Fresh Water Fishing Advice - Pattaya Area

[Daveyh]

Sadly I'm a lousy sailor, hence deep sea fishing is out of the question for me. I'm looking to broaden my horizons by finding relaxing fishing spots, which are not part of the "fishing parks" in the area catering for either karaoke or afternoon beer drinking marathons. I'm looking for venues that you can visit for a few hours without having to pay 1,500 baht plus for the privilege. I've looked around for ages for natural fishing spots, but I'm still looking. Most of the commercial venues I've found have been disappointing & pricing varies each & every time you visit! Yup, this is Thailand & you gotta fix the price on arrival or suffer the consequences. Every day I see Thai's on motorcycles with fishing rods .......... where do they go? Haven't found any canals in the area worth fishing yet to try my hand at lure fishing, but I'm still looking. Any advice to stave off the boredom here would be greatly appreciated ....... thanks   

[impulse]

http://www.john-tom.com/FishingInThailand/FishingInThailand.html

 

http://bangkokhooker-fishing.com/

 

My favorite, about an hour from Pattaya is Pilot 111 where it's 500 baht to fish- foreigners and locals alike.  At the very least, you can meet dozens of relatively serious anglers and talk about other places they'd recommend. 

 

A lot of the guys I see bopping around on scooters are headed off to various saltwater jetties where a good day can be catching a kg of tiny fish.  Great for getting away from the Mrs, but not my cuppa.

 

I've pretty much given up on fishing Thailand in the wild since there are no game fishing laws and Thai's eat anything they can hook, net, spear, or dynamite.  Though I do see some locals fishing for snakeheads on some of the bigger rivers like the Kwai.

 

 

 

[Daveyh]

2 minutes ago, impulse said:

http://www.john-tom.com/FishingInThailand/FishingInThailand.html

 

http://bangkokhooker-fishing.com/

 

My favorite, about an hour from Pattaya is Pilot 111 where it's 500 baht to fish- foreigners and locals alike.  At the very least, you can meet dozens of relatively serious anglers and talk about other places they'd recommend. 

 

A lot of the guys I see bopping around on scooters are headed off to various saltwater jetties where a good day can be catching a kg of tiny fish.  Great for getting away from the Mrs, but not my cuppa.

 

I've pretty much given up on fishing Thailand in the wild since there are no game fishing laws and Thai's eat anything they can hook, net, spear, or dynamite.  Though I do see some locals fishing for snakeheads on some of the bigger rivers like the Kwai.

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply .......... I'm about to "hang up" my rods too as it's sad that there are no real places to relax & fish locally. An hours drive is a little too far for me just to go & fish on a "daily whim", but I will "google it" & visit. It would be nice to find a fishing group that has regular fishing trips .............. perhaps that is the answer, but being willing to travel here is another obstacle in Thailand I'm wary of ............ all these "but's" in life here is part of life's vivid tapestry eh? Ha! ............thanks again for the info. 

[impulse]

24 minutes ago, Daveyh said:

I'm about to "hang up" my rods too as it's sad that there are no real places to relax & fish locally. An hours drive is a little too far for me just to go & fish on a "daily whim", but I will "google it" & visit.

 

I'd suggest at least one trip, if only to meet other anglers who may be interested in meeting occasionally.  Also, to tap them for local knowledge.  There may be some gems in your area and these guys would be the ones who know about them.

 

[Daveyh]

31 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

I'd suggest at least one trip, if only to meet other anglers who may be interested in meeting occasionally.  Also, to tap them for local knowledge.  There may be some gems in your area and these guys would be the ones who know about them.

 

Did not realise that fly fishing was alive & well here ...... even more reason to go & see 'what's what" at Pilot 111. Will definitely give it a go ........... did a lot of fly fishing on the River Test in the UK ...... about the only thing I miss!. Cheers & regards. 

Edited November 4, 2017 by Daveyh

[impulse]

Try the Pacu/ Tilapia pond with a light weight fly rod with nymphs or anything that looks like a bug or even a piece of vegetable. That's a blast, and definitely a challenge even if it it a fish ranch.

 

Use a braid leader (trace) or you'll lose almost every fish you hook.  Use a wire trace if you're throwing streamers at the barramundi or snakeheads.

 

If you're feeling especially rich (and it's open again), try out the 2500 baht "private lake" they operate right across the street.  Your arms will ache by lunch time from all the 10-20 pound barramundi you'll hook.  Last time I was there, it was closed for upgrades and scheduled to open "in 6 months", but that's not written in stone.

 

 

[balo]

Most of the locals I have seen with fishing rods , do their fishing at the beach . They fish very small fish , or even octopus is popular to catch after sunset. 

 

 

[NanLaew]

6 hours ago, impulse said:

A lot of the guys I see bopping around on scooters are headed off to various saltwater jetties where a good day can be catching a kg of tiny fish.  Great for getting away from the Mrs, but not my cuppa.

Sums up the fishing scene up in Nakhon Nowhere where you'll see a guy parked on a bridge over a creek for hours and hours just for a jar full of tiddlers. There's maybe about a dozen rods in our gazebo and MiL is gone most every afternoon and the occasional big one shows up but usually that's been bought off another fisher who got lucky.

 

I was never an avid fisherman before I came here and it only took a couple or three trips with my Isaan brood to various fishing holes to realize that shade, a couple of well-spaced trees for my hammock, a good book and some cold beer was ample reward for my driving them there and back. They would be all wrapped up, looking like Ninja's in arctic gear and happy as all buggery with tiddlers and the odd, infrequent 'big' one. It's definitely well ingrained in the Thai culture but they definitely do things totally differently. It must be really tough on the OP and others who really enjoyed real river fishing, fly fishing or beach casting back home and like a bit more of a challenge and the even greater reward.

 

I hope the OP finds some locals with 'the knowledge' as suggested.

[digbeth]

There's two reservoir near Wat Yan that locals fish here it's the one called mab fuk thong มาบฟักทอง 1 and 2 towards north and east

 

the one on Wat Yan's grounds is a 'reserve' where local Thai Buddhist release fish there for good karma, so fishing there is bad form

[impulse]

1 hour ago, digbeth said:

There's two reservoir near Wat Yan that locals fish here it's the one called mab fuk thong มาบฟักทอง 1 and 2 towards north and east

 

the one on Wat Yan's grounds is a 'reserve' where local Thai Buddhist release fish there for good karma, so fishing there is bad form

 

I've often fantasized about anchoring up just outside one of the wats on Chao Phraya and fishing a few dozen meters away from where they feed 'em.  I'm 100% catch and release, but I doubt that would save me from being pelted with rocks by the folks onshore...

 

[digbeth]

The 'vendors' of fish for releasing along the road to Wat Yan goes down in the water after dark with nets and repackage them for the next day

I'm suppose that's Thai for release and catch, rinse and repeat

 

in these closed body of water, if people keep releasing fish of particular kind, it'd get pretty overpopulated without people catching them

[yooper]

My nephew Dang assures us that we can catch and eat fresh fish every day if we like.... he is nuts about fishing and catches fish locally all around the Bang Bo area near his home. My wife recalls a fish that is similar to the walleye that we catch here, her favorite. A couple weeks ago he sent us a fb messenger video of a bucket of them flopping around on his floor waiting for wife to dress them out.

Edited November 4, 2017 by yooper
typo

[Gold Star]

I'm spoiled, with a family that owns a private fly-in fishing lodge on an island in a remote trophy lake in Northern Canada, and I must say, fishing really sucks here, but I still fish here a bit for fun and entertainment. Why? Because some aspects of it are far superior than other places, namely the scenery, the weather, and mainly the freedom that you can fish wherever, whenever, and however you want, with no wardens carrying a big rulebook outlining and the different ways you can't catch or keep fish.

 

So, a few suggestions to avoid being on a boat, but to enjoy fishing nonetheless:

-I went to lake Maprichan with some locals, waded in, and learned how to throw a weighted net.  We caught a couple hundred small fish and a number of bugs and critters that I would never put in my mouth, but they certainly did. Fun for a change. You will be wet.

 

-At high tide, one can have fun fishing right off the beach almost anywhere in Jomtien, casting out a weight with a couple small hooks baited with a chink of shrimp meat for some small fish. Cast anywhere away from the tourists. Let it sink, and it takes only a few seconds for a bite. 9 out of 10 times you are just feeding the fish, and your bait cutting skills will improve quickly with so much practice. For more success, swim or wade out to the boundary floats for more depth and bigger fish. However, you can count the floating debris and garbage in the mirky brown current, and when you get to 100, time to go in. You can fish from all the piers in the same way, all the way from the Sanctuary of Truth in Nakluea, to Bang Saray, but I'm not really a fan of the polluted water. Can't beat the sunsets though...

 

-My favorite: Pick up a squid lure, and head to the pier on the southernmost tip of land Southeast of Sattahip called Samaesan Fishing Bridge (google maps). The sea water is much cleaner and clear. You can even see down to the bottom. Use a glow in the dark lure, and a strong headlamp in the evening/night to illuminate the area and draw them in, like the big boats do. Again, go during high tide, and a calm day.  Don't go during a windy day, as the waves and wind make it hard to cast and for you to see what is chasing your lure. It is a beautiful setting, right across from the uninhabited islands, and when the sea is nice and calm, you can see the squid take your lure.

 

 

[ljd1308]

I don't fish(no patience), but always see locals fishing almost every lake in the area and I know they release alot of fish in Mabprachan Lake.

 

 

[garbolino]

On 11/4/2017 at 9:43 AM, Daveyh said:

Did not realise that fly fishing was alive & well here ...... even more reason to go & see 'what's what" at Pilot 111. Will definitely give it a go ........... did a lot of fly fishing on the River Test in the UK ...... about the only thing I miss!. Cheers & regards. 

so did you catch many trout on the Test??......did you use snipe and purple.....greenwell's glory....??

 

[garbolino]

why not try the nice oblong lake at Pattaya Shooting range.....last time I was there it was 100 baht all day if using ones own tackle.....300 if using theirs....has swaii, catfish, carp, talapia....and a fish similar to a roach rudd hybrid.....I have caught all these using size 10 kamasan forged hook ....bread as bait ON MY 10 FOOT fibre glass carp rod....3.4 test curve

ok

[mercman24]

FREDDIES FISHING PARK not far out of Pattaya google it, great guy JOHN 300 baht a day. about 30 species, nothing huge, (which i like) on light tackle, can stay in one of his nice lodges for 800 (i think) and fish 24 

[Jai Dee]