My 13 day Thai fishing adventure (day ten)

[SIMPLE MAN]

After a very long day yesterday,by the time i got to my hotel in Bangkok and had a shower i didn't even go out for a swift chang i was knackered part due to the long day and part due to the fish at lake monsters which had taken its toll over the last two days.So up at 07.00 and down to the restaurant for ham and eggs and to say my goodbyes to Jules,
At this point i will explain siamfishingtours is run by two guys Jules and Damian,Jules lives in Hua Hin roughly 2 hours south of Bangkok and generally looks after the clients down there while Damian lives in Bangkok and looks after the guys around there,but i think if one side is busy and the other quiet then one of them either moves north or south to assist the other
So after breakfast Damian turns up i say my goodbyes to Jules (GREAT GUY) and for the next four days i will be fishing at probably the best known of all the fishing parks in Thailand which is Bungsamran,Its about 30 min from my hotel which by the way is right in the heart of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok,all the hotels that i resided in were in great locations and also clean (well done guys) any way more thanks to follow later but lets get back to the fishing,we arrive and Damian is on the phone to my guide for the next four days and less than a minute he is there to greet us Boosong has worked on this lake as a guide for 17 years,in fact he is the longest serving guide there so again the guys have put me in expert hands for sure and as we walk through the entrance i am amazed by the never ending photo gallery which seems to just go on and on with truelly monstrous fish,they have carp in this lake to over 100 kgs yes kgs not pounds and they have the pictures to prove it,they also have the hardest fighting freshwater fish in the world which is the mekong catfish and nobody seems to know what the biggest one of these is in the lake but more than likely to exceed 300lbs and maybe 400lbs who knows
Damian has a word with Boosong and explains that i am only interested in bottom fishing, I will try and explain briefly there are two types of fishing here you either float fish with a ball of bait the size of a tennis ball and just keep casting out 40-50yrds gradually building up a good area of bait and if you have the stamina you will catch 30-40 sawai catfish in the 5-40lb range and if you are lucky maybe a mekong of 50-60lbs which is what 99% of all the people i saw were doing,you see all the small fish if you can call them that feed in mid water now i know it sounds great and a 30-40lb fish is not to be sniffed at but quite frankly this would just bore me to tears,drive me potty and i know it might sound strange but i have not traveled 6000 miles to put myself through madness pulling in these pests as i regard them to the bank all day
Now the other type of fishing is bottom fishing,this is where the monsters feed and if you are like me just the thought of a 100lb plus fish pulls your string then it really is a no brain er and the other big difference to float fishing is (and it still makes me laugh just thinking about it)is the size of the bait,if any of you guys ever see some one using bait like this in the UK you would get straight on the phone to the nearest nuthouse and get them carted off no questions asked.
The guide mixes your bait quite dry and moulds it round a method feeder until it is the size of one of those yellow melons (honeydew) i think they call them you then have a short 4-5inch hook link which he places 5-6 polystyrene balls about 2mm size on the hook so when its cast out the poly balls make the hook float up,the fish feed on the ball of bait and hook themselvesanyway its bottom fishing for me,You also have to decide if you want to fish from the shed as the locals call it which is a stilted covered walk way of approx 200 yrds long for which there is no extra charge but can get extremely busy or you can pay extra and fish from a stilted bungalow which has beds toilet running water,fridge and even a couple or three sofas and a tv and you can stay in them if you wish(crazy but true) which is where i chose to fish fromif you look closely you can see fish rising every where so Boosong gets a market barrow loads it with two 40kg sacks of lum its some sort of dried rice husk all the tackle and we are off to no29 bungalow its a good 5min walk and when we get there Boosong starts knocking up the bait while Damian loads the fridge with drinks i get the sun cream on as just for a change its going to be a warm one,
It takes Boosong about thirty mins to knock up the bait and get things moving but finally we are ready the first rod is baited and he casts it out 15-20ft,well come on guys you didn't think he was going to fire it out 40-50yrds eh this is when i notice another strange thing Boosong pulls out a pair of pliers and plants them between the gaps in the boards turns the rod upside down and tactfully places the rod and reel between the handles but doesn't have the bait runner on,i question this method and tell him my concerns but he just smiles and says not to worry

The second rod is soon ready and is cast 8-10ft apart from the first bait he then knocks up a couple of 25 litre buckets of a wetter mix and throws it in all around my baits and almost straight away the rods are twitching constantly and it takes me a bit of time before i start to relax,about 45min pass when one of the rods springs to life with quite a vicious take but the pliers hold firm and after a short battle i have a sawai of 20lb to the net another 45mins or so and i have my second sawaiof 10lb Boosong gets on the phone and ten min later lunch arrives,Just after and a bit more baiting up i get another sawai of 20lb these fish certainly break the boredom but i start to wonder if although i was bottom fishing was this all i was going to get hhhhmmmmm time will tell and about 2.00 it finally happened this time the line was peeling off the reel but a lot slower than the previous takes Boosong grabbed the rod waited a couple of seconds and hit it really hard maybe 3-4 times he then passed me the rod and said mr mekong mr mekong and big mr mekong big mr mekong and as i was trying to get to grips with whatever was on the end of my rod Boosong picked up the landing net placed the handle to his lips and started blowing foghorn style not once or twice but about twenty b****y times now i have to admit if i hadn't got a rod in my hand i think i would of grabbed it of him and shoved it well you can guess you know where, But Damian explained that he was letting the other guides know that we were into a decent fish and if the fish was of any size we would only get its head in the net we were on a platform 2ft above the water and we would need help to raise this thing out of the water and on to the unhooking mat OK OK Boosong i think half of Bangkok knows by now and boy one things for sure its been a year or two since i had something like this give me a workout,help arrived and although this fish never went more than 40yrds and by the way i have 80lb braid on i really had to give this fish some serious teddy to keep it under some sort of control a good 10 mins later and it was below my rod but still it wouldn't give up,i gave it one last heave and it was part in the net and once its head was in it just lay there,the other guys poured water on the mat before getting a towel rolling it up placing it under and around its tail and lifting it on to the mat and there it was my first ever mekong of 96lb

At last i had my prize the last time i thought i had a mekong on it turned out to be that beautiful carp so photos taken all that was left was to return this strange but beautiful fish back safely to where it had come and oh yes all round.
About a hour later i bagged another sawai of 12lb and 75 min later i had another mekong of 56lb which still put up a 20min battle before surrendering to the net

And although the smallest at 44lb it was a good 25min before i got my last fish of the day to the net

So this was Bungsamran not a bad start and still three days left here before i have to return home if i am lucky maybe just maybe i might get into one of the huge fish that are lurking down there
Anyway back to the hotel for a quick shower and tonight i think a few well earned changs
Day 11 to follow and thanks to the guys who have posted on my posts so far

[MRG2000]

WOW........more cracking fish , thai fishing looks awesome...........

[John Marshall]

Just green with envy,

[SIMPLE MAN]

Thanks John your feedback is much appreciated and in my summary there will be a special thank you to MRG2000 WHO WITHOUT HIS HELP would have made my reports very ordinary and i really appreciate his help in turning my reports in to pictures so people can really get the whole picture (it has brought my reports alive) MANY MANY MANY THANKS M8 i am only a simple man and i am forever in his debt
HELP THE HEROES and BLESS