simple man and sons 13day Thai fishing adventure day 1

SIMPLE MAN · #1 01-19-2012, 01:57 PM

On Tuesday 3rd Jan 2012 me and my son Brian set of from Heathrow to Bangkok in Thailand for 13 days fishing and a beer or two,this was my second Thai fishing adventure but the first for Brian so although my target species was to be the Gahore (Siamese carp) i had to make plans to do some predator fishing for Brian so after some thought i contacted siamfishingtours and i put together a package which would hopefully keep us both on the fish that we wanted to catch without being stuck in one place too long and with the Gahore being notoriously hard to catch it wouldn't be fair on Brian to miss out on the fun of predator fishing but at the same time giving me the chance of maybe just maybe being able to hook into a 100lb plus Gahore which believe me is no easy thing to do,i know guys who have fished for years and still not got one,but one things for sure i know that Cha-Am have them to over 150lb and Bungsanran in Bangkok have them to at least 240lbs and they have the pictures to prove it,but being in the right place at the right time is no easy task and on my first trip last year i only managed to hook and land one of 55lb so was under no illusions of how hard it was going to be
So my itinerary was to do 2days Gahore fishing at Cha-Am followed by 2 days arapaima fishing also in Cha-Am then move to palmtree lagoon for 2 days carp and 2 days predator then a day at I T Monsters lake and last but not least 4 days at Bungsanran in Bangkok for mekong catfish and carp,so after a 11 hour flight and relatively hassle free entry into Thailand (last time it took me over 2 hours to get through passport control) We were met by Jules who would be our guide for the first 9 days fishing and we set of for our Hotel in Hua Hin which is about a 2 hour drive and in a good location for a beer or 3 in the evening and only a 20 min drive to Cha-Am fishing park,although Cha-Am fishing park is really a motel and we could of stayed there at night the mozzies come out to play and there really isn't a lot else to do there so Hua Hin is by far the better option,anyway on arrival at the hotel we throw our bags in our room and surprise surprise head straight down to the bar but i don't know weather it was all the travelling but after just 3 yes that's right i said 3 beers i hit the sack as i am not feeling that great

Anyway up at 7 for breakfast and Jules is there at 0730 and we head of 20 mins up the road to Cha Am for our first days fishing and when we get there we find about 20 guys already fishing,now normally this place is empty until about 1100 ish but Jules said some lucky blighter had caught a 130lb Gahore there a couple of days ago and all the ex-pats from the area were turning up in droves to try there luck,so i said to Jules maybe we should fish the predator lake for the first to days as this is 10 or 15 times the price and is nearly always empty but as it was now Thursday Jules said if we swap our days around it would mean trying to catch the carp on Sat and Sun and there would be people every where so we agreed to stay as we were and give it our best shot,the lake its self is about 90yards wide and about 230-250yards long with these bloody annoying concrete planks lining the bank all down one side

So anyway we set up our float rods with a simple pole float and a small piece of bread flake and really you just lower your float down at the rod tip into about 8ft of water with your bread sitting hard on the bottom and just constantly feed every cast all day so it just reminds me of gudgeon bashing when i was a kid but the rewards can be some what greater if we are lucky and after a hour or so i get my first fish of the day which turns out to be a sawai catfish or as i call them a RATFISH as they can really become a bit of a nuisance fish whilst trying to target other species but hey ho a fish is a fish and this little blighter comes in at 4-1/2lb

And i don't take many photos of them because they are wriggly blighters with a very sharp peck fin which if not careful they will stab you to bits so treat with extreme care or they will do you some harm,There is not a cloud in the sky today and by 1100 its really getting hot and as it turned out it was to be the hottest day for 3 weeks which for your first day is not ideal and as the shelters are 8-10 yards away from the bank its going to be a hard slog and as mid day comes Brian gets his first fish of the day another sawai in the 4-1/2lb bracket

And to be honest it was just a relief to see Brians wrist hold up as some of you may know he dislocated and broke his thumb in 3 places 2 weeks before his holiday and had a 3-1/2operation on his hand meaning that he has two pins sticking out of his thumb and wrist and although the Dr's said he could come fishing and we even managed to find an insurance company that agreed to cover him (for a price of course) it would be the understatement of the day to say that i am not just a bit worried but hey ho only time will tell and i know the power of these fish and he doesn't hhhhmmmm
Another 20 min passes and Brian has this little blighter on and although gives him a bit of a run around and me just sitting there worrying and waiting for the scream of pain he lands his prize a Thai redtail of around 8lb

and not long after he had a sawai of 2lb and i had a small catfish of 3/4lb and then lost a small rohu (Indian carp)of about 2lb at the net,we then had the misfortune to watch a English guy who Jules and a few others had told to go and hire some tackle from the shop but he wouldn't listen and just kept going on about how he knew best and anyway had loaded his reel with 60lb line hook into a small mekong catfish of 20lb or so march up and down the lake for over a hour as he had no bloody control over the fish ploughing through every ones swims and eventually snapping his rod when landing the fish and his reel just fell apart lol

Anyway after all the disruption about 330 ish Brian's float went under and

now we will see how his arm is this thing just took of straight across the lake i looked at Jules and he nodded and said yes mate theres only one fish that does that in here its a Gahore and by the way its took of its a fair one at that and to be honest i didn't know what to think i was chuffed that we now had target species on but also found myself worrying about Brian's arm so i just sat in the shade and let Jules walk along with him giving him any advice that he thought would be of some use and about 35 mins later yyyyyyeeeeeesssss bloody hell hes got it in the net and it tips the scales at 56lb and hes still in one piece and i feel a big weight lifted of my shoulders knowing that his wrist has held up and now i am thinking that maybe things will be OK after all and i am not jealous at all honest not even a little jealous me spending 13 days fishing last year and landing one Gahore of 55lb and here on his first day catching a 64lber lucky b****** no not jealous one little bit

And although he wasn't confident enough to lift it wow what a fish and he had about 15 people all gathered round congratulating him and still i wasn't even a incey wincey bit JEALOUS at all and as the evening drew in i managed a rohu of 7-1/2lb and although not a big fish made a nice picture with the sun going down behind me

And its now time to get the hell out of here before we are munched alive by the mozzies and after a shower and some food again i only manage two beers before going to bed and now i think Brian is more worried about me only having 5 beers in 2 days than what i am worried about his arm
Thanks for reading folks as usual its taken me 3-1/2 hours or so to write this and sorry if its not up to my usual standard but i am knackered,tight lines and will try to post part 2 tomorrow