The Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus), called Pla Lai in Thailand, is used as a food source and for offering to the spirit deities. When still slim and young, eels are sold to the Buddhist local population for doing a good deed by releasing them (the dealers catching them thereafter again). When they are mature, thick, and long, they are a preferred roasted snack for local male villagers around a bottle of moonshine. Both holding live eels and selling them is tricky.
Catching swamp eels in the wild
Catching Pla Lai is relatively easy. They occur in swampy areas with a low water depth (10 – 50 cm deep). A line and hook with raw and bloody meat will be located above their lairs, and they bite quickly. In every hole with cloudy water around, an eel can be expected. Another possibility is to use bamboo tube traps, described in this article on this website.
How to hold live swamp eels in hand
Catching live eels is nice, but holding them in one’s hand is difficult. A mature eel should be wrapped into a piece of cloth and then held with both hands. The idea is to suck up the mucus on its skin and thereby increase friction between its skin and the human hand.
Smaller-sized eels can be caught and fixed with the middle finger of one hand and pulled against the index- and ring finger called the ‘Finger-hook method’. This gives the best available grip the author knows of – although it is never an easy task.
Lessons learned on holding live swamp eels in hand
- Eels don’t like moonshine liquor
- Catch eels with line and hook baited with raw meat
- It is still easier to catch them with a bamboo tube trap
- Use a cloth between eel skin mucus and your hand
- Catch slim eels with the finger-hook method
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