The cost of making a Con rig is only about 23$, but everyday fishermen in the West can earn millions of VND thanks to the profession of pushing the fish to catch fish when the water comes back.
When the water floods the fields with rich fish and shrimp products, it is also the time when people in downstream areas such as Kien Giang, Hau Giang, Can Tho, and Vinh Long… display their fishing skills. One of them is the technology of pushing the Con (Photo: Bao Ky).The advantage of push-pull is that it can only catch large fish, so it is not afraid to destroy all the young fish such as catching nets, injecting electricity, placing squirrels… (Photo: Bao Ky).Tools to practice pushing the Con include a canoe, a set of cones made of two bamboo sticks in the shape of a bow with lead ropes being dragged across the field and a fishing net (Photo: Bao Ky).The tapered truss is made of small iron rods 1.5m long, attached to a sewing thread that sticks together. Before the flood season, people will prepare the Con, buy iron and then put it on a bamboo stick. If well preserved, the Con can be used for 5-7 years (Photo: Bao Ky).Depending on the water level, the person pushing the Con will either push the boat or push it. The time to push the Con starts from early morning to 2-3pm, if the water is big, many people can push the Con until late at night. Therefore, the people pushing the clutch are mostly men because of their good endurance (Photo: Bao Ky).To locate fish, the pusher observes the water level and the field. If the rice field is still full of straw, the rice is abundant, fish and shrimp will often get into it, while the flooded field needs to be supported by the canoe (Photo: Bao Ky).The boat moves, each stick touches the fish, the fish bends down and bubbles rise, the worker quickly grabs it with a clutch and then reaches out to catch the fish (Photo: Bao Ky).Mr. Danh Hoang Minh (residing in Dinh An commune, Go Quao district, Kien Giang) said that taking advantage of the flood season, he spent about 10 hours deep in the field pushing cones to catch fish. The job is tough, but the pay is high. On a normal day, he earns about 300,000 – 400,000 VND, but the winning case can be up to 800,000 VND. Most of the fish caught are snakehead, catfish, and large-sized perch, so they are sold at a very good price (Photo: Bao Ky).In the past, people used to push the Con with a simple canoe, but now everyone who can afford it is equipped with an extra machine to move many fields in a day (Photo: Bao Ky).
