Back in my army days, and hey I'm 74 years old now so that was a good time ago, I was fortunate enough to get to work in many different countries.
I was an avid angler then; not an aquarist, so my main interest was in finding places to fish in. So in that vein let me start with a visit to what was then British Honduras; now Belize. We were sent there to make roads and tracks among the lush jungle up-country among the orange groves and plantations.
Before we went up country we were located around 30 minutes from Belize city at an old air-force site but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. The camp had a sports store where we could get a football, cricket stuff and a host of other things. I noticed in one corner of the store a fishing rod and reel. It was around 8' and as solid as a rock. It would have been classified as a boat or pier rod here.
The river flowed nearby and I believe it was the same one that flowed into Belize City. Substantial in depth and flow and as black as as night. That's what real black-water is. Straight from the jungle.
So I borrowed the fishing tackle and headed down to the river, around 15 minutes walk away. Just before the main river was a tributary of approx 6m wide slow moving and crystal clear water. I was looking into the water as I went along the bank and I thought I saw movement of sorts. I stopped, intrigued as there was nothing there apparently, and then again some sort of movement and a ripple on the surface. Then it became clear. The river had a shoal of glass fish, or whatever their species name would be in Honduras. Watching carefully I could see the skull and skeleton and that the fish were around a foot in length.
I put a small hook on the line and pressed some bread from my sandwiches onto it and threw it out to where they were. I saw a fish take the bait, swallow it and I watched it go down into the gut. I could clearly see the bread through the transparent body. I gave a quick tug on the line to set the hook and saw the bread come up from the belly and out of the mouth. Several times I did this and never caught one of them. However, all the references I see of glass fish fail to match the fish I saw myself. Most of them are too small to start with and none I have seen originate in that part of the world. I would be really grateful if anyone from that part of the world who visits the forum could shed some light on what species they are.
The remainder of the day was spent fishing in the main river as it wound it's almost ominous way slowly to the sea. There's another story in there that may well be told later. As will my encounter with vampire bats in one of the orange grove encampments.
Now into the Middle East.
I spent 9 months in Sharjah, up country mostly, and one time I was sent as section leader to a site out in the desert to excavate a dried up water course for the use of the Arabs. The site to be excavated was between to rocky outcrops that had been covered in sand. There was no surface water at all, and in fact no reason to suspect that there was water below the surface.
The bulldozer got started and slowly dug it's way downwards moving all the sand to the other side of the rocky ledges. At around 3m depth damp sand was apparent. So digging continued there and at another metre depth liquid water was struck. Crystal clear, and it even has a very slow movement to it.
This area was further excavated along the direction of the lazy flow and soon enough there was a pool of about 5m length.
When work restarted the next morning I couldn't believe my eyes. The pool was filled with small brightly coloured fish. When I say small I would guess from memory that they were a couple of cm's.
As these didn't fit my definition of things I could catch on rod and line I didn't give them much thought, even though I've been puzzled by them ever since. I've trawled Google Earth many times to try and locate the exact spot but have had no success. The area had nothing to make it stand out. No roads, no landing strip and only a Trucial Oman Scouts camp some 15 miles away. Once more, if anyone can shed some light on what these wonderful fish were I'd appreciate comment.
I was an avid angler then; not an aquarist, so my main interest was in finding places to fish in. So in that vein let me start with a visit to what was then British Honduras; now Belize. We were sent there to make roads and tracks among the lush jungle up-country among the orange groves and plantations.
Before we went up country we were located around 30 minutes from Belize city at an old air-force site but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. The camp had a sports store where we could get a football, cricket stuff and a host of other things. I noticed in one corner of the store a fishing rod and reel. It was around 8' and as solid as a rock. It would have been classified as a boat or pier rod here.
The river flowed nearby and I believe it was the same one that flowed into Belize City. Substantial in depth and flow and as black as as night. That's what real black-water is. Straight from the jungle.
So I borrowed the fishing tackle and headed down to the river, around 15 minutes walk away. Just before the main river was a tributary of approx 6m wide slow moving and crystal clear water. I was looking into the water as I went along the bank and I thought I saw movement of sorts. I stopped, intrigued as there was nothing there apparently, and then again some sort of movement and a ripple on the surface. Then it became clear. The river had a shoal of glass fish, or whatever their species name would be in Honduras. Watching carefully I could see the skull and skeleton and that the fish were around a foot in length.
I put a small hook on the line and pressed some bread from my sandwiches onto it and threw it out to where they were. I saw a fish take the bait, swallow it and I watched it go down into the gut. I could clearly see the bread through the transparent body. I gave a quick tug on the line to set the hook and saw the bread come up from the belly and out of the mouth. Several times I did this and never caught one of them. However, all the references I see of glass fish fail to match the fish I saw myself. Most of them are too small to start with and none I have seen originate in that part of the world. I would be really grateful if anyone from that part of the world who visits the forum could shed some light on what species they are.
The remainder of the day was spent fishing in the main river as it wound it's almost ominous way slowly to the sea. There's another story in there that may well be told later. As will my encounter with vampire bats in one of the orange grove encampments.
Now into the Middle East.
I spent 9 months in Sharjah, up country mostly, and one time I was sent as section leader to a site out in the desert to excavate a dried up water course for the use of the Arabs. The site to be excavated was between to rocky outcrops that had been covered in sand. There was no surface water at all, and in fact no reason to suspect that there was water below the surface.
The bulldozer got started and slowly dug it's way downwards moving all the sand to the other side of the rocky ledges. At around 3m depth damp sand was apparent. So digging continued there and at another metre depth liquid water was struck. Crystal clear, and it even has a very slow movement to it.
This area was further excavated along the direction of the lazy flow and soon enough there was a pool of about 5m length.
When work restarted the next morning I couldn't believe my eyes. The pool was filled with small brightly coloured fish. When I say small I would guess from memory that they were a couple of cm's.
As these didn't fit my definition of things I could catch on rod and line I didn't give them much thought, even though I've been puzzled by them ever since. I've trawled Google Earth many times to try and locate the exact spot but have had no success. The area had nothing to make it stand out. No roads, no landing strip and only a Trucial Oman Scouts camp some 15 miles away. Once more, if anyone can shed some light on what these wonderful fish were I'd appreciate comment.
