Fishing happens every day on Koh Trong, nets and lines are cast out into the Mekong along the waters edge. A less common occurrence is the opportunity to fish in the ponds dotted around the centre of the Island. This is not your regular pond fishing and there is no sitting for hours waiting for a fish to take the bait. Here you dive right in, mud knee high and poised ready to pounce on the first fish to make a dash for freedom.
The water is first emptied using a pump attached to a generator into an adjacent pond. Once the levels are low the pump is switched off and the water is emptied one bucket at a time to reveal the thick mud at the bottom. The fish are Snakehead fish which like to bury themselves into the mud. The team dig away into the bottom of the pond using their hands hoping to grab onto a fish.
Spotters are dotted along the edges of the water ready to shout as soon as they see one escaping, the fish are quick but no match for the team who work together to flush them out. There is a lot of shouting, a lot of laughing and a lot of mud.
Once water has been emptied, it is returned from the neighbouring pond and the process is repeated in reverse in order to catch as many fish as possible. Soon bags and tubs are filling up with fish of all sizes. At the moment they look like muddy eels but after a day spent in clean water they are ready for selling and cooking.
The fish are sold on Koh Trong and go for around 15,000 Riel per kilo for the larger ones so it's a good way of earning some extra money for the farmers.
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