I’m with David, thanks tie her up before she teaches the whole pack to do the same!
^^^, ^...
Yeah... you're both correct of course... but it's a difficult one because I have no problem with her swimming in the pond, but just not when I'm fishing.
I was responsible for her behaviour yesterday as it was so amusing to see her chasing the lure... but I found today it wasn't a difficult one at all to solve.
I forget that Maya has some breeding behind her and is quite intelligent... not like our other mutts. A stern 'NO' was all it took today to stop her jumping in the pool while I was fishing.
Maya appears to absolutely love fishing and I find myself spending more and more time with her and less and less time with the wife. I've been addicted to fishing since my daughter's age and it's great to find a fishing companion.
Maya seems to enjoy just watching the float - even in the rain - and my plan is to train her to bark when the float goes under. An impossible task maybe.
Dan also enjoys fishing but is too old to stay out long these days.
A nice pla nin today for fish an' chips tomorrow for tea.
I wonder what Maya was dreaming about... a monster snakehead maybe?!!
Last edited by Mendip; 20-07-2021 at 07:26 PM.
Damn, this pond idea of yours sure has worked out well. Idyllic.
Mendip I'm just curious, have you ever tried one of these little house lizards for bait? They just look like if you put them on a hook something would eat it.
^ I haven't Tunk and I'm a bit of a reptile lover so I won't go hunting our ghekos for bait.
But... in saying that, Maya regularly catches and kills ghekos... she eats many but also leaves a lot of dead ones outside the back door. I don't know why she likes to kill ghekos and she's our only dog that does... I've tried to discourage it but can't watch her all the time.
Next time she kills one I'll try and retrieve it before she eats, and stick it on a hook. Maybe that will catch one of our snakehead?
Last edited by Mendip; 20-07-2021 at 10:00 PM.
^Actually, as per the koi fish, they are not keen on them. I saw few times when the chinchok dropped in the fish pond, it has not excited them.
Well I like the geckos, they stay outside and mind their own business. The house lizard comes in your house and shits on everything.
^ Good stuff!
I tried to get the daughter out on the pond in our dinghy today but she wouldn't go for it. A work in progress.
Tonight we spent an hour or so down by the pond... it's far enough away from the house that you can't hear the Sunday afternoon fare of screeching Thai 'comedy shows' with their accompanying Benny Hill sound effects.
Maya took over 'float watch' while I got stuck into my first tin of Thatchers.
Maya is the most wonderful fishing companion. My long term dream is to one day live on the coast, have a 14 foot fishing boat and to go out to sea fishing with a couple of dogs every morning to catch a fish for dinner. Maya will be the perfect partner for that.
It wasn't long until I was into my first pla nin... there were dodgy moments when a stick snagged on the float but it all worked out OK.
The start of a fish an' chips meal later this week.
Half an hour later I was into another. This isn't quite like living on a Thai island and catching pink snapper from the sea for tea, but catching tilapia from your Isaan garden pond is a decent enough substitute for now, I guess.
This second one was a nice fish... not far off a kilo. I crouched down and was about to retrieve it from the water...
... when Maya couldn't control herself any longer and leapt in, after it.
I guided the fish around to the starboard side of the jetty but Maya chased it throughout, but it was safely landed to complete the meal later in the week.
Maya's a bright and intuitive dog... she's stopped jumping in after the float but seeing this fishwas just too much for her. She had a telling off and I don't thing she'll do it again. She's still a pup and still learning.
And there we were... fish an' chips for Tuesday night!
At this point I had run out of worms, so sat a while to reflect on how great it will be to fish from a boat with Maya and Tommy off Koh Chang one day in the future, sharing my sandwiches and me quaffing a couple of tins of cider. It was getting dark and the daughter had got bored and returned to the house to play Roblox on her pc. I reflected alone.
It was just me, the dogs and the family of scaly-breasted lunias who return to their orchid nest at dusk.
I may have already told you but I live on a klong which has abundant wildlife including fish, water birds and water monitor lizards.
In fact just today I saw one lizard that was at least 3 metres long.
I once fished the klong and caught some big fish but due to pollution do not anymore.
I am so happy for you that your pond has turned out as you intended and enjoy it regularly.
I think Mendy is in the process of educating Maya about fishing etiquette.
A productive evening. Do you get many mosquitoes out there or do you fish eat all the larva?
Maya, to my untrained eye, looks to have a lot of Golden Retriever in her.
IMO Golden Retrievers make the best companions. Our neighbor at out New York house had two of them , Hunter and Baily , nicer dogs you could never meet. Every morning that they were let out, they will run to our house and spend most of the day with her, cause she was home all day , and she spoiled them.
All of our dogs in Thailand are soi dogs we rescued, but if I had my choice, a golden reviver it would be.
PS: I would kill for a pond like yours.
Last edited by Buckaroo Banzai; 26-07-2021 at 08:10 AM.
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.
^ BB, I was told that Maya's mother was a lab, but I take that with a very big pinch of salt. I think a part retriever 0r lab is just as likely. She does seem to have more 'breeding' than our other mutts... she is way more intelligent but isn't so hardy than the others. She has settled in well though and seems very happy.
As for the pond... it does keep me occupied and provides nice evenings fishing with my daughter... but I'd rather an alternative of a proper lake, or even the sea to do some fishing in. It is also a lot of work... I have to drain it over the next few days to get rid of these damn pla chon.
At one point I was hoping to introduce a couple of monitor lizards but I think there could be a big conflict with the dogs. I've always been fascinated by reptiles.
Yeah David, I have a couple of landing nets but it's all about remembering to bring one within reach before I start fishing. I use one with the bigger pla siwai but to be honest, if a fish drops off the hook during landing it's not going very far... I still have it in the pond.
There are mosquitos but no more than I'd imagine there would be in any garden sala during the evening. Fish are constantly rising during the evening, and judging from my experience of trout fishing I guess they're going for hatching mosquito pupae trapped in the surface film of the water.
Occasionally I find myself slapping those black and white-stripy legged mosquitos which have landed on my ankles. This is a bit of a worry as these aedes mosquitos can be the carriers of dengue fever. It's strange... with all the focus on Covid you tend to forget that dengue fever and all the other usual suspects are still lurking out there.
As well as it's vaccine.
Dengue Fever
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU) responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.
"Dengvaxia is effective at reducing the number of cases of dengue disease in people aged between 9 and 45 years who have had the infection in the past.
However, people who have not had dengue infection in the past may have a higher risk of severe dengue disease if they become infected with the virus after vaccination with Dengvaxia. Therefore, the vaccine should only be given to people who have had a previous dengue infection, as confirmed by laboratory testing.
There is no other vaccine for dengue disease and neither is there a specific treatment. Dengvaxia’s side effects are usually mild or moderate and do not last longer than three days.
The European Medicines Agency therefore decided that Dengvaxia’s benefits are greater than its risks and it can be authorised for use in the EU in areas where dengue disease is endemic."
Dengvaxia | European Medicines Agency
You may be aware of this:
"used to reduce mosquito numbers with some success including the placement of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) or copepods in standing water to eat the mosquito larvae"
Dengue fever - Wikipedia
A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.
I noticed today that the water in our catfish tank had gone pink and was smelling a bit. In fact, I noticed this a week ago but after waiting to see if anyone else would do anything about it, I decided 'fuk it' I'll bladdy drain it then'.
I wanted to do this for two reasons... one, I'm sure the catfish will benefit from clean water but also I want to use the catfish tank as a holding tank for any 'good' fish when I drain the pond to get rid of the bad fish.
After over an hour of emptying buckets of pink water around the garden I was near the bottom.
Once at this level I can open up a tap at the bottom of the tank to drain the last bit of water. I can't do this from the start as the bad water will drain straight into the pond... not a great design with hindsight. In the old days I would have given a few pla duuk their freedom and sneaked them into the pond. I used to regularly catch the catfish from the pond and have even caught one at 5.5kg, but haven't caught one for a couple of years now. I'm wondering if the catfish are the snakehead's favourite food and they've all been eaten?
And there... finally.
At this point of course the gardener returned on his motorbike from wherever he had been and said that I should have told him I was going to do this so he could help. And then the wife appeared on a rare excursion from the house and announced that she wanted to try a catfish recipe she'd seen on the telly. It's amazing how people suddenly arrive when a job is finished.
And great... so not only had I spent a couple of hours taking care of the wife's catfish, but now I was getting bladdy catfish for lunch. I left her and the gardener discussing the finer points of cooking catfish...
... and headed into town with the daughter to look for a net. This had all given me new motivation to drain our pond and get rid of the snakehead and pla siwai so I can restock and go back to catching 3 or 4 pla nin a session.
The eagle-eyed daughter spotted this as we drove past... (I had put her on lookout duty once I'd made her turn off bladdy Tik Tok on her phone).
A big bundle of netting...
After a frustrating discussion about how I needed some netting to catch fish in my pond I finally got the message over that I needed 12 metres by 1.5 metres of net (I know my numbers in Thai) and the guy just got out a pair of scissors and cut it. It cost just 180 Baht, which I think worked out at 10 Baht a square metre, which didn't seem too bad.
My plan is to thread a long bamboo pole through the top of the net, have a couple of vertical poles at either end and then attach a bunch of weights along the bottom. Once the pond is mainly drained I'll put the net into use. Ootai has expressed an interest in helping out which will be great and I'll even give him a few pla siwai as a thank you present. They taste a bit 'earthy' to me.
And after all this excitement, lunch was ready. Fried pla duuk in garlic.
I'm usually quite critical of the wife's Isaan fare, but this was surprisingly not too bad.
Could have done with some veg, mind.
And it was a bit bony!
Last edited by Mendip; 28-07-2021 at 04:58 PM.
Mendip
If it was up to me and because I'm one of those lazy people I would set up the net this way.
For along the top I would get 3x4m lengths of 4inch PVC pipe and join them together Plus 2 end caps. Once these are all glued together, preferably next to the pond I would use some string or thin rope and lash the top of the net to the pipe. By sealing the ends of the pipe it should allow the pipe to float and the net to hang below. As for the bottom I would get some small link chain, something that you might use to chain up a dog, and thread that though the bottom of the net. Once all that is done all you need to do is suspend the net across the middle of the pond and herd the fish into it from both sides.
It should work but the mesh may be a bit tight if you have really big fish in there. So if you are worried about that aspect then use 1m lengths of PVC (capped) so the net is capable of being pulled into a circle. You might also need a few weights on the chain if you decide to do it this way.
As for giving me some fish my family up here eat just about anything and from my point of view it all just tastes like chilli.
I love pla duk! You lucky man!
^ Yeah I know, I am lucky. I just don't appreciate it at times.
Today I realised that it's August tomorrow... which means so long as there are no severe lockdowns and cancelled flights I should be off to Norway for work in around three weeks.
This realisation put me into a mild panic as all of a sudden, after over six months at home, I'm gonna struggle to get all of my jobs done in time. I seem to have taken my eye off the ball some time around April, which coincided with my peak Ya Dong intake. I'm off the evil stuff now.
Anyway, ootai's enthusiasm has motivated me and we've made a date of next Thursday for a major fish-clearing operation on the pond. I've always worked best under pressure.
Ootai's ideas above mirrored my own, but I also want to clear these bladdy pla chon on the cheap... I'm sick of spending money on this place. So, off I went to Do Home today to see what's what.
The only chain I found is sold in 10 metre lengths... but with a 12 metre long net I think this is ideal since you want some slack. I also bought rope and a few end stoppers to fit the odds and ends of blue pvc plumbing pipe I've found at home. Total cost was only around 600 Baht.
I threaded the chain through the bottom row of mesh along the net and fixed it with cable ties. I attached the cable ties every 1.5m or so, to prevent the net bunching up.
I'd found some 4" and 2" blue pvc piping and bought end stops to match. The 4" length is around 2.5 metres which will go in the centre. The 2" lengths are around 1.5 metres long and will go either side. The plan is to rig up rope along the top of the net with the piping attached with more cable ties. I think the flexibility of using separate lengths or pipe will help accommodate for the tapered ends of the pond. I may also add lengths of bamboo if needed. Luckily I can test all this in the swimming pool before the big day.
I also need to clear the wife's frog enclosure. It seems to be a storage area these days anyway as the wife got pissed off with me releasing her frogs into the pond and gave up trying to raise them. I can't help being a reptile lover.
This will be filled with water and used as a second holding tank to put the 'good' fish in.
It was a thoughtful evening Leo tonight... lots of stuff to figure out in my mind but I truly believe that our snakeheads' days are finally numbered.
Last edited by Mendip; 31-07-2021 at 07:34 PM.
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