Gouramis

After a few unsuccessful attempts at catching a Gouramy, today I went out for a couple of hours and caught 2 different kinds of Gouramy. Both of them were small but they were new Life-listers so I can’t complain. This is actually about the largest size they attain for each species though.

The water was clear in these rice fields and you could see lots of small fish in those shallow paddies. There are several different species represented. Because the fish are so small I found the smallest hooks possible for the job. A cane pole works perfect for this kind of fishing.

Shallow Paddies are full of fish. During the 5 month dry-season, these paddies are bone dry.

A deeper weed-choked ditch was attached to the paddies. I’m thinking this is the deeper water sancuary for these fish.

I used bread to catch these Three-Spot Gouramis.

The 2nd species was the Talking Gourami. They are a little smaller and also related to the Betas or Fighting Fishes.

Check out the size of the hook I used to catch these things with. I was purely sight fishing for them. This made it fun.

Sweet! Another good read!

Thanks for the update castandblast

I enjoy reading your reports. I have a pearl gouramy in my fish tank. So, it is nice to see where they originate from.

It’s amazing these fish survive during the dry months over there. Thanks for posting again!

The Gourami have been committing suicide over here. One day later and I caught yet another Gourami species. This time it is the Snakeskin Gourami. They get bigger than the ones I got but it counts for species number 99 for me. This also makes it lifelister number 20 for the year.

The action was fast with all 3 species tonight; the 3-Spots, Talking, and Snakeskins.

This was another local lake near my house. The Lao people use cane poles for these fish and it is way more effective than a spinning rig would be in these weed-choked waters.

Great report