simple man and sons Thai fishing adventure day 10

[SIMPLE MAN]

Well here we are at Bangkok for what is to be our last 4 days fishing and today i am suffering big time,i might of had one too many last night and thank God its windy as i really am feeling s***
Now normally Damian would be looking after us at Bungsamran but today he is looking after a large and very loud group of Americans so although he didn't have to Jules says he will stay with us until about 2.00ish before he heads back to Hau Hin to over see the lake which he is now digging,so about a hour later our guide has now knocked up the bait and we are ready to start fishing,now for those of you that are not familiar with BSR there is two ways to fish and nearly every one there fishes with a float and a method feeder with a bait about the size of a tennis ball they then cast out 40-50 yards and if you have the stamina you will catch sawai and mekongs normally in the 20-50lb range all day long and for me not only is it catching and not fishing but would drive me bloody insane and is not for me at all,the other method is to bottom fish again using a method feeder but now with a ball of bait about the size of a honeydew melon with a 4-5 inch hook link below the feeder with 4-5 polystyrene balls on the hook pressed into the ball and cast out 20 feet or so as the Gahore and bigger mekongs only seem to feed on the bottom and as our target species is Gahore its the only way to go and a lot more relaxing too and although you will still catch the smaller fish 20-50lb it wont be in the same numbers and one things for sure those mighty mekongs have good reason for being known as the hardest fighting freshwater fish that there is and to give you some idea of there power even on 80lb braid and you have the fish right under you feet it will still be 15 mins of hell before you even see it let alone net the things they really are in a class of there own
So on to the fishing and as Brian is a little wary he says that i should take the first fish as we are fishing bungalow 8 in the corner with bungalows on each side of us and the awesome power of said fish i think he wants to see how you try and stop these things swimming underneath the bungalows and try to keep them in open water,and as we sit back for the first hour or so and Brian watching all these people float fishing and trying to get there fish in he says he can now see why we are bottom fishing as all around us the madness of float fishing continues and now a further 10mins later i am in to our first fish and yes this is no mekong and after another 12-15 min i have a Gahore which comes in a ounce short of 30lb and immediately gets me thinking that perhaps Jules cock up about forgetting to book me my no 29 bungalow could turn out to be a blessing as last time i was hear last year i only managed to hook one Gahore in the four days and that one managed a home run under the bungalow never to be seen again and now here am i with one on the bank and we have only been here 2 1/2 hours

Things seemed to settle down for a while until around 11.30 when no 3 rod screams into life and although not a big fish it was Brian's first at BSR and after a short fight had a sawai of 27lb in the net and about a hour later again no three rod is going and now i have a smallish mekong on and Brian is now seeing with his own eyes how powerful even a fish of this size is and gives me the run around for almost 20 min before i manage to get the better of this thing and at only 41lb which is smallish by BSR standards as we get it in the net i sense that Brian is a little apprehensive and the look on his face says it all

And also as you can see in the photo there isn't a cloud in the sky and the wind has dropped so now its even harder to play these things in the heat of the day and with me still not feeling at all well i say to Brian the rods are all his now as i am going to have a lie down,also Jules is going to head back home so we say our goodbyes for another year and no doubt will be meeting up again in the near future and we still have our BSR guide and if anything does go wrong Damian is only 3 bungalows away to our left with his now not so noisy clients so there's no need for him to stay and at around 2.30 Brian is now into a mekong and i just sit up and watch and try to give him some advice as i now watch him get slowly beaten up and when he gets it to the net and it comes in at 37lb the look on his face says it all and he asks how did i manage last year when i hooked a 146lber and i replied with great bloody difficulty and if you are lucky or should i say unlucky if you get a 100lb plus fish you will find out mate.Not long after Brian is in again and although my notes are creased i think this one came in at 45lb

And as you can see by the photo Brian is rather red in the face and its not the sun,
The Americans have now gone home and Damian is now with us and with me still trying to get over last night Brian now gets what is to be the last fish of the day a sawai of 13lb and at just after 6.00 i say to Damian lets get out of here as the sun is now very low and the mozzies will be out in force in the next 10mins or so,so we head back to our hotel for a quick shower before heading back down the Aussie bar for some light (who am i trying to kid) refreshment before trying to tackle more of these fish tomorrow
well that's it for now good people sorry i have missed a couple of days but unless i have a few hours i simply cannot write these reports as they still take me a age to put together
tight lines and please feel free to ask any questions and will try to get day 11 done tonight or early tomorrow

[MRG2000]

Fantastic fishing again , i`d need a holiday to get over my fishing holiday , what a fantastic place...