My Thai fishing summary

[SIMPLE MAN]

In 13 days freshwater fishing in Thailand i was lucky enough to fish 5 lakes at 4 different venues where i caught 21 different species for a total of 2809lb or for the metric guys 1276.8kg or near 1.3 tons of fish,
I have caught bigger weights (Ebro in Spain but only two species catfish and carp) i have never been anywhere in the world where i have managed to catch as many fresh water species
My first venue was Greenfield which has nice landscaped grounds which is still being developed as i think they have a total of eight lakes some are open and some still being worked on,the main lake that i fished had nice grassy banks and a typical little England feel to it,they only let 5 anglers a day on it and it has 12 swims so if one swim is fishing a bit slow and you fancy moving its not a problem and by limiting the numbers it stops the venue becoming fished out,they also have a nice restaurant on site and some wooden bungalows so you can stay on site if you wish ,
The day to day running of the place is done by David Wilson (Johns brother) and i cant praise his efforts enough,he is a really nice guy with a broad knowledge that he is only to happy to share with you and nothing was too much trouble so once again many many thanks Dave and i hope to see you soon, while i was there they had some guys on a fly only lake so when this place is fully finished it will i am sure will cater for any sort of fresh water angling there is,it also has the added bonus of being only 10-12min from Hua Hin and maybe 20min from Cha Am and i think it wont be long before this place gets more and more well known in the fishing circles and considering its only been open for 15 months or so they are doing a pretty good job

My second venue was Cha Am fishing park which is really a motel with the now two lakes done as a after thought (well that's my impression) the main lake has these most annoying concrete planks sat on steel supports which hang over the lake 8ft or so all down one side of the lake, i ask you who the hell wants to fish off concrete so apart from me no one had any mats and the fish were subject to some pretty harsh treatment and as sad as it is i had the misfortune to see many fished being dropped on it while folks were trying to get their photos taken
Another thing that came to light was the Thais who really do enjoy their fishing but have absolutely no etiquette so you might be the only angler on the lake and 5-6 of them will set up and start fishing 8-10ft from you and maybe cast there bait to 1-2ft from you and as Jules explained to me they just don't realise that they are annoying the hell out of you and after all it is their country and me or you are the visitor so either grin and bare it or move,it does have a nice cafe and shop which seems to supply you with all you need and the lake it self has carp over 100lb as well as red tails,chao paraya catfish and mekongs all to a nice size
The predator lake when i was there had been lowered 8-9ft and although i see many big arapaima once you hook one the art of getting down to land it and then trying to get back up was sheer madness and maybe i should of brought some rope crampons and a couple of ice picks,The Thais just do not have a bloody clue on how to run a fishery and it seems that if a westerner tries to give some constructive advice it is just frowned upon,one other thing with the predator lake was it has plenty of coconut trees surrounding it so please be very careful where you sit as you definitely would not want one of those cracking you on the head
My next venue was IT Lake Monsters and to be fair the owner has recently made the predator lake bigger and also dug out a new carp lake which is due to open late 2011 so the vegetation was a bit sparse but apart from the restaurant there was no cover for the angler at all,also even if you ring up and book when you arrive they don't have any bait,Jules also said that he gets many enquiries about fishing trips there for arapaima and from what i see and Jules said i doubt if there is any arapaima over the 100lb mark and there are plenty of other fishing parks around which have much bigger fish and are a lot cheaper to fish but please remember the Thai fishing scene is changing all the time and what you have seen on tv or dvd is in the past and things change very quickly out there,but all the same they do as most Thai fisheries have some cracking fish that will certainly pull your arms out of their sockets
And last but not least was Bungsamran about the same size as IT Lake monsters and some sort of swamp that was converted 30 years ago and has carp to over 100kg and mekongs to maybe 180kg they also have some very big arapaima but they charge the earth to fish for them,it has a nice restaurant and bar and a couple of very well stocked tackle shops,it has bungalows which you can stay in if you wish so you can get out of bed in the morning have a shower open your door and start fishing without having to walk 6ft oh but one small hitch is the bungalows only have a urinal so if you have the misses with you or you get the urge to empty your bowels depending on what bungalow you are staying in you may well end up with a 60yrd hike to find seated relief lol also as all the fishing areas are stilted there is a very strong possibility that you will lose your prize catch under them and its so frustrating as a section of mesh placed around the legs of the bungalows would make it a much better place to fish,oh and one last thing as they have a racist pricing policy there is one price for Thais and then they double it for foreigners (welcome to Thailand)

So if any of you are thinking of planning a fishing holiday to Thailand i would do as much home work as you can,try and speak to anyone who has been,spend as much time as you can on the net researching it,i sent off quite a few emails to the various tour companies out there and also made a few phone calls and whatever country you are going to they nearly all have a fishing forum so join it and you might be surprised how much information you can gather on your venue
I have been very lucky and fished in many countries all over the world and in my experience its better to use the tour companies that specialise in fishing,There have been many many occasions when i have been on a fishing holiday and have met up with guys who are trying to save a few quid and do it on there own and as you know some of these places are not cheap and you spend your well earned getting there but by trying to save a few quid you might only catch a smidge of what you could or should of caught
And also its important to ask things like do you supply the tackle,bait,transport,what are you expected to tip and that's very important ie in west Africa its 10 euros a dayThailand about £4,Canada $50,USA$50 for fresh water and maybe $100-$200 salt water this is only a example but ask they are all happy to tell you and there is nothing worse than going away on a limited budget and then finding that you have $500 less than you thought due to tips,another thing if say you want to go to Thailand just because you have seen say John Wilson catching monster arapaima at a certain lake and want to go there for the same experience, then don't tell them that you want to go there but instead although you can mention it don't insist on going to a particular venue please trust these guys and instead just tell them what species you would like to target,remember these guys live out there and they know where the fish are and the chances are they will put you on your target species for a lot less money and more than likely bigger fish,another thing to ask is how many rods will i have at any one venue because this might lead to another £20-£30 a day extra and over ten days it can soon mount up
For me after many emails and a couple of phone calls i decided to go with siamfishingtours for two main reasons,the first is they are still the only fishing company out there that use unhooking mats so that was a statement in its self and second they arranged all my accommodation which by the way was nice and clean and all were very well situated not only for the fishing but also for the night life if you wanted,and i am not one for heaping praise on people just for the sake of it but these guys thats Jules and Damian worked there socks off for me and even after 7 days at Hau Hin and the next day we was due to go to palm tree lagoon but the owner had decided to put it up for sale and shut it after a quick conflab we decided to fish lake monsters instead they still had to find new accommodation near the lake and in the peak Thai holiday season was not at all easy but they did it i really cant praise them enough :icon__pray in fact i was so impressed that i have already booked up to return in Jan 2012 and i think that just about says it all so if you are reading this guys thanks for the best fresh water fishing holiday that i have ever had:eusa_c lap
I hope that you people have enjoyed my feeble efforts at trying to post my holiday reports,i am off to Gambia in early March for a weeks fishing and although this might sound a bit strange i will count my self lucky if i catch a 5lb fish but a weeks r&r sounds a lot better than driving a forklift truck in a bloody freezer
Oh one last thing i must thank all you guys who commented at my posts and a very special thankyou to MRG2000 who spent a lot of time and effort on helping me a newbie to this forum in his help so that i can now post my pictures on this site
If any of you guys have any questions please ask as i am only to willing to try and help
And here is a couple of pictures from my recent trips







And just in case you are wondering the carp was with out doubt the high of my last trip

[MRG2000]

Cracking read ,as always John . 21 species for over a ton is a truely mind boggling feat of angling . looking forward to the gambia report already .....

[NICK R]

Thought i would leave my thoughts till this summery .

What a super fantastic set of reports
very enjoyable to read , good pictures to match the reports
Imho its is one of the best if not the best reports i have read on here
thank you for taking the time to type it out and posting it on here for us to read and enjoy

[Fishing Forum Admin]

brill reports mate and what a trip !!

[SIMPLE MAN]

Many thanks for your kind words chaps
tight lines and i will post on my Gambia trip

[lazy hooker]

just read your reports

what a fantastic time...much better than staying in a bar ducking ping pong balls any day!!!!!

john

[John Marshall]

Thank you for the reports, have you ever fished Aussie?

[SIMPLE MAN]

Hi John
Thanks for your feedback,One day i will get to Australia but as its so far away i would have to tie it in with either a Ashes or Brittish Lions tour and spend three months out there but i asked work 3-4years ago and they said 3 weeks holiday max,but i am still working on it
Regards simple