Small lift net for catching daily meals of freshwater prawns and fish
‘Yor lek’ is a hand-lifting net; in Thai, it means something like a ‘small lift net. ‘ ‘Yor’ means ‘lift net’ and ‘lek’ means ‘small’. Its big brothers are called ‘Yor yai’, permanently installed on large water channels. Yor lek is a typical family fishing device that does not need much attention and delivers daily meals.
Every permanent water body in Thailand contains a variety of fish, crabs, gastropods, and freshwater prawns/shrimps.
In small and shallow water bodies, various species of Gourami fish (Trichogaster sp., and various others) live. Also, rice field crabs (Esanthelphusa sp.) and rice field shrimps (Goong foi, Macrobrachium lanchesteri) are in large quantities. All of these species are mainly caught in Yor lek’s. Only apple snails (Pomacea sp.) will be collected by hand or are only a side catch in a Yor lek.
How to operate small lift nets
The hand-lifting net is placed in shallow water, and rice bran is sprinkled over the middle of the net. Any other bait (like smashed snails, worms, crushed insects, etc.) can also be used. After leaving the net untouched for about one hour, the fisherman lifts it.
He pulls the lifting pole out of the water very fast, using his upper leg for leverage. The net creates high water resistance, which increases the likelihood of prey fleeing. Therefore, lifting speed is essential.
The pictures show three typical catches of one lift each. It can be seen that with just one lift, at least one person’s meal can be caught.
Lessons learned on the benefits of small lift nets
- Yor lek is a very efficient ‘food catching machine,’ which doesn’t need much time or effort to fill the stomach.
- One of the main catches of this device, Goong foi (Rice fields shrimp), can be eaten raw as a meal—it is directly picked from the lift net.
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