The secret of making eel bait from old farmers in Nghe An

It has become a tradition that every early afternoon, Mr. Nguyen Kim Be in Tan Huong village, Tan Son commune, Do Luong district, carries a bag of bamboo traps to the field to release. The rice fields he chooses to release bamboo traps are those with at least 3 cm of water. The most suitable time to release bamboo traps, according to him, is from 1 pm to 4 pm. After this period, at 9 am, the bamboo traps are collected to collect eels and release the second batch of bamboo traps. Early the next morning, the bamboo traps are collected and brought home.

“Every day I release 120 traps, these traps usually yield 2kg to 3kg of eels. If the eel is as small as a little finger, it sells for 120,000 VND/kg, if the eel is as big as a thumb, it sells for 160,000 VND/kg” - Mr. Be happily shared.

Mr. Nguyen Kim Be in Tan Huong village, Tan Son commune, Do Luong is releasing eel traps. Photo by Ngoc Phuong

Although the eel fishing profession is hard, it often brings in a good income. Mr. Nguyen Cong Kinh is a veteran in the eel fishing profession. After each day of fishing and selling eels, he earns from 500,000 to 600,000 VND. He fishes 180 fishing nets and catches 5 kg of eels. Before fishing, his job is to make eel bait carefully and has his own secret.

“To make bait for eels, I have to dig up soil, go to the fields to catch crabs. Then I bring it home and chop it up. The ratio is 3 parts minced soil, 1 part crab, add a handful of bran. Mix this mixture well and then spread a moderate amount into the trap. With this bait, the eels can only “swim” into the trap and cannot escape anywhere,” Mr. Kinh laughed happily.

The eel-catching job is usually chosen by the locals from February to May of the lunar calendar, then from July to September of the lunar calendar. In years with a lot of eels, they release the traps until October. In Tan Huong village alone, there are nearly 10 people doing the trap-catching job, and in Tan Son commune, there are nearly 50 households doing this job. Households that release a lot of traps include Mr. Thien, Mr. Dieu, Mr. Sy, and Mr. Hien, who release from 150 to 170 traps. A typical example is Mr. Dao Van Hung in hamlet 3, who releases up to 260 traps, collecting from 5kg to 6kg of eels each day. This year, Mr. Hung is 36 years old, and at 16 years old, he was already proficient in the eel-catching job. Thanks to his diligence in catching traps, 6 years ago, he was able to buy a large plot of land and build a main house and a side house, worth over 500 million VND.

Mr. Dao Van Hung said: "The bait to lure eels is a mixture of earthworms, field crabs, and bran powder. The bait is rubbed into the eel before being put into the tube." Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Mr. Hung said: “To release a lot of eels, you must first be diligent, you must polish the trap, the trap must have a smell to attract eels to enter. Besides, to do the job of releasing eel traps, you must be proficient in each rice field area, I myself have been to all the rice fields of 33 communes and towns in Do Luong district”.

Eel traps in Do Luong are made of bamboo. The trap tube is 50 to 70 cm long, at the end of the trap tube is a 10 cm long groove, the purpose is for the eel to breathe after crawling into the trap tube. As for the trap, the place where the eel crawls in must be made very carefully and meticulously. Depending on the size of the trap tube, the trap is made. Usually the trap is woven in a circle from 5 to 7 thin, flat and smooth bamboo strips. It must be woven tightly and curved at one end so that the eel cannot crawl out after crawling in. The head of the trap is tied with a small bamboo stick about 10 cm long with a rubber band.When releasing the trap into the field, the person releasing it usually rotates the stick at the top of the trap to stick it into the field. The head of the trap usually faces the field, the tail of the trap faces the bank.

Flooded rice fields are a very suitable place to set up traps. The method of catching eels by hand brings both economic benefits and environmental protection. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Each of these traps usually has 1 to 2 eels crawling in, the number of eels depends on each rice field. Skilled people can usually tell by looking at the surface of the field how many eels there are; fields with raised holes will have a lot of eels.

Another experience that people who release traps in Do Luong often pass on is that where the rice fields are flooded, the weather is sunny during the day, and the water is cool, that day will definitely have a lot of eels. The distance between the traps is about 2.5m. The stick must also be firmly inserted, so that it covers 2/3 of the trap body, the end of the trap is slightly tilted up, the purpose is that when the eels enter the tube, they will have air to breathe and will not suffocate.

A batch of eels was collected after a day of fishing. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Wild eel is a delicious and nutritious food, the value of wild eel is much higher than farmed eel. Thanks to the eel-catching job, the life of the workers is quite good. People make the most of it during the off-season. Manually catching eels with traps not only brings economic benefits but also protects the eel's living environment, unlike using electric shock to catch them.

Ngoc Phuong