Fishing Holidays Thailand



Are you impressed with the catches?...Want to fish a lake where 200LB+ Carp, similar to the one below can be caught?

The largest Carp ever caught on a Rod & Line

Then why not take your next fishing holiday in Thailand where record breaking fish, fantastic weather, excellent food, and the exceptional hospitality of the Thai people guarantees that you will have a good time.

Bungsamran Villa

Take a look at our 4Star Accommodations Bungsamran Villa and contact us to make your booking now!

Bungsamran - Catch Report 24th August 2007

 

6 species in one day, and a near world record!

Something I'd never done but wanted to try, was to see how many Thai Fish Species I could take from Bungsamran in a single day. This is my first ever attempt at this exercise on Bungsamran, once again it came about more as a result of a cancelled booking than a conscious effort. This time I took the services of Boy, and our day started on what the locals call the shed. Using light tackle and small hook we started off focusing on Giant Gourami. The Giant Gourami is a very timid feeder, and supposedly vegetarian. We managed to disprove both these idea's in the first 15 minutes of the day, casting a small piece of chicken towards some floats, it wasn't long before the small float started pulling along the surface trying to go under the floating paddles. I struck, and too my surprise quite a spirited fight ensued. On a light tackle a 2kg/3kg Gourami is great fun. It darted under the floating paddles, and then changed direction rapidly trying to get under the walkway. I snagged up momentarily on the pillars, but then lady luck shone and the Gourami came free and drifted towards the net. This was not a bad specimen at all at about 3kg. We recast to the same spot and within minutes I had another one on, though much smaller it still put up quite a battle.

This chicken bait really works a treat! Having had a few Gourami, Boy suggested we try for a Pacu using a similar method, and once again it took not more than a few minutes before I was into my best yet Red Bellied Pacu, at 4.5kg, which once again was followed quickly by another! I was less than 45 minutes into my day, and had already had two Personal bests!

A few casts later and a quick take and run was clearly from a much more powerful fish. An early morning Chao Praya had taken a shine to my chicken bait, on my lightweight spinning rod, this was great fun! The Chao Praya took me up and down the far bank about 10 times before it even started to edge closer to us, and it wasn't until a full 25minutes later that we brought the fish over the net.

It was time to move onto the bungalow I had taken for the day, Boy had chummed up with a few kilos of Rice Bran at the start of the day, and we could see from a disturbance in the water that large fish had moved close in over our bait. I wasn't to know how large, until my first take, nor was I to know what a great day it was to be. My first take on the bungalow came after about 30 minutes of fishing. It was clear this fish was a good size, as it took it's first run out into the lake, 20meters.....50meters....100meters...hold on! What's going on here? At this stage I felt the fish was tiring because it slowed down a little, but it did not seem to matter how much clutch I applied or how much bend in the rod, the fish seemed generally unaffected.... 120mtrs.....150mtrs. The fish was now so far away that most of my line was out of the water when I held the rod tip up, but there was still plenty of lake, and plenty of line to go. The fish did change direction slightly kiting left allowing me to take about 15mtrs or so line back, but it never really stopped. Then it changed back to its original course, 180mtrs....200mtrs!!! By now it was clear this was not just your average "large" Mekong Catfish of say 50kg/60kg...this was special, and it really was not sinking in with me, I was too worried about the fact that I was now down to my backing line, which was only 20lb mono. The moment when the joining knot was to leave my spool crept ever closer, and for the fish now it probably only had around another 50mtrs it could run, into the far corner of the lake, before it would have to change direction!  I had noticed that Boy was starting to get anxious, like he was experiencing a sense of DeJaVu.

Too Late!! The fish got me down to the last couple of meters of my ever reliable 80LB PowerPro line, I applied as much pressure as I dare to try and turn the fish, but it was all to know avail, and with a sudden burst of power the fish stole my last two meters of decent line, and the knot sped through the eyes before catching on the last one and then "ping" it was gone, the knot gave away because I did not release the pressure quickly enough . Fortunately Bungsamran staff have a great deal of experience dealing with these situations, and after Boy made a quick call, we was off a 100meters or more down the lake, where Bungsamran staff member, Mut cast a grappling hook out into the middle. First Cast and reel in, and there was my line! Boy fed the end back through the eyes and retied to the backing, I wound furiously for about a minute taking back probably 70% of my line, and finally connected with the fish. The moment it felt the tension it was off again! Going away from me at exactly the same pace and under exactly the same amount of pressure as before. I look at Boy in disbelief...his look back at me implied some other feeling, I could not put my finger on it.

Anyway this time, the fish after taking a further 50meters or so did seem to be tiring, although I will never be sure, because what happened next ended the battle prematurely. The fish had turned, and was now coming towards me at quite a pace, too fast in fact! I realised quickly that the fish was not even nearly tired, it had just happened to take a new direction that was heading straight towards me. I had real trouble getting the line back on the spool quickly enough, and now I had finally got the fish coming towards me, I realised it maybe wasn't such a good thing. I was winding furiously again, and the point where the line was entering the water, was coming at me like a cheese-wire through butter! The fish just kept right on going straight under my feet into the stilts of the new bungalow I was standing on. Once again I caught Boys eye, and he was looking at me despondently, Boy I think already knew the outcome of this fight. He has seen it too many times. Well after a few more tussles the Giant Mekong had me completely tangled in the stilts below the bungalow, and even after several of Bungsamran's staff got into the water to try and free it, all I was ultimately presented with was a cut line end.

Myself and Boy headed back to our bungalow not really saying much to each other. It took about an hour before we really spoke about it. Boy was frustrated because he knew the fish had been hooked fair and square in the mouth, he also knew that I had done all the work and know one else had laid a hand on the rod until it got me down to the backing line, and he also knew by the way the fish fought it would have smashed the current world record. Boy put estimates on the fish of perhaps a 100kg, all we ever saw of it was its tale, for a fleeting moment.

As if too demonstrate the difference between this fish and the fish in the 50kg to 70kg bracket, my day continued at a pace. About an hour later I landed a Mekong at 57kg, then another at 53kg, and right at the end of the day I was unlucky and lost another perhaps slightly bigger. After the fight with the super biggie these fish seemed quite easy to subdue, but believe me, they are not! By the end of the day I'd had Gourami, Pacu, Chao Praya Catfish, Mekong Catfish, Striped Catfish, Tilapia and a chance at a world record! Not bad.

If you'd like to fish Bungsamran  contact us today!

  • Date(s): 24/08/06
  • Venue: Bungsamran
  • Anglers Names: Jules
  • Tackle Used: Shimano Long Cast: 80LB Power Pro : 7ft Carbon Rd
  • Method: Method Feeder Lum with flavourings
  • Number of Runs/Number of fish landed: 10+
  • Catch Stats: Pacu to 4.5kg Gourami 3kg Chao Praya 14kg
  • Catch Stats: Mekong Cat 53kg, 57kg lost 2 including World Record fish.
  • Guide: Boy