Hua Hin Fishing Lodge

[Terry]

.................. Many years ago I used to see them twisting their way across roads and people's yards during the monsoon, but not too much these days. I believe they are air breathers as well as having gills. Some kind of small lung to allow them to survive in open air..........

Pete

Snakehead are not particularly well known for 'walking'
I could be wrong, but what you may well have seen are 'batrachus' - Batrachian Walking Catfish or as the Thai know them - Pla Duk Dan. They are air breathers as you describe and I have seen them walking from one pond to the other at the Lodge - something that I have not observed with the Chon.

These often find themselves on bbqs too

DUK.jpg (30.62 KiB) Viewed 1390 times

[PeteC]

I'll do some searching later on today. I recall one of the shows where they were tracking the source of how the snakeheads were getting into the USA. They raided a Vietnamese restaurant in LA and found them in styrofoam coolers with only enough water in them to keep them moist, about 1". They apparently traveled that way air courier all the way from Saigon. Will revert. Pete

[PeteC]

Here we go. Seems they can survive out of water for up to four days, and take a walkabout if they wish. But you are correct now that I think about in that I saw whiskers on the fish I saw going across the lawn. Pete

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakehead_%28fish%29


....and just a bad and very scary story about them. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... ehead.html

[migrant]

I saw whiskers on the fish I saw going across the lawn. Pete

Sounds like my ugly dog!!

[Terry]

Having finally cracked how to get into HTML code and upload some vids to my website I have put some on there.

For those who haven't visited us yet - check 'em out

There's plenty more on youtube

[MrPlum]

Terry, visited your place yesterday with some children. You could tell I was out of touch. Managed to hook a chair when casting. Launched the bread about 4 feet as I didn't flip over the release, and arrived during the hottest part of the day when the fish were less likely to bite.

Couldn't believe the size of the fish even in the small pond. Only fishing I've ever done was for trout.

Enjoyed ourselves all the same and will definitely be back.

[Terry]

Glad you enjoyed Mr P - glad you enjoyed

[pharvey]

A little ún caught in a lake in Krabi..

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need- ... -28848485/

How are the Mekong Catfish getting on at the Lodge......

[Terry]

At around 114 kg that's a fair sized Pla Beuk

These fish are slow growers in the wild and are of course almost wiped out. The specimen in the photo could be as much as 50 - 60 yrs old, depending on where it was raised.

Ours are all doing well - ranging between 28 and 60kg in the bottom pond and between 10 and 20kg in the top pond. Big enough for most folk I can assure you.

This one was around 45kg from our bottom pond

Dave B Beuk.jpg (12.53 KiB) Viewed 1098 times

[Mara167]

Wow!

That Mekong catfish is really big! Looks like it's been caught at Gillhams fishing resort near Ao Nang.

I visit there about year ago, but I didn't get anything near that big.

I did caught some nice fish anyway. At least I was extremely happy about them (Amazon red tail 50 lb, Siamise carp 50 lb, Asian red tail 35 lb...).


Mara

[Terry]

On the subject of The Giant Mekong Catfish (Pla Beuk)

2 or 3 years back we released 15 young specimens weighing between 10 - 15kg into our top pond.

To my knowledge only two of them had been caught previous to the fine example below, caught a couple of days ago. This fine example weighed in at around 24kg.

Image0434-1.jpg (24.34 KiB) Viewed 967 times

Image0435-1.jpg (22.63 KiB) Viewed 967 times

In beautiful condition and obviously growing well, it is indeed a pleasure to see these now nearly extinct creatures surviving - albeit not in the wild!

[pharvey]

I thought this thread would be the most apt place to post this, but please delete/move if inappropriate.

Was interested in catching a program on Discovery where a guy was looking for ''monster fish'' on the Chao Phraya River - he was fishing literally an hour out of Bangkok. The ''monster'' he was after was the Chao Phraya Stingray!

Number 1, I never realised there was such a thing as a freshwater stingray, let alone growing to this size and in the Chao Phraya River (after which this particular monster was named).

It was quoted that the female could grow to a massive 4.5m x 2.5m and weigh up to 600Kg!! The ''Barb/sting'' can be 20'' long and the venom from the sting is apparently similar to that of the rattlesnake..... so a little unpleasant no doubt if you get jabbed! The sewerage is obviously not the most dangerous thing in the Chao Phraya River....

Dug the following photo up from the net...

Chaophraya Stingray.jpg (57.83 KiB) Viewed 868 times

Could give a rise to blood pressure and some trembling sphincters with a couple of these in the ponds Terry.....

[Terry]

Yes these are very interesting creatures and I have seen the program several times on TV

This ray is from the Dasyatidae family of the Latin name Himantura chaophraya and is otherwise known as the Giant Freshwater Stingray or as the Thais call them - Pla Kabeng Nam Djut

We bought two from a breeder near Ratchaburi two years ago - they were then about 30cm across.

One died within the month and we found it's remains having mostly been devoured by Pacu.

Last January I spotted the remaining one cruise past me in the bottom pond. It was about 45 -50cm across (I think! - as I only saw part of the 'wing').

Needless to say - nobody has ever caught it

[dtaai-maai]

Mrs DM's only question - "can you eat it?"
Give me strength...

[pharvey]

Mrs DM's only question - "can you eat it?"
Give me strength...

Strangely (or sadly in my case) enough it was the first thing on the Long Haired General's mind..... these Asian women.

She was obviously thinking about it though as she was checking out smoking and salting fish on the Internet shortly afterwards!!