Known to locals as Haruan or Sang Yu, the Common Snakehead is the most commonly found in Malaysia. Their scientific name is Channa Striata. In other fish libraries, they are also known as Chevron or Striped snakeheads. The fish is highly prized as food & also eaten as a form of medicine. It is believed that consuming Common Snakeheads meat  boost healing rate for people after surgeries.

They are mostly found in shallow fresh waters in both ponds, lakes & rivers but their preferred habitat is non-moving dead waters, especially swamps & stagnant streams. Being ambush predators, they like to hideout among bushes & shallow bank areas to prey on passing minnows, frogs, prawns & insects. The Haruan as we'll refer to them from here onward, is by nature an ambush hunter. They are capable of high speed precision attacks on lures & baits from stationary position. I've personally witnessed many times, them attacking my lure some 1 meter away. My favorite comment for Haruan is, "Torpedo attack" as they are known to launch their straight lined cylindrical bodies into high speed ramming action creating a V-shape wave on the surface straight at lures followed by a loud splash on the surface. Small Haruans have been known to be extremely aggressive (read: still naive & dumb) to attack lures as large as themselves & even larger causing the lures to hop on the surface. I have also observed Haruans taking lures in a very subtle manner where they would gently rise up to the surface on a 45° angle & gulp down a surface lure, especially, plastic frogs, much like a shark attack. It is common for Haruans to jump out of water chasing lures. There is now a trend for urban anglers to do Snakehead fishing at payponds but my focus here is on wild Haruans.

(A) Bubbles - Haruans being air breather, need to rise to the surface to gulp air once every few minutes. Looks for these signs around bushes, weeds near banks.

(B) Bow waves - in shallow waters, especially those less than 2ft deep, when a sizable fish moves around, you would notice a V-shape wave forming on the surface. These could be Haruans moving about.

(C) Sudden splashes - Haruans usually feed between the 3 hours after dawn & 3 hours before dusk, in Peninsula Malaysia, this is usually from 7am to 10am & 4pm to 7pm. This is the time when they go about attacking prey. If you notice sudden violent splashes on the surface, this is good indication of a Snakehead presence.

Knowing how to tell their presence is only one of the key requirements. Knowing where they would be is another. Being ambush predators, they loves to hang out in underwater vegetation, both for shelter & to prey on small animals for food. I'll list down here some of the places I normally start looking.

I will continue on the next part on baits for Haruan fishing.