Catching goby fish on Cai River Nha Trang

Now, whenever we meet somewhere, my old friends often talk about catching goby fish on the Cai River in Nha Trang. Some people find this story strange, but the time we went catching goby fish together has left us with unforgettable memories.

Forty years ago, when I was young, I had some friends who taught at Nha Trang Pedagogical College. On Sundays or holidays, they often invited each other to go fishing on the Cai River and took me along. Fishing was fun, you could watch the sky, clouds, river water, and bring home fish. Back then, few people fished, so there were still many fish in the river. After a while, Hao - a member of the group discovered that there were sometimes schools of goby fish on the river, so he started showing us how to set up tubes to catch them. We tried it, and unexpectedly, this method was much more effective than fishing.

Braised goby with pepper. Photo: Internet

Catching goby fish the way my friend did was very simple. At that time, at the head of the Xom Bong bridge, people sold a lot of giant bamboo. After buying, we asked someone to cut it into pieces, each piece about half a meter long, one end kept the bamboo node intact (to seal it), the other end was left open. On the end of the sealed bamboo tube, we drilled a hole and stuck through it a sharp pin as big as a little finger, about half a meter long, so that when we put it in the river, the tube would not be swept away by the water. We also tied a fishing line more than a meter long to each tube, and on the other end tied a piece of foam to mark where we dropped the tube.

On the northern bank of the Cai River in Nha Trang 40 years ago, houses were sparse, many places were full of dust and deserted, especially the section near the present-day Thap Ba mud bath area. In the early days, each of us carried behind our bicycles dozens of the aforementioned “bamboo traps”, chose a shallow section of the river, with water up to our waists, and then waded down one by one to insert the tubes.

There are many types of goby fish: marble goby, goby, sharp goby, sand goby. Among them, in Cai Nha Trang river, sand goby is a delicious fish, and there are many of them. After the flood season, this type of fish breeds, eats humus and organisms in the alluvial layers from upstream, so it grows quickly. Living in schools and being shy, goby fish have the characteristic of finding a hidden place to hide after swimming and looking for food. Therefore, the bamboo tubes with one end sealed when lying at the bottom of the shallow river near the bank make them think it is a safe cave, so many of them crawl in to take shelter. Knowing this rule, on free days, around 8am, we set the tubes, go fishing in another part of the river, or go out, and return around 4pm to start harvesting. Based on the foam buoys, each of us dived down, covered the empty end of the tube with one hand, lifted the tube up with the other hand and shook it. If there was a fish in the tube, we would know right away. At this point, we just had to open the lid of the plastic basket, tilt the tube to pour the fish in and it was done. Sometimes there was only one fish in the tube, sometimes two or three. The best thing was when we shook it, hearing the "slurping" sound in the bamboo tube. It was even better when there were fresh gobies in the plastic basket, some lying upside down, some lying face down, each with two gills breathing...

Sand goby. Photo: Internet

In those years, there were no motorbikes, so we all rode bicycles. The distance was quite far, so we had to carry the tools back and forth, so after a few times, every time we caught fish, we hid the tubes in a bush somewhere to come back and get them the next time.

According to my friend, he learned how to catch fish with bamboo tubes when he was living in Quang Nam . Although I also lived in the countryside, I had never heard of this type of fishing. Every time I went to set tubes with me, I enjoyed it, besides the entertainment, there was also delicious food. At that time, everything in the country was very difficult, salaries were low, after working hours at the office, most civil servants ran around to earn extra money to improve their meals. But river goby fish were not easy to find. This is a delicious dish that has been mentioned in many folk songs since ancient times, such as: "If you love me, I will go fishing/Catch a goby fish, cut off its head and braise it with pepper/Braise it with pepper, braise it with chili, braise it with onions/Braise an extra pound of meat to save for eating". That's why, when they saw the goby fish I caught and brought home, everyone in the house was happy, especially when they were braised with pepper, picked up and placed on a plate, emitting a fragrant aroma.

The occasional trip to lay pipes and catch goby fish on the Cai River in Nha Trang lasted for about two years, until some of our friends in the group, some transferred to work elsewhere, some got married, and got busy so we stopped.

Many years have passed, I don’t know if anyone on the Cai River in Nha Trang still sets bamboo traps to catch goby like we did in the past, but every morning, when I come back from swimming in the sea, I stop by the Xom Moi market, sometimes I see some women selling this type of fish on baskets. The fish is quite fresh. When asked, every woman said that the fish was caught on the river. Then one of them said enthusiastically: Buy it, uncle, this fish is perfect when braised with pepper!…

HOANG NHAT TUYEN

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