I share the following with a little reservation for fear that someone might question my ethics. I want to share this though to expand our knowledge of the world of fishing. You have to remember the place where I am living and forget your midwest values for a second. The last couple of homes I have been in have dirt floors and many people here have worms and lice. Try telling poor people like this the ethics of catch and release.
Anyway, my purpose for fishing this way was to catch bait for fishing the Mekong River. When we use cast nets for bait getting, we think that is alright. My end result is the same; acquiring bait for bigger fish. However, I do draw the line when it comes to environment destruction or wanton waste such as the use of bombs and poison.
My adventure started when my Lao worker wanted to show me another way to get fish from those paddies. The means was “electroshocking.” You first start by plugging wires into a 220 volt electric panel (fyi-OSHA doesn’t exist here).
Then you make sure to stay away from all the sections that are spliced with black tape (you need to think of your own safety over here all the time).
The homemade electric wand.
Then walk up the water channels while waving the electric wand around. Fish come to the surface as you go. Simply net them up in their stunned state and place them in a pail.
You would be surprised at how many small fish exist here. We ended up with about 40 fish of 5 different Rice Paddy species. Swamp Eels, 3-Spot Gouramis, Striped Snakehead, Tilapia, Jumping Minnow, and a Climbing Perch.
Swamp Eels are great bait for Featherbacks.
Striped Snakehead
Several big Tilapia were caught. This is perfect size for ChaoPhaya Catfish bait over here.
I found out why these things were given the name Climbing Perch. They flare out their gill covers like a Yellow Perch does and use them to walk over land. Notice the sharp spikes at the end of the gill covers. This one walked right out of my hand. I thought this one was so cool that it made it in my aquarium.
Most all of these species have auxillary lungs and/or can walk on land which makes the Rice Paddy a perfect environment for these little guys. The Tilapia are actually not native here but are exotics to laos and multiply like carp.
Not to bring up another issue here but not all the fish came back to life after being electroshocked. It got me thinking about the safety of our fisheries after a DNR crew goes through with the electroshocking unit. Do all the fish survive after a shocking? Ask your local DNR that question.
As I was noticing his bare feet…the OSHA comment got a pretty good laugh out of me! 
