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.