Fishing

"We believe that local knowledge is esssential, if the angler with little experience of fishing in Thailand wants the best chance of hooking ad landing the really big specimens. If you only have a day or two's fishing don't miss your opportunity to have a really memorable catch, take a local guide!"

The largest Carp ever caught on a Rod & Line

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Guided Fishing in Thailand

Thailand's Fishing Guides

Boy with guest Lloyd and Glenn, and a 122LB Carp!

Fishing in Thailand requires many methods and techniques, that will be unfamiliar to the western angler, consequently to get the best results from fishing in Thailand it is best to use the services of a local guide wherever possible. Fishing in Thailand freshwaters with expert fishing guides means you will maximize your results everytime you fish. Fish alone to save a few baht and you run the risk of wasting the cost of your day ticket and bait, or worst still hooking into the fish of lifetime and not knowing what to do as it strips 200mtrs of line off your spool! If you've only ever fished Bungsamran on your own, but caught say 4 or 5 50LB or 20kg Mekongs and thought you had a good day, think again! We look to secure 25 to 40 fish in a full days fishing(if our guests have the stamina!), and most days take a Catfish over 50kg for our guests.

Golf guided Lloyd to this 117LB Carp

Mr Mut with a rare Bungsamran SorubimWe don’t boast a team of guides, since the vast majority of Thai Fishing Guides work independently. Instead we have our own personal preferences out of a wide choice of guides that we have experience of working with. Part of Siam Fishing Tours service to you, is to select an appropriate guide from the many available, based on our knowledge of the guides abilities, your choice of venue, your target species and on occassion your own angling ability. Some guides skill is in the numbers game, and they can hook you up with catfish all day long, others specialise in certain species, but this is not information that is readily available or offered to the visiting angler. Remember Thai fishing guides come from a different culture, they are often very modest, shy or otherwise unable to "sell" there services and they don't like to boast about their abilities or their catch records, you need to know them a little first before you begin to discover their individual skills and accomplishments.

Ying and Yang of Guiding

Mr Neung looking on attentivelyOnce you have fished in Thailand a few times with a Thai Fishing Guide, you can very quickly begin to see the immense talent these guides have for getting you the visiting angler onto fish. Many Thai Fishing Guides have incredible casting skills, and can place a very soft ball of rice bran that weighs perhaps more than half a pound some 50mtrs out on the same spot over and over again all day long. This is essential for fishing venues such as Bungsamran, since the constant arrival of a correctly prepared bait ball on the same spot begins to build up a large shoal of catfish, and eventually the larger specimens start to move in. The Thai Fishing Guides can also offer expert advise on playing some of the worlds largest and hardest fighting freshwater fish, they are also friendly, and have a great sense of humour, so it’s always’ a pleasure fishing with a Thai fishing guide.

Ow with Richard posingEqually though, western angling culture takes into account other aspects of guiding that are often overlooked by Thai Guides when they have not teamed up with a western guiding service. The importance of well balanced tackle suitable for the task for example, and even more importantly the safety of our guests as well as the fishes welfare. These are equally important aspects of guiding as catching fish. Siam Fishing Tours are currently the only guiding service in Thailand to insist that our Thai Guides use for example unhooking mats FOR ALL THE FISH. This reduces the chance of damage to the fishes eyes and fins. We also have a very specific process for handling fish for the purpose of weighing and photography which requires having the right equipment on hand. Having handled several thousand fish since we started our tours, we have not had one single fish not swim away strongly after being returned to the water. You will see many photo’s taken of fish with their captor's taken in the water, which is fine if you really want to get into a bacterial soup! We have to consider that the water can be dangerous for our guests. Taking fish out of the water is completely safe for the fish, if they are handled efficiently and with care, and it saves you the prospect of having to get into a water that may be filled with items that can cause harm, such as old lines, rusty hooks, and broken glass. Of course if you would prefer watershots, we have protocols in place for these as well, but our preferred choice will alway's be to bank the fish wherever possible.

Guides will assist you as much or as little as you require. In addition to putting you on the best fishing spots they can:-

  • Tackle Up
  • Tie Rigs
  • Bait Up
  • Net Fish
  • Unhook & Weigh Fish
  • Take Photos
  • Prepare/Fetch Lunch

With the recent introduction of another 300 or so supersize catfish (between 150LB and 350LB) it's now even more important than ever that you make use of a guide who is prepared to pull all the stops out to ensure you get that catch of a lifetime to the bank! Bungsamran currently holds several igfa record breaking Giant Carp, and 5 or more other record size species including Mekong Catfish, Arapaima and more. Why risk losing a fish such as these by trying to fish without support from guides?