(Baonghean.vn) - Nestled in a unique setting with fertile fields and rice paddies, the village of Kẻ Gám, Xuân Thành commune, Yên Thành district, Nghệ An province, is an ancient village that provides its farmers with a significant source of aquatic resources. Besides fishing with nets, catching shrimp, and catching prawns, the people of Kẻ Gám village have long been famous for their traditional eel-catching, a skill once known far and wide.
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| Making an eel fishing line is very simple, just a piece of fishing line about 50 cm long with many small strands braided together for strength. One end is tied to a bamboo stick or plastic handle 7-10 cm long, and the other end is tied to a hook. The eel hook is a small alloy wire, it must be hard, sharpened and bent into a small half-loop, it doesn't need to have sharp barbs like a fish hook. |
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| Eels are characterized by their sense of smell in locating prey and preferring fishy-smelling bait. Therefore, people simply catch earthworms and hook them onto the hook to lure the eels to bite. |
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| Mr. Nguyen Viet Tue, from Ke Gam village, has been making a living by catching eels for 50 years. He shared his experience: eels usually dig burrows (also called "ma") to live in muddy areas with stagnant water, lots of trees, or grassy banks at the foot of low rice fields. Finding an eel "ma" isn't too difficult; you just need to gently part the grass to see it. However, eel "ma" usually has a distinctive feature: a round and smooth mouth. A large mouth certainly indicates a large eel, and if you see tiny bubbles in the water, it's an eel spawning "ma". Therefore, anglers usually look for large "ma" mouths to cast their lines. |
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| Another characteristic is that field eels usually dig deep burrows underground, with one end opening to the muddy surface of the rice field to forage for food at night; the other end is above the field bank to breathe. During the day, the eels hide in their burrows, so you only need to gently click the hook at the mouth of the burrow to lure them to eat the bait. |
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In less than 10 minutes, Mr. Tue caught two large eels, each weighing 0.2 kg. Normally, he catches about 2 kg of this type of eel a day, and sometimes he even catches a giant eel weighing a whole kilogram. |
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| The eels caught are usually large ones. |
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| In Ke Gam Village, many women take advantage of their free time during the agricultural off-season to fish for eels, both to improve their daily nutritional meals and to earn extra income for their families. |
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| Eels caught in rice paddies are usually large, have a golden yellow color, and their meat is flavorful and nutritious. Therefore, this type of eel currently sells for 180-200 thousand VND/kg, twice as expensive as eels caught in traps, and is highly sought after in the market. |
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| The eel fishing not only creates a unique feature but also becomes a cherished childhood memory for generations of people in Ke Gam village. |
Sun
Yen Thanh Radio and Television Station
