Is this the Mekong Monster?
The Mekong is a large river; the 7th-longest in Asia that crawls into Thailand where this video was filmed. The name comes from “Mae Man Khong, a term similar in Thai and Lao, which means mother river or mother water. Only the Amazon has more animals per cubic foot and the river is home to a hugely diverse range of life.
Is this a monster though?
In Pure Spirit
What do you make of the video? Odd? Monster? Or just some local animals and some trash?
Now you’ve seen this video are you tempted to back your bags, grab a flight to Bangkok, forget about the political violence in the news today and enjoy a holiday in Thailand?
OMG, Really?..
If there is *any* confusion, whatsoever, about WHAT this is, please take 43min of your time to watch “River Monsters” (Animal Planet), where the lone life-long angler sets out to hook “fish of legends”.
Have you seen the way these guys fish the Mekong from their canoes? VERY similar in style to the Nile River fishhermen, they place HUGE hooks, the size of a grown-man’s middle finger, knotted to twine rope & space each drop 12″ apart w/a 1′-3′ drop on 20ft long piece of rope. They throw it out from the boat into the width of the river & wait for a nibble on any of the 20 rotted-meat filled hooks…
THIS, HERE, is nothing but a larger FISH who unfortunately swallowed their hook & in turn took several of the 19 other hooks w/him B4 the fisherman cut the line OR had drank too much &the fish got away w/his whole line (inside laugh! This is why you PACE your drinking…)
&Like ALL fish do, in trying to rid itself of this foreign object, went & swam more shallow (just like the video shows–&man is that fish on death’s door!) to rub up against water grass/ kelp/ LILY PADS.
*Any* fisherman knows this is a behavior fish do.. O_o & this isn’t the Delta of it–that’s a freshwater fish!
So, you have an unfocused, chattery video of:
A fish (likely related to the Carp or Bowfish in that area deeing its dorsal fin) w/an ingested hook in itself that’s unfortunately connected to more hooks that in events following had snagged a few lily pads.
The End. (cancel your trip ;P )
I’d LOVE to hear any constructive criticism from the ANGLER community out here ;)
Thx from a 30yr freshwater angler,
Jecca