Sum Pla Duk (Catfish Plunge Basket) — a Waisted Woven-Bamboo Basket With a Funnel and a Low Door, Pressed Over Catfish in Mud

"When a catfish is seen, the mouth of the basket is put over the fish and pressed down into the mud; a foot is trodden into the door to drive the fish up through the funnel, and the catfish is caught in the upper chamber." (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author ทำนุ วรธงไชย (Thamnu Worathongchai), CC BY 4.0)

Split bamboo and whittle thick flat strips for the 17 uprights and round strips for weaving round.

Form the lower mouth about 18 cm across, weave round strips upward about 20 cm, narrowing into a cone, then weave flat strips to the waist about 8 cm across. Spread the uprights out again, weave another 20 cm, then weave round strips while gradually drawing the uprights in over another 20 cm. At the top weave the round strips close to form an emptying hole 6 cm across.

Cut a door in the side of the lower mouth, 8 cm high and 4 cm wide, and bind cloth round its edge. At the waist fit a funnel with its tip pointing up, its mouth fitted tight to the waist.

Photos of a real sum pla duk from the Nong Bua Khok Folk Museum (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author ทำนุ วรธงไชย (Thamnu Worathongchai), CC BY 4.0).

Use it after the harvest, in the cool and hot seasons. Bail the water out of a shallow pond or swamp; when a catfish is seen wriggling on the mud, press the basket's mouth over it into the mud, tread a foot into the door to drive the fish up through the funnel, then turn the basket mouth up and pour the catfish out through the hole at the top, without touching the fish by hand.

The sum pla duk has a shape of its own, unlike ordinary plunge baskets, and is now very rarely seen; it may survive only as a shape and in the accounts of earlier generations. Catfish spines wound very painfully, so this basket was devised in place of catching them by hand. Source: Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Traditional Objects of Everyday Use database, "สุ่มปลาดุก", author ทำนุ วรธงไชย (Thamnu Worathongchai), Nong Bua Khok Folk Museum, Buriram (CC BY 4.0 licence). **Limits** The source gives no size for the funnel or how it is woven.