Saigon Fish Market

Fishing unrelated, but related to fish. On my last trip to Ho Chih Minh (Saigon) I took a walk down backalleys and found myself at a local market, with all sorts of fresh produce. The seafood in particular, was so fresh that most of it was still moving.

All sorts of shellfish...

All sort of fish without shells. You see those in the bottom left hand corner? Turns out they're really tasty, although I have no idea what they are called.

These I know. Soft shelled crab, or Cua Lot.

Pails of snappers, breams, flowercrabs, freshwater prawns and some catfish.

I'm always humbled by the people who make their living off the seas and the rivers and lakes that make up our planet. We city boys and girls go out to fish for a couple of hours, spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on this new shiny reel and that awesome rod. These people probably make do with old equipment, spending hours on the water, day after day, night after night, to bring us all this beautiful produce. Respect. For the people, and the product. This is how its done in Saigon!



Cholon Market, District 6, Ho Chih Minh, Vietnam. You don't know man! You weren't there!


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Pepper Crab win, Fishing fail

The long weekend getaway to Chia Soon Kelong, off Pengarang, Johor started out with rain when we boarded the bumboat at Changi Village. Here's the rest of the day in summary:

1pm: Arrive at CS Kelong. Welcome party included 4 dogs. We are the only ones here! All 13 of us.

2pm: Low tide. Very hot. No fish. Here's a picture of the cute dog relac-ing one corner.

3pm: Damnit, rain starting again. Malaysia boleh!

4pm: Nevermind, rain now, good. Later when the rain stops and the tide comes in all the fishy fishies will be hungry hungry and biting biting =D.

4.30pm: Still raining. High tide at 10pm. There is hope yet.

5pm: So far, a few catches, some catfish and one crab. Crab? WTH how did a crab get stuck on the line? It was very angry.

5.30pm: Awesome dinner by the CS Kelong crew. The black pepper crab (not the one that was caught) was super! One of the best I've ever had, no kidding.

Suddenly, one of the kids who ran off came back with a large golden snapper! Joy! There are fish here! We quickly finished dinner and headed back out to fish in the setting sun.

Well, apparently that snapper was a fluke, coz all we had the rest of the evening were tiny tiny catfish. Not even the dogs could keep away the catfish. My bait left in the water emerged untouched after 2 hours T_T There are absolutely no fish here at all! =( There was however, a crab we managed to snag with a sabiki rig =D

Still, it wasn't a completely wasted trip. Good food, good company, nice sunset / sunrise. Wouldn't come here again anytime soon though. Or any time at all. Maybe CS Kelong is actually a restaurant kelong and not a fishing kelong.

Our catches:

Tomans 102

I seem to have a thing for tomans, and in particular, the Toman Pond at BTP. It is a convenient way to soothe the itch. Nice pond, good catches, not too expensive if you manage to share with many people. Its also a good way to introduce people to fishing. The last time, being complete noobs at this, we weren't terribly successful. Things were quite different at Tomans 102. I even managed to convince 2 fishing virgins to come along =D

Seriously, a damn relaxed day. Fishing, under a papaya tree. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe a bigger papaya tree. I is the LAZY FISHERMAN. And so everyone was chillaxing...

The recess bell for the toman school must have rung because the bites started coming...

I got the first hook up and a nice 4kg toman was the prize.

It wasn't long before everyone else started getting their hits as well.

Just takin' my fish out for a walk, yo.

A special mention to my 2 fishing newbie friends who decided to drop by in the middle of their bike ride. Super easy to teach and such good

The Cyclist Who Caught a Fish...

She got 2 good sized tomans that fought hard. I remember my first time fishing. All I got were a couple of lousy puffers... o_O

At one point, I ran over to help the noob friends land the fish. After phototaking and fish release I turned around to find my rod gone! It was in the POND! OMG... Thank goodness the internals of the reel were still kinda dry.

Not all were landed of course. There must be some monsters in there. Look at this wire trace...

Toman pond. Damn fun for a quick fix and to bring friends along if you want to convert them. Here's some videos of the cyclist landing his first 2 fish ever...









Oh Toman Pond, I love thee. I will be back for Tomans 103. Who's with me!