At the headwaters of Hau River in An Giang, there are so many freshwater fish that you can't eat them all. During the flood season, tons of linh fish are caught.

"Bag" of linh fish - a specialty fish of the upper Hau River region

The midday sun shone directly down on the dazzling border, the sampans loaded with linh fish glided over the flooded fields.

Pulling into the market, young men in the village hurriedly got into their boats with nets in hand to scoop up fish and bring them to the scale. Currently, there are many linh fish as big as a finger.

This is the first time we have seen with our own eyes the linh fish source with such a large reserve. Mr. Phuong (specialized in catching linh fish for hire) said that every day, there are dozens of boats carrying fish to be weighed.

Right at the tide, each boat carries tons of linh fish to sell at this warehouse.

“There are too many fish, no space to store them, so we have to put them on ice and sell them to fish farmers. These days, the linh fish have grown big! The big linh fish are grilled on bamboo clamps and dipped in tamarind fish sauce, very delicious!” - Mr. Phuong chuckled.

Standing on the fish raft of the fishermen, we saw people feeding their fish with "suffocated" linh fish. This flood season, Mr. Bay Hai raises a raft of more than 10,000 catfish. Thanks to the linh fish used as animal feed, Bay Hai has extra income during the flood season.

“Here, linh fish are available every day. I buy “over-fed” linh fish to fatten up the group of catfish. I have been raising this group of fish for about 2 months, the fish are as big as a finger. I plan to sell them at the end of the flood season when the fish are no longer available,” Bay Hai boasted.

Linh fish fills the shells of the upper reaches of the Hau River - An Phu district, An Giang province. Linh fish is one of the specialties, delicious freshwater fish that appears during the flood season.

Looking at the linh fish used by the people as fish feed, we felt a bit regretful, because linh fish in the city is considered a specialty during the flood season. However, in the upstream area, fish sauce is abundant, so when linh fish is "overwhelmed", making fish sauce or using it as fish feed is a daily routine for the people here.

Living along the border, people from both countries go back and forth to trade, so our people are fluent in Cambodian. Every time the boat docks, they converse in the other country's language. We don't know Cambodian, but we understand that they are bargaining over the price of linh fish.

“On days when the tide is not right, linh fish run less, the price is higher. The other day, the fish ran strongly, the market was flooded, the price was very low” - Mr. Tu Quy said. We asked Tu Quy to “translate” to ask fishermen from neighboring countries about the situation of catching linh fish there and learned that: “Fishermen from neighboring countries like Cambodia also use the same fishing gear as fishermen in our country. There are a lot of fish in the fields of neighboring countries”.

Fun in the flood season

According to Tu Quy, not only this year's flood season is rich in linh fish, every year, when the river water is red with alluvium, fishermen from neighboring Cambodia bring fish to weigh in large numbers. The neighboring country's fields are deserted, so the linh fish source is preserved during the time the fish "hold" eggs very strictly. Thanks to that, the aquatic resources are very rich. Previously, neighboring countries did not exploit linh fish enough, so a lot of linh fish drifted downstream.

“Later, seeing our people using traps to catch linh fish, they learned from them and came over to buy fishing gear, linh fish traps, crab traps, and shrimp traps. The aquatic products harvested by people in neighboring countries were brought over and weighed for small traders,” Tu Quy recalls.

The sun slanted over people’s heads, the boats carrying linh fish gradually thinned out. At this time, the young men began the process of “sifting” linh fish. The men poured linh fish into a large basket with a thin wire mesh. Any fish that passed through the mesh were placed in a net on the river bank. The fish that remained in the basket were then put in ice water. They continued like this until late afternoon.

They receive 300,000 VND per day, which helps the villagers earn a living during the flood season. We went up to Ms. Suong’s stilt house and saw many women sitting around the basin of linh fish, diligently cleaning its belly.

“I work as a laborer, every day I gut about 3-4kg of linh fish. For each kilo, the owner pays me 40,000 VND. On a good day, I can catch 5kg, earning nearly 200,000 VND. Every year, when linh fish season comes, the women in the village come here to gut linh fish to earn extra income,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Be Ba explained.

Ms. Suong (a famous trader in the upstream area) said that her fish farm buys 7-10 tons of linh fish from fishermen in Cambodia every day. “Today, linh fish are running strong. This morning, we weighed more than 10 tons. There are too many fish that we have to put them on ice,” Ms. Suong said.

Fishermen in An Phu upstream district, An Giang province bring linh fish to the scale for traders.

From here, the linh fish is distributed by her everywhere in and outside the province. Her fish farm creates jobs for more than 10 workers, providing a stable income during the flood season. Every day, Ms. Suong's fish farm has dozens of long-distance customers from the districts coming to weigh live linh fish to bring back to retail at rural markets in the province. In addition, for cleaned linh fish, Ms. Suong puts them in ice water, each bag of 0.5kg, to distribute to wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong province.

“At the beginning of the flood season, the supply of linh fish here is very strong in big markets. Sometimes there is not enough to distribute. In recent days, the supply of linh fish has been brought over by fishermen from other countries. Currently, linh fish are as big as a finger, the price fluctuates from 10,000 to 15,000 VND/kg. There are times when the tide is right, linh fish run strongly, fluctuating only 6,000 to 10,000 VND/kg. Linh fish are "suffocated" by 3,000 to 4,000 VND/kg" - Ms. Suong said honestly.

Saying goodbye to Ms. Suong’s linh fish purchasing warehouse, we met men parked their motorbikes carrying large bags of live linh fish, rushing back to sell them in the local markets. Thanks to the cheap linh fish source in this border area, the local people have a good income.

For a long time, the flood season has always brought many products. Every time you have the opportunity to visit An Phu upstream district in the early morning, you will see fishermen exploiting and trading linh fish busily in the flooded fields.

Source: https://danviet.vn/o-dau-nguon-song-hau-cua-an-giang-ca-dong-la-liet-ca-an-cha-het-mua-nuoc-noi-xuc-ca-tan-ca-linh-20240917081020143.htm