Stay-at-home hunting for flood season products in the West

An Giang farmers are busy hunting for "heavenly gifts" when their fields are flooded ( Video : Bao Ky).

At 2am, in the cold night, the first flood of the season was spreading across the fields in Phu Hoi commune, An Phu district, An Giang province.

This place is only a few hundred meters from the Cambodian border, flickering flashlights are wading in the cold wind to hunt linh fish (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).

Follow the footsteps of Truong Thi Bich and her husband (Phu Hoi commune, An Phu district) to the area in the middle of the field, where nearly 20 nets are placed to catch the linh fish following the flood water.

For more than ten days now, Bich and her husband have been waking up at 2am to go by boat to the flooded fields to collect fish, hoping to catch the first batches of young linh fish of the season to sell to earn extra income for the family (Photo: Hai Long).

After removing the 4th or 5th net, the couple could only sigh because each time they removed the net, there were only a few perch, catfish, and miscellaneous fish.

“For the whole week, I don’t know where all the fish went. There were only a few miscellaneous fish, the linh fish almost disappeared, and there were even no linh fish in the sedge. In previous years, if the water level rose that high, the fish would run away in large schools, but this year there weren’t many. Maybe the water level rose so high that the fish couldn’t run away anymore,” said Ms. Bich (Photo: Hai Long).

Sitting on the boat with her knees drawn up to avoid the north wind at dawn, Ms. Bich’s eyes were filled with sadness after the fishing nets were missing linh fish. According to Ms. Bich, a few years ago, during the flood season, linh fish were in abundance, earning over 1 million VND per night was a common thing.

“In recent years, the floods have been low. Some years, we waited for a long time but the floods never came. Fish and shrimp gradually decreased, and our income was unstable. Now, if we can earn 200-300 thousand VND per night, we are very lucky,” Ms. Bich shared (Photo: Hai Long).

After many hours of working in the flooded fields, Bich and her husband only brought back a few kilos of fish. The small boat continued to move through the rows of poles tied with bamboo, the flashlight flickering, then gradually disappeared into the darkness (Photo: Hai Long).

Fishermen along the border in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces, where the Mekong River flows through Vietnam, were also surprised when the flood this year came quickly but the fish and shrimp still did not return.

As dawn gradually breaks, boats that have been drifting all night begin to gather at the market in the middle of the border fields of An Phu commune to buy and sell products of the flood season such as fish, shrimp, crabs, rats, snakes, etc. (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).

Ms. Ho Thi Noi (a fish trader) said that about a month before the new upstream water comes, there are more fish, people catch more so business is favorable.

“Now the water level has risen, the fish can no longer follow the water, the output has decreased so the sellers are sad, the buyers are sad too,” said Ms. Noi (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).

This temporary market on the flooded field starts from 4am to 7am every day. Previously, the trading scene was bustling, with no less than 30 boats at each market meeting, but as the number of fishermen has decreased, the number of people attending the market has also gradually decreased (Photo: Hai Long).

Going downstream, on Vinh Te canal (Vinh Te commune, Chau Doc city, An Giang province), the water level here is lower than upstream. People here have started the season of hunting linh fish and other products of the flood season (Photo: Hai Long).

Stopping by a small hamlet on the banks of Vinh Te canal, people are busily preparing to repair fishing gear to go to the fields to hunt linh fish (Photo: Hai Long).

Mr. Ta Van Truong (Vinh Te commune, Chau Doc city), one of the long-time fishermen in this area, is preparing nearly 500 new fishing poles.

“A few years ago, the water level was low and there were few fish, so I didn’t dare invest anything for fear of losing money. This year, when the water level is higher, I had to invest nearly 40 million VND to buy some fishing poles to replace the old ones. I hope to have a good fishing season and earn some extra income for my family,” Mr. Truong shared (Photo: Hai Long).

Unlike the upstream water level, in Vinh Te canal the water level is not too high yet, linh fish still follow the water flow, people start to cast nets to catch fish from 7am to 8am to bring them back to sell to traders (Photo: Hai Long).

The first batches of linh fish after a night of setting up traps by Mr. Truong. According to Mr. Truong, this year the water level is higher so the amount of linh fish brought in is twice as much as last year.

“Before, there were a lot of fish, each time I went fishing, I earned a million dong a day. But in recent years, there have been fewer fish, on average I earn 400-500 thousand dong a day,” Mr. Truong said (Photo: Hai Long).

At the beginning of the season, young linh fish were sold for over 100,000 VND/kg, but now in the middle of the season, linh fish are only priced from 50,000 to 60,000 VND/kg/type. There are some types of old linh fish, and less eaten linh fish, which are sold for 5,000 to 10,000 VND/kg (Photo: Hai Long).

Batches of linh fish are brought back and sorted by boat owners, and traders will weigh and purchase them on the spot. After purchasing, linh fish are brought to wholesale markets, restaurants, and eateries throughout An Giang province and neighboring provinces (Photo: Hai Long).

The flood brought many products to the people of the West. Among them, young linh fish - a famous specialty that is only found in the Southwest and only appears during the flood season.

This type of fish is usually available from the 7th to the 10th lunar month. In border provinces such as An Giang and Dong Thap, the image of people setting nets, setting traps, setting traps, etc. to catch young linh fish at the beginning of the season in the fields is no longer strange (Photo: Hai Long).

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Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/trang-dem-san-san-vat-mua-nuoc-noi-o-mien-tay-20241008015404126.htm