Planes, Trains, Autos & Boats #42 Fishing with a local, Vietnam

In Hoi An, we went on a very cool day out with a local fisherman in his little wooden fishing boat. It was so narrow only one person could fit and if you moved even a tiny bit it felt like it was going to tip over. Our fisherman guide was 75 years old but he was very agile, normally he goes out fishing by himself every morning to catch the food for his family. He has to row, put the net out, pull it in and untangle the fish all by himself, we were 3 people and it was still complicated.

The net is a messy tangle that looks like a bit of old knitting with lots of big holes in it. I didn’t think we’d catch anything. The net is about 20m long and 40cm wide.

We put one end of the net in the water with a piece of polystyrene tied to it so it floats, then paddled along the river letting the net slowly slip out of the boat. Then you slap the water with your paddle to frighten the fish so they swim into the net and get stuck in between the holes. Then we pulled the net slowly, every time you find a fish stuck in the net, you have to stop pulling it in and untangle the fish, which sometimes takes a long time because their fins get really tangled up so its difficult to free them without breaking the net. In 1 hour we caught over 50 sardine sized fish !!!!!

I did feel very sorry for the fish and it made me think I should turn vegetarian but at the fisherman’s house we BBQ’d the fish and ate fresh fish spring rolls which were so delicious I think I might not give up fish just yet 🙂

Our tour was organized by Backstreet Academy and cost $25 usd each.