I'm in a faraway land and got to mark one off of my Bucket List recently. We went fishing for Mekong Catfish in Thailand. Bungsamran is a pay lake in the city limits of Bangkok. You've probably seen it on TV ... Jeremy Wade of "River Monsters" has been here (although he didn't tell you it's a pay lake). When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
And it is still "fishing," waiting & hoping for the "big bite," even if you are fishing from your own private bungalow. And it REALLY feels like fishing when you hook one of these beasts... and then try to muscle him hard enough to keep from running under a dock.
Check out this video of my little girl going toe-to-toe with one of the beasts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmzAOQL0y5E
It was a grand experience. I was fishing with Eddy Mounce of Fish Thailand. http://www.fishthailand.co.uk/ He's a great guy and runs a great operation.
We've done a ton of stuff, including a 2-day fishing/cruise on the Andaman Sea. We were aboard the Queen Marlin with Phuket Fishing Tours. We swam and snorkeled on Koh Phi Phi (That would be Phi Phi Island), the same place where they filmed the movie, "The Beach" with Leonardo Decaprio. It is the definition of "exotic." In fact everything we've seen is the definition of exotic.
The fishing?
Bottomline... we did not catch a sailfish. We saw sailfish. I had no idea they jumped except when hooked. Wrong! We saw one sailfish clear water... full body... six or eight times. Unfortunately all we saw ignored our baits.
The tuna were very cooperative.
Unfortunately the tackle aboard is all sized for sailfish... reeling in 2 to 5 lb. tuna on sailfish-sized tackle is akin to catching fiddler cats on a 4-foot Ugly Stick loaded with 50 lb. braid....it's a lot more work than fun. After a time I told our crew to get rid of the tuna lures .... which were basically super-sized Sabiki rigs... and rig with only sailfish baits & gear. I just plain got wore out reeling in little tuna on monster gear.
Communicating with the crew was the greatest challenge. Ammot and Deen (sp????) are Thai. Ammot knows maybe ten words of English, Deen, zero. They are able young men... great cooks... and hardcore fishermen. I actually had to tell Ammot to head in to port. He didn't want to stop fishing but my two lady friends (wife and daughter) were ready for dry land.
Sleeping on the boat was also a challenge. The boat's sleeping quarters do have "air con," as they call it here. But a HUGE wind came up and we were sleeping anchored in 5-6 foot seas. It was "rock-a-bye-baby" to the max. But actually the 18 meter Queen Marlin handled it well. Other than that night, most of the trip was very gentle seas.
That's the highlights. I'm headed home tonight. Here are a couple of other photos below... and LOTS more on Facebook if you're interested: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9 ... a935d16a05
I wish one included a sailfish
And it is still "fishing," waiting & hoping for the "big bite," even if you are fishing from your own private bungalow. And it REALLY feels like fishing when you hook one of these beasts... and then try to muscle him hard enough to keep from running under a dock.
Check out this video of my little girl going toe-to-toe with one of the beasts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmzAOQL0y5E
It was a grand experience. I was fishing with Eddy Mounce of Fish Thailand. http://www.fishthailand.co.uk/ He's a great guy and runs a great operation.
We've done a ton of stuff, including a 2-day fishing/cruise on the Andaman Sea. We were aboard the Queen Marlin with Phuket Fishing Tours. We swam and snorkeled on Koh Phi Phi (That would be Phi Phi Island), the same place where they filmed the movie, "The Beach" with Leonardo Decaprio. It is the definition of "exotic." In fact everything we've seen is the definition of exotic.
The fishing?
Bottomline... we did not catch a sailfish. We saw sailfish. I had no idea they jumped except when hooked. Wrong! We saw one sailfish clear water... full body... six or eight times. Unfortunately all we saw ignored our baits.
The tuna were very cooperative.
Unfortunately the tackle aboard is all sized for sailfish... reeling in 2 to 5 lb. tuna on sailfish-sized tackle is akin to catching fiddler cats on a 4-foot Ugly Stick loaded with 50 lb. braid....it's a lot more work than fun. After a time I told our crew to get rid of the tuna lures .... which were basically super-sized Sabiki rigs... and rig with only sailfish baits & gear. I just plain got wore out reeling in little tuna on monster gear.
Communicating with the crew was the greatest challenge. Ammot and Deen (sp????) are Thai. Ammot knows maybe ten words of English, Deen, zero. They are able young men... great cooks... and hardcore fishermen. I actually had to tell Ammot to head in to port. He didn't want to stop fishing but my two lady friends (wife and daughter) were ready for dry land.
Sleeping on the boat was also a challenge. The boat's sleeping quarters do have "air con," as they call it here. But a HUGE wind came up and we were sleeping anchored in 5-6 foot seas. It was "rock-a-bye-baby" to the max. But actually the 18 meter Queen Marlin handled it well. Other than that night, most of the trip was very gentle seas.
That's the highlights. I'm headed home tonight. Here are a couple of other photos below... and LOTS more on Facebook if you're interested: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9 ... a935d16a05
I wish one included a sailfish
