My own Thai ponds?
My girlfriend told me recently that her Mum has 2 lakes (ponds) on the land they have here in Thailand. Originally used for water to help grow the crop her father grew when he was alive, they have since been pretty much left alone for more than 2 years, since the old boy passed away.
We took a trip over to the village this weekend so we could say hi to her Mum… nothing to do with the new water she had been talking to me about obviously! The first thing we did when we arrived in the village was to go take a look at the lakes. A short drive of about 1km down a small dirt road and we were on her land and at the lakes!
The first lake was a decent size of about 1/2 rai (800 sqm.) with a depth of 2 metres. Not large by anyone’s standards, but it’ll be fine for me to have the odd day on when we visit, which might be more often now 
This lake is the most beautiful of them all and has a few patches of lilly pads and is nicely matured. A quick look around and I could see a few small fry in the edges, but have no idea of what they are.
The second lake, double the size and immediately beside the first lake, covers an area of 1 rai (1600 sqm.) and is the latest addition. As you can see from the photo here, its nowhere near as mature as the first, but size wise its the largest.
Anyway, Sunday morning saw me driving to the local fishfarm where I purchased 350 fingerling Pla Nai (common carp) and 200 Pla Nim (a perch like fish) for the total sum of £3.00 and I was back down to the lakes late this morning to stock ‘my’ new ponds
All 550 fish went into lake 1, but it’ll obviously take time before they are ready to fish for, so I will be looking around for larger sized fish and different species to stock. Maybe a local commercial fishery is my best bet.
After we stocked these fish and did an hours work with machetes (too hot for much more!) we went to look at another lake on their land, which is smaller than the two here and totally overgrown. I’m sure it can be used for something though.
The 2 lakes come complete with ‘fishing hut’
We’re back next weekend for a Buddha day, so I might take a rod and have a chuck about to see whats in these lakes as a mate here reckons they might have some Snakehead fish in already. The fry will be gone by then if this is the case so I will need to re-think the plan if so, but for £3.00 I won’t complain!
