Mousehound

I know that some tigers enjoy Swedes with their meat and potatos.

Clasic!!! LOL

1. I actually like the look of the EMMROD system. It is very advanced and the biggest problem is that it looks like a toy. However, it clearly works and is a travelers dream. I would look at the double tip and a heavy spin tip and a medium tip for the islands. The heavy tip would be for the fishing parks and the Mekonk Catfish. You could also try a light tip for the small waterways you just happen upon. On my next trip up I shall give it a try with the heavy and a medium tip.

Great fish. Iv'e fished CM, BKK and Krabi and was off to Laos for my next fishing trip - now I'll have to try out Hua Hin by the look of it.

For everyones information Greenfield also has some large Arapaima,

(and a lot of smaller ones) website here :- Fishing in Hua Hin ....well worth a trip right now, for those looking for Arapaima.

ahh the old fight of take a guide or not.

well you can relate this to working on your car, do you do the work yourself or take it to an engineer??

many people dont see Fishing Guides as Professional workers, but lets give them some credit, they put in the work to find the places and to work out how to land the species, this costs money and time.

then look at what they make here in Thailand, I note that one person has said that they can fish bung sam ran for 3,000 baht, that didnt include transport, and it didnt include tackle and it didnt include a landing net, and it didnt include rod rental if you havent got one.

so if you walk in off the street (after taking your taxi, that might have taken the long way) then you are looking at closer to 5,000 baht for a days fishing. hmmmm how much for a tour company???

now I have seen thailand tour companies taking a lot of heat over the years, but lets look at this another way, what does a fishing guide get paid in the USA?? a cheap one is $250 an expensive one it $600 so one must ask from the prices that are listed on this thread how much is a western guide making in Thailand???

just some food for thought

I agree - last time I took a group out we did the whole thing for about 10k Bht and it would have cost double for a top guide run show. However, we would have had better gear and caught twice the number of fish and bigger fish as well going on past experience. If you can afford it then go with the guide. After all back in OZ I pay 6K Bht to bounce about on a boat with 20 guys and you are lucky to catch anything other than crossed lines and sea sick! If you want the good stuff here you are looking at a week long trip and an outlay of at least 60K Bht and even then you may not get much.

So what happened? Did the comp go ahead? What fish caught and weights? Very interested to know how this ended up.

Jomtien is just a rectangular pond with cover down one side. Plenty of fish but only saw one sp of catfish - I am not sure but they may be Chao Praya Catfish which seem to be thickest at the back far corner from the entry area. In other words, when there, go as far down and away from the place you pay and cast to the very back corner. Average size was not great - 12K but good fun. The place was filled with Russian Tourists when I was last there - no problems except they had no idea about fishing manners - cast across you - tread on your gear etc. Can't remember the soi number but think it was 18 or 21 off the Jomtien beach road. It's a fair walk down the soi to the very end. There were a couple of very dodgy soi dogs - I picked up a stick and that was all that was needed. Looked like rabies on four legs to me though.

Well - it's like this. I'm already planning my next trip back - second time this year. been coming a couple of times a year for a few years now. Bringing the family and a few mates. A few riots, bombs and the odd bullet are no real problem. Last time it cleared the French tour group out of the guesthouse and we got a better rate. Maybe living in a country where just about everything is lethal as something to do with it but I do notice that the (Poms and) Ozies are pretty hard to frighten off.

Currently I have a BA degree and a Grad Dip in Education and have been teaching for 10 years in OZ. In regards to just the teaching qualifications would this be sufficient to get a TL? Would I need a TEFL etc? Would I still need to take the TL Culture exam?

Thanks

The Graduate Diploma in Education is an education degree equivalent. Therefore, you don't have to do the TCT Professional Knowledge Tests. You don't have to do a TEFL course. The National Education Act 1999 or the Teachers and Educational Personnel Council Act 2003 don't mention the requirement of a TEFL/TESOL certificate.

You do have to take the Thai Language, Culture and Ethics Course

Thanks for the prompt reply. Good news - for me at least. So just have to get through the Language, Culture & Ethics bit.

You might like to check out the fishing sub-forum under the Sport Forum banner. Keep us informed of the "big" ones you get.

regards

Request for TL clarification.

This minefield has been extended for so long it is hard to find a way through it.

Currently I have a BA degree and a Grad Dip in Education and have been teaching for 10 years in OZ. In regards to just the teaching qualifications would this be sufficient to get a TL? Would I need a TEFL etc? Would I still need to take the TL Culture exam?

Thanks

woah thats great. I've attached my pictures of the last trip with one of my friends. Hope to hear from you soon. By the way you might also want to consider going Barra fishing. Had great fun fishing them the last few trips i was there. Loaded some videos into youtube do have a look at them at the link below.

Popper Frenzy 1

Baitless Fishing

Just catching up after being away. Looks really good. I have to say that the Barra seem to be a lot easier to land than those in Australia but they are certainly fun.

This is a link to Cha Am Fishing Park

http://www.siamfishingtours.com/chaamfishingpark.html

on the same site is:

http://www.siamfishingtours.com/huahinfishinglodge.html

This one has accommodation.

Hope his helps

I don't think you can get them that big in Thailand but I caught this 30+ KG beauty at Dreamlake in Chiang Mai yesterday. This is my first ever Alligator Gar - but I will be back for more... I'm told they don't get much bigger than this in Thailand, so I guess I'm a lucky bugger!

A really nice specimen - well done.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

what kind of fish do you want to catch

Thanks for all your replies.

I really wanted a telescopic rod so I can easily transport it, I travel a lot and sometimes I discover small piers or ponds/lakes and wish I had a rod with me.

Its just to chill out and relax from the pressures of work really.

So anybody know where I can buy a telescopic rod in Pattaya?

Cant help you about where to buy a T/rod in Thailand. I have a couple baught in OZ but they are far too light. Got a really nice little Shimano "travel" rod on ebay but my son blew it up on a big fish - it handled a very tough 4k Skippy but was at it's limit. I have been looking at trying a T/beach rod (but so far these have been still too long -85cm) which you can get cheaply through ebay. The really good quality travel rods are very expensive and so far I have not found one heavy enough as most are really medium spinning rods. If you find something worthwhile plkease post it as I think this would be a really great bit of kit.

Thought you might be interested in this pic of me and an Asian Forest Scorpion and a centipeede I got close and friendly with. Both have a nasty bite and sting. The scorpion is is naturally quite aggressive but the sting is like a bad beesting - the centipeede is worse. This scorpion, like most animals was fine as long as I didn't try to harm it.

Had some problems with this and had new plugs and a tune up but same problem. Had the injectors replaced and the problem went. I generally run on 91%.

I havn't found anywhere in BKK with the quality or variety of Gillham's. Also I like the Krabi area. Getting bored with Berngsamran.

Last week I ate at the other food place on the first floor. It is on the domestic side of level 1. You have to exit level 1, walk outside on level 1 until you get to the end of the building and then enter from the outside. It is called Nad Jour. It does NOT have the voucher system (you pay cash). All meals were 30 baht and can of singha was 45 baht. The advantage of Nad Jour over Magic is that you can sit outside if you are a smoker. It has the most amazing view of the garden (which was totally deserted). For me Nad Jour was the oasis of Bangkok Airport and an even better kept secret than Magic Food court. By the way, the food was "aroy mak".

Love to try it

Can you take luggage in?

When you walk out at level 1 do you turn left or right?

Just had my mate join me for a holiday together in Thailand. He is a doctor with a practise in Australia. He does locum work in hospitals in London regularly. He had a look around a couple of hospitals in Thailand and his comment was that if you are in need of medical then Australia and Thailand are a far better bet than UK. He seems to think the NHS is a disaster. He was very doubtful about Thai medical standards at first but now seems to have completely changed his mind - guess he checked out the expensive places. From what I understand UK has huge waiting lists for everything and the staff are worked off their feet. He seemed quite impressed by the medical standards of Thai hospitals and blown away by the charges being very low in comparison.

Apart from the security angle, I see no sense in buying travellers cheques.

The initial cost of travellers cheques and the surcharge many places have, defeats worrying about FX rates.

My first trip to Thailand yonks ago, I came with travellers cheques, never agin, noway Jose.

Just too expensive of a rip-off.

Depends - I don't pay any commission or charges from my bank when I buy American Express TC. They get a slightly higher rate than cash when changed. Cash cards are really expensive to use with very poor rates and CC charges are not good also. In addition I use my cc as little as possible. With the additional insurance given by TC I have mooved back to them after trying everything else.

Well if u are really looking into doing guided fishing with a cheaper guide do drop me a PM as I can set u up with a guide that provides 2 setup that is included with transportation and guide plus tackle.

I may well take you up on that. In my case I am OK getting there and back and know hiw to fish the place but having the gear set up up and of good quality makes a lot of difference. Also - like everyone else the 2 pricing system is a bit annoying. But that is the way it is. I must say that I never had a problem with the staff or locals giving us a hard time - this may be because I speak to them in Thai (not that I am fluent but I can conduct a low level conversation).

This is one I got on my last visit.

Just got back from BKK - had a day at bungsamran with my son and a pal. We hired a guide and two rods this with a hut and 3 buckets of bait cost about 6000 bht (included food and a few beers). The gear is very ordinary - had to change the rods twice as the reels were rubish. Also the rods are not up to getting that last 10 meters that gets you really amongst the fish. It was OK and we got some 20 - 30K mekong cats but we were blown away by the guys next to us who were outcasting us with a better level of guide and gear (tour guide). Basically if you have your own gear and particularly if you live in BKK I would go it alone. If you only have one day to spare and this is a chance in a lifetime then I would pay the extra 10 000BHT and really get into the fish with a top guide. You may not get back there again!

Still under construction after more than 5 years but since I don't currently live in Thailand, no rush....

Latkrabang, 20 minutes North of airport.

And BTW: looking for neighbors, if interested to build

Magnificent!

Did you design it yourself?

62!!!

I think 41 may well be abuse?!

Chiang Mai has a pretty get up and go group that I accessed via ThaiVisa. PM me for details.

They meet every fortnight at a pub.

I am traveling to CM (and bringing a photography mate along) with the family for the New Year. We hope to meet up with the CM group and get some photography in.

Would like to meet up with any keen photographers in BKK from the 8th Jan.

We visit at least once a year and hope to show some of our work in CM. My mate has just got back from a photo treck to Anapurna - has some great shots. he uses pretty flash gear - has a Canon 5D11 with lots of "L" series and "grey" colour lenses. I have a Canon 30D but like to take a lot of hip shots with low level cameras. I like the reportage, capture the moment style while he is a landscape freak and always after the "National Geographic" style. It's all good!

If any locals feel like catching up for a sesion drop me a line via TV.