INDIANANGLER

Sometime ago I had mentioned that we had caught 'another' kind of sol/murrel and somebody wanted to see pictures to identify these fish. Well after a long time and a lot of hard work here is a picture. And a little bit that I have see and learnt talking to the locals.

These fish like lots of grass and generally hang around in a foot of water.
They don't grow very big, up to 2 kgs. I have not seen any bigger though the locals swear they get to 5 kgs.
They are better eating than the regular sol. But then isn't everything that is hard to catch/find or get. My Bengali neighbours chose this one despite the fact that it was the smallest out of the three fish (the other two were the spotted ones).

Gobra, less than 1kg


A regular Sol/Murrel for comparison.

yummmmmmmmmmmm

You have now officially caught 3 of the 8 species found in the country!!! good show!!! (Your third was the black eyed tiddler on the crawdad at the jodh behind the roman bath).

What scene of Bhakra??? Brilliant bites happening!!!

In Pakistan the first one is called dola or doli, I've never seen one above a KG.

In Pashto all snakeheads are called kataseri, their are no separate names for sowl and dola.

hahaahaha Those were the days. That was a suicidal solly!

Were the fluff are you now. I am hitting the hills again at the end of the month. will call you before I set out.

At Pong these days... the bites have begun... seen monster Sol... Fellow angler landed one today morning... 15 pounder!

PLanning to hit Bhakra for 2 days...

hi ken...

isnt that channa striatus ( striped murrel).

looks like ive seen one too. stuck in a net ..... let it swim again.. was aroung 200 gms...

Hmmm looks like I will be there on right time atleast.. I hope they are still biting till next weekend.. just can't wait this week to get over..

Bhakra here I come :)

-Inder

Here at hyderabad, we classify murral in two categories one is black murral and second is spotted murral.

The black murral is what you've caught. This is extremely sharp and active as compared to the second one.

They grow upto less than 2 kg if am not wrong. Since i did not catch more than this size so far. Where as the spotted one can grow upto 7kg and above.

I caught 1.5 black murral at manjira river last sunday on Silver spoon.

Cheers
Salim

Hello Ken,

The first picture is of a fish i have caught loads of in Assam.. locally known as ' Goroi'. They inhabit weedy banks and grow upto about 2 kg. During the spawing season.. thier fry leave tell tale signs as they coststantly browse the surface in a large group and look like a moving mass of tiny tadpoles. The mother is inevitably a few inches below the surface, ready to defend her brood !! I would never take one of those Moms out now,,, btu as a kid they were always easy to spot and target.

The next door bengalis were right in their choice. They are a very good tasting fish indeed. Roast it over a wood fire and then grind it in with fresh chillies, garlic, coriander, ginger and some mustard oil. Makes for the yummiest fish chutney !!! enjoy

cheers,

vikram

Hi Ken,

Come to think about it, I have caught Murrel. We used to catch them in Bombay Juhu old airport gutters. This was when I was like 7 years old or so that is why I had forgotten.

When I saw the picture of your "Gobra" and read the name I had in instant flashback, deja vous. I recall a man looking at our catch and calling these fish "Gobra" we used to call them "Buldog Fish" for some reason.

Bobby

Congratulations!

The first one is a Channa Punctata,
and the second one is a Channa MArulius

The Gobra fish

check it out

http://www.deccanherald.com/CONTENT/Sep22008/state.asp
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There are 11 subspecies of snake head found in India.

Channa amphibeus
Channa barka
Channa blehery
Channa diplogramma
Channa gachua
Channa marulious
Channa micropeltes
Channa orientalis
Channa punctata
Channa stewartii
Channa striata

The most famous being the Channa barka, as it is a very rare fish. While discussing the same with a German Scientist, who appear a lot on Discovery Channel, he was talking about this fish only in term of Dollers. This fish is highly desired by fish collectors.

Regards,

Ali.

Ali, I guess you meant the channa barca...

Yeh;

Thanks Bop..

Regards,

Ali.

Channa Micropeltes is the Giant Snakehead, the famous Toman and Shado of Southeast Asia. Is it really found in Kerala too?
Their are lots of sites that claim so, but has anyone here actually heard of anyone catching one?

Ali, yes they can be found there, but the people there really don't have any knowledge of them over there
But yes they exist in India

I'm a snakehead collector and a snakehead freak
I've seen a Barca once in My life.
They can be found in Assam also, but they're EXTREMLY RARE, if you're lucky you guys might get one !

and btw man, there's more species that can be found in India

Hey Aircut,

Fill me in on this mate as I have seen this twice now. I have seen Murrle/Sol with a brilliant blue, I am talking electric blue here, on the edges of the fins and just lining the scales. The first time was when IndianGypsy and I caught a small black eyed tidler that was not more than 8 inches. And the second one was a 4 kg monster. Both the fish were different species for sure. One was the spotted kind and the other was what IG call the black eyed tidler.

What is natural? Soem kind of breeding/mating thing. Or is it just the high levels of pesticide, fertilizer and other wonderful stuff in the water doing this.

It is impossible to capture on my little camera. But I am keep trying.

hmm m8 your description sounds like a Channa orientalis, Channa Bleheri(But Bleheri is a dwarf species) or a juvenile striata