GIANT SNAKEHEAD (Channa micropeltes)

The giant snakehead, toman as known in Malaysia, is the largest snakehead species found in Malaysia. As such, it is at the top of the freshwater predator chain. With a mouthfull of razor sharp teeth it practically has no enemies. Even their youngs are guarded all the time by their parents. This predator likes to hang around slow moving water with plenty of  underwater structures where they lay in ambush for preys. The places where angler hunt for them are old mining ponds, coves of rivers and the numerous dams in Malaysia.
As an air breather and one that guards its youngs, it is quite easy to locate them. Because of these charatistics, the tomans are facing a lot of fishing pressure. They are not only been hooked up, but are also targetted by the netters as well. With no conservation policies in place, I am not too optimistic about the survival of these great sportfish.
Lures such as crankbaits, poppers, spoons and soft plastics are all effective for catching the toman. Care must  be taken when handling this fish as the teeth can inflict some  terrible lacerations. The toman is not as hardy as its cousin, the haruan, so care must be taken when handling them so as not to cause undue stress and unrepairable harm to them.

The giant snakeheads usually
 hang around places with plenty
of underwater structures.

A colorful toman caught at Bersia,
 a hydro power man made lake.

Man made reservour lakes
contain good populations
 of giant snakeheads.

A closeup view of this toman's
 mouth. It attacked my lure even
 though the hook was still
 stuck to its mouth.

Giant snakeheads like
this can be caught in
 old mining ponds.

Another ex-mining pond
specimen caught with a
 red headed minnow lure.

Giant snakeheads, also known as
tomans in Malaysia, are really ferocious.
 This one attack my lure even though it
still had a hook dangling from its mouth.

A pair of ferocious juveniles
went for this Halco and
I had a double hookup.

COMMON SNAKEHEADS (Channa striatus).

The common snakehead or haruan as the Malaysians called it, is found almost everywhere, especially ponds, marshes, padifields, slow flowing rivers and other water ways. As an air-breather it can practically walk on land.
Being the most sought after sport fish in Malaysia, they are being hunted not only for their sport, but as a food and its medicinal value as well. The people believe that when steam with some herbs, the resulting soap is good in the healing of cuts and wounds.
The haraun practices monogamy and both male and female help to construct a nest out of water vegetation during breeding time. The eggs and the resulting fries are guarded by both parents. It is this parental instinct that results in the depletion of this fish. The orange fry ball can be seen coming up for air every few minutes. The unique characteristic of these fries is the archilles heel of the snakeheads as it gives away the location of the parents that are always found circling underneath in protection.
As a canivour, the haruan will attack lures of all kinds. They can be taken by fly fishing too. But the main method used is still the  live frogs. With the ever increasing fishing pressure, the size of the fish has been getting smaller (though they can grow up to a meter in length).

Other flies work too, like this charlie.

They also can be caught by
 flyfishing. This was taken with a gurgler.

Climbing up a tree allows
you to see into those weeds
 for signs of snakeheads.

Sometimes you have to look
for them in snaggy places.

This is considered as
easy place to get them.

Just like the American
large mouth bass,
the snakeheads do go
 for the plastic worms.

Often they can be
 caught in open water too.

Going for these snakeheads,
you normally have to wade
 through flooded undergrowth.

This one grabbed my surface popper.