Need Vinh goalkeeper to hunt brackish water fish

(Baonghean) - Many anglers confided that the first time they caught bass in Song Lam, their emotions were like those of their ancestors.ahboyyesnheadyesyeshanduhi animalahsilentìnhtrohI likeoh.

The petrol bridge is an ideal fishing spot for many brackish water anglers in Vinh City.

I have been trying to imitate brackish water fishing for a few months now. At first, watching other people fishing, it didn't seem like much: a few dead shrimps for bait, a reel, some lead pellets, and a box of hooks and that was it.

I took the things I had just prepared and drove down to Hung Dung oil bridge. People still call this concrete pier “oil bridge”. In fact, it is a pier serving the port, anchoring ships to pump and extract oil from the gas depot located inside the dike belonging to Nghe Tinh Petroleum Company. And why do many “brackish water anglers” choose this spot to fish? Because this section of water is deep and winding, an ideal hiding place for all kinds of fish, especially big fish.

Back to my story of learning to fish by stealth, getting the fish to the shore was not easy at all. I tried hard but still could not catch any fish, while everyone else was catching big and small fish. It turned out that I had little experience, and my tools and equipment were too simple.

Then someone "appreciated" my perseverance and told me: "You have to buy a decent rod. Who would ever fish in the river with a rod as thin as a strand of hair? Buy a reel for a few hundred silver, a heavy lead of 30 - 40g (the lead is as big as the tip of your thumb, oval-shaped with a hole through it for threading the line), then a float, a hook of number 12 - 14; For bait, buy live freshwater shrimp, and you need a whole tank and an aerator to keep them alive for the whole fishing session."

I immediately "respected" the first person who taught me how to fish as "master". His name is Le Thanh Dung, fishermen still call him by his "nickname" Dung "Trung" or Dung "tec". Dung is 40 years old this year, lives in Trung Do ward (Vinh city), his main job is trading in construction materials. Later, when I got to know this handsome and somewhat wild and stubborn man, I had time to hear stories about his "fishing life". "It's been nearly 20 years since I've learned to fish in brackish water rivers. Before Dau Ni bridge, there were countless fish. I've never gone fishing and come back empty-handed, on the least days I caught a couple, on the most days I caught five or seven. All the fish weighed over 1kg. The biggest fish I caught at Dau Ni bridge weighed 9kg, it was a catfish" - Dung excitedly boasted.

Mr. Le Thanh Dung with the sea bass he just caught.

Sesame is another name given by coastal people to sea bass - a fish considered to be the most ferocious and mischievous in brackish water, and also a specialty of the lower Lam River. Catching sesame also requires a lot of effort. This long-snouted fish with silvery white scales and bright red eyes has sharp, strong teeth, from the dorsal fin to the gills are considered their self-defense weapons.

Basically, the favorite food of the striped bass is river shrimp, the type of shrimp, sometimes they suddenly bite the bait of live loach. According to the explanation of professional anglers, it is simply because they "itch their eyes and hate it" that they bite the loach bait. Striped bass usually hunt in deep, swirling water, about 1.5 - 2m below the water surface depending on the depth of the river. To trick them, anglers use live shrimp to hook their tongue into the tail or head as long as the shrimp can still swim. Because they are floating, bass fishing must use a float.

Containers and aerators of the aquaria for shrimp farming

Battery powered aerators can keep shrimp alive all day long.

Talking about the cunning of this brackish water "king", Mr. Dung said: "Brackish water fish often bite the bait, eat bait according to the tide, the same goes for silver carp. They often hunt when the tide starts to rise or fall and the river water must be clear and not cloudy to catch silver carp. Especially when the water is still (not flowing - PV), silver carp can hunt by clamping the gills - that is, instead of using their jaws, they can catch prey with their gills" - Dung also showed his knowledge: "To accurately measure the tide, you must know the tidal calendar. There are days when the water is strong, super strong, and there are days when the water is low, super low. There are usually 2 days in a month when the water is born, that is, the water is completely new and on these days the water remains relatively stable, not low, not strong, so you can catch fish any time of the day."

New fishermen like me really admire Dung's experience and fishing skills. Related to the "fishing life" of this middle-aged man in his forties, there is also the memory of being "in jail" for more than a year due to conflicts related to river fishing. "I went to camp and then carried a river fishing rod. There are many fishing spots, Nghi Tan, Nghi Thiet, Nghi Quang (Nghi Loc) have all been there. Then Xuan Song (Nghi Xuan), Do Diem (Ha Tinh) have also been there many times. Those who are addicted to fishing, don't say anything but quit" - Dung shared with a hat. Few people expected that this man has 4 children, including 3 boys, 1 girl; the oldest is in grade 12 this year, the youngest is only 3 years old.

It seems that I have become addicted to brackish water fishing like Dung nearly 20 years ago. If in the brackish water fishing group that regularly attends the petrol station, Dung is of course “respected” as number 1, then the number 2 position must be mentioned to be the dark, skinny, meticulous man who is never absent from the river for a whole year. Everyone still calls him “little” Hung. I have not had much contact with that man but I have never seen him return empty-handed. Even though we are all fishermen, many people have to respect Mr. Hung’s tenacity. With just a can of beer, a loaf of bread, he can sit and watch his rod from early morning to late afternoon.

Brackish water fishing is not as easy as fishing in lakes or dams, and you cannot use bait or bait to lure fish. So there are days when the fish do not bite at all, which is normal. So we must praise the perseverance of the angler. Every person who goes fishing on the river usually "keeps" 3-5 fishing rods and spreads the line in places where he believes he can catch fish. As for Mr. Hung "little", he has at least 10 fishing spots each time he goes fishing. Not only fishing with a rod, this "fish killer" also uses baited fishing rods. That is, the fishing rods are wrapped with line, tied with a lead, hook, and then the bait is hooked and dropped to the bottom of the river. This fishing method is often used to catch brackish red snapper. After sea bass, red snapper is the next species ranked in terms of ferocity, specialty value, and it is not the red snapper or red tilapia.

Mr. Dinh Bat Hai from Quynh Ngoc commune (Quynh Luu) took advantage of the summer to return to his wife's hometown in Vinh city to go fishing at the petrol bridge. In the photo is the red snapper he just caught.

Unlike the silver carp, brackish red snapper usually catches prey at the bottom of the river, where there are many hidden cliffs. And to catch them, "in the profession, you have to win 50% and lose 50%" as Mr. Nguyen Van Hien, another angler in Ben Thuy ward (Vinh city) said. That means accepting a reality: broken line, lost lead, hook or pulling the fish up. However, every time the red snapper bites, experienced anglers know how to bring them to shore. Mr. Nguyen Phuc Tho is the one who knows that "secret". "When you know the red snapper is stuck to the hook, you have to be very calm, always keep the line taut. If it has gone into a cave, you have to be even more calm, choose the water level and position to pull the fish up. Whoever tries to pull only breaks the line. If you only get one "shot" all day, it's a waste of effort" - Tho showed his experience. I asked Tho why he kept using a broken rod with only 3 pieces left. "Replace it" - I said. Tho smiled innocently: “That’s my lucky god! He helped me pull a ‘three-backpack’ bass, dozens of pink bass from 1 to 2 lots. Don’t underestimate this “short stick”, I can catch a few lots in a flash” - I was happy with the innocent way the 30-year-old single guy spoke, and even more surprised when recently, thanks to that “short stick”, Tho pulled a bass weighing more than 1kg.

A red snapper caught at the petrol bridge weighs nearly 1.5kg

Lake and dam anglers often hunt for swallow fish, but for brackish water anglers, fish are already precious. "In this time of mixed gold and copper, brackish water fish is number 1" - Mr. Nguyen Van Hien shared. Let's talk about this man in his 60s. Mr. Hien said that he and his wife are retired workers, every day he has a small truck to transport goods around the city. After 5 pm, he goes down to the oil bridge to "check in", he fishes until midnight, sometimes until morning. He is not discouraged if he does not catch any fish, because as he shared: "the passion for fishing is in his blood".

In the afternoon, the whole petrol wharf on the Lam River dike was bustling with grouper talk. They said: "This season, there is a shortage of freshwater shrimp, so we can temporarily use live whiteleg shrimp or loach as bait". "Birds of the air and fish in the water know their teeth and are willing to pay. Luck is better than wisdom". People also "passed on" to each other ways to make shrimp bait live longer: "Buy an oxygen aerator, get water from a shrimp pond to release, if not, find oxygen medicine for aquatic products and mix it with brackish water, the shrimp will live healthy all day"... then lead, then hook, type of reel, type of rod... All of this made the downstream bustling. I also joined in the noise to join everyone in the joy of the late afternoon.

Quoc Son