid Mosquito Bites

You can also do yourself a favor by wearing light-colored clothing. But if all this, plus a string of garlic around your neck and natural repellent sprays, isn't keeping them away, it’s time to bring out the big guns. Although you don’t want to be exposed to DEET any more than necessary, the dangers of mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue fever are even more of a concern. 

To limit your exposure to DEET, wear long sleeves or pants to cover up as much of your skin as possible. Then, spray a DEET-based repellant on your clothing as well as on any exposed skin.  Finally, remember to wash the repellent off your skin as soon as you come inside and toss the clothes in the laundry!

Comments

Do mosquitoes bite you more than others or are you one of the lucky ones? Do you have any home remedies to share or anything else to add? Hit comment to leave your responses. Thanks for your time. 

Fishing Park

Phrae Fishing Park

Today, I went to a fishing park in Phrae province with some friends.

Phrae Fishing Park

We got there before 9 a.m. and basically had the place to ourselves for the first hour which was great. I tried a few different rigs and bates including sausage in the hopes that a catfish might take it. The sausage proved to be ineffective as I didn't get any bites.

Giant Mekong Catfish

I then switched to plain, unflavored breadcrumbs which was a hit with the Pla Beuk. I managed to catch a few of them but the one in the picture below was the biggest.

Pla Beuk

The One that Got Away

One of my friends hooked onto a giant and battled with it for over 40 minutes. Just as he finally got it close to the shoreline, the hook snapped at the bend in the shank. We did catch a glimpse of it before the hook snapped. It was also a Pla Buek but about twice the size of the one pictured.

I was hoping to catch a bigger variety of fish at this fishing park because there are lots of different species in there. The only fish feeding today seemed to be the Pla Beuk as that's all anyone was pulling out. We stayed there until about four o'clock. By that time the lake was getting overpopulated by fishermen. Lines were getting tangled by people casting over us so we called it quits for the day.

All in all, we had a good day fishing. The Pla beuk were good fun and put up a really good fight. Next time I go there, I'll make sure to use quality fishing hooks to reduce the chances of losing fish. At least my friend came away with a 'one that got away' story.

Freshwater Fish in Thailand

Thai Fish

I've added info about some of the fish on offer in Thailand's rivers and lakes. As a personal challenge, I'll only post pictures(below the descriptions) of fish I catch myself. This will be updated and added to over time.

The English and Thai names are highlighted in green for quick reference and comparison.

Common names: Common carp, Carp

Latin name: Cyprinus carpio

Thai name: Pla Nai (ไน)

Thailand status: Native

Max size: 2kg (4.4lb)

Diet: Omnivore, algae, water vegetation, insects, crustaceans, small fish, worms, zooplankton

 Common names: Big Head Carp

Latin name: Hypophthalmichthys nobilis

Thai name: Pla Jin (ปลาจีน)

 Thailand status: Introduced

 Max size: 40kg (88lb)

 Diet: Algae, Crustaceans, Small fish

 Common Names: Giant Siamese carp, Giant Barb  

Latin name: Catlocarpio siamensis

Thai name: Plah Graho (กระโห้)       

status: Native

Max size: 300kg (661lb)

Diet: Phytoplankton, Algae, Terrestrial fruits, Aquatic plants, Worms, Insects, Prawns, Shrimps, Crabs

 Common Names: Jungle Perch, Hampala barb

Latin name: Hampala macrolepidota  

Thai name: Plah Gasoob  

status: Native  

Max size: 8kg (17lb) 70cm

Diet: Carnivorous, mainly fish, frogs and small water mammals from topwater, juveniles will eat insects.

Pla Gasoob from the Nan river in Uttaradit

Common names:  Giant River Carp

Thai name: Pla Yisok  (ยี่สก)

 Max size: 50kg (110lb)

 Diet: Phytoplankton, Algae, Terrestrial fruits, Aquatic plants, Worms, Insects, Shrimps, Crabs

 Common names: Rohu, Indian Carp.

 Thai name: Pla Boo (บู่ทราย)

Max size: 20kg (44lb)

Common name: Chao Phraya catfish

Thai name: Pla Tehpah (เทพา)

Max size: 100kg (220lb)

 Common name: Giant Mekong catfish

Thai name: Pla Beuk (ปลาบึก)

 Max size: 350kg (771lb)

Diet: Phytoplankton, Algae, Terrestrial plants, Insects.

Giant Mekong catfish

Common names: Striped catfish, Siamese shark

Thai name: Pla Sawai (สวาย)

 Max size: 100kg (220lb)

 Common names: Walking Catfish, Gunther’s Walking catfish

Thai name: Pla Duk

Max size: 66.1kg

 

Common names: Spotted Featherback, Spotted Knifefish, Clown Featherback, Clown Knifefish  Thai name: Pla Kgrai, (กราย)  

 Max size: 6kg (13.2lb)

Diet: Carnivorous: Fish, Insects, Worms

 

Common names: Alligator gar

Thai name: Pla alligator, Plah Jarrake (จระเข้)

Max size: 140kg (308lb)

 Diet: Carnivorous: Birds, crustaceans, fish, small mammals

 

Common names: Arapaima

Thai name: Pla Chon Amizon (ปลาช่อนอะเมซอน)

 Max size: 200kg (440lb)

 Diet: carnivorous – Fish, Frogs, Small water mammals and Birds

 

Common name: Pacu

Thai name: Pla Jaramet (จาระเม็ด)

Max size: 20kg (44lb)

Common names: Giant Snakehead, Toman

Thai name: Pla Chado (ชะโด)

Max size: 30kg (66lb)

Diet: Fish, Frogs, Birds, Crustaceans, Worms

Pla Chadow from Sirikit Dam in Urraradit

Comments

If you have similar information on other freshwater fish in Thailand , please take time to leave a comment and I'll add it to the post. If you disagree with anything posted above, I'd also appreciate it a comment so I can check out my information. All comments and ideas are always welcome and very appreciated. Thanks for your time.