Fishing Thai Style

[meandwi]

I'm here in Ao Luk from South Florida to get away from the hurricane season. I mentioned to my wife, 'I want to charter a boat and go fishing". She said, we have a cousin who is a professional fisherman with a nice boat who will take us out for free. Just help with the gas. Right on! I'm going fishing!

Woke up at 4am packed the truck, picked up a few other family members, and went a little way down the 4039 and turned off unto a dirt road through the mangroves to a very small fishing village of about ten families. Where I was treated like family. They had a western breakfast and coffee ready for my arrival. Very nice people.

We (6 of us) got on his boat, that he proudly made himself, and went down stream about an hour to the open bay. During the trip everyone was busy getting the poles and bait ready for a long day of fishing. we went past the point at Laem Sak, and dropped anchor between the small islands where there was a good current. (you can see this area on google maps satalite images).

We used cut squid and shrimp for bait and started fishing! The views of all the cliffs were beyond belief. There was a few other fisherman out and about, but other than that it was the most secluded and beautiful place I have ever been. We were catching saltwater catfish left and right but that didn't interest me. We have a few ponds full of freshwater cats in Ao Luk. So when I caught a baby grunt, instead of throwing it back as expected by the others, I hooked it through the lips and put it out. For some reason they thought it was rude of me to treat the grunt that way, and were making fun of me because I didn't catch anything while they were busy pulling up catfish after catfish.

After an hour or so I finally got a nice red snapper, the biggest fish of the day! To me, I'd rather sit and wait, than catch a small fish all day. We picked up anchor and went to a few other secret spots, where we cought some of the strangest things I have ever seen from the sea. I'll tell you one thing. I WILL NEVER GO SWIMMING AGAIN IN THAILAND! We caught many that looked like a giant centipedes. They said it was very dangerous. We also got many different eels and rays. As we sat, there were many giant jellyfish the size of basketballs floating by. They said that one can kill a person. After catching about 100 cat and other fish we went back to the dock.

I had one of the best days, and got to see Thailand and my new family from a different perspective.

I told my cousin about Thaivisa and told him, " I would post my story" in hope that someone reading this would like to experiance the same thing I did. So, if your interested in going fishing, "Thaistyle". And seeing Thailand like a local fisherman? Contact me and I'll give you directions to his place.

Gotta love fishing!

meandwi

[hellohello]

yeah those giant centipedes- things are nasty. i've caught many. the jellies are worse too in the "green season"

did you use thai hand lines or farang style gear?

glad you had a great day out! krabi and the mangroves are a great place to fish.

[meandwi]

We drove into Krabi and found a small tackle shop on 411. I bought 2 nice "ugly stick" rods with "shindawa" spinning reels. They filled with 20lb test line, and a tackle box completewith weights, tools, hooks, etc. Their sticker prices would have been well over 15,000 baht, but my sister-in-law negoiated to 6000 baht! . Everyone else had the nice reels and rods also. Oh which reminds me. Everyone, go to her resturant "Steak Ta Tor" on Vatchara/ 4200 Great food!

meandwi

[Nirvana]

We drove into Krabi and found a small tackle shop on 411. I bought 2 nice "ugly stick" rods with "shindawa" spinning reels. They filled with 20lb test line, and a tackle box completewith weights, tools, hooks, etc. Their sticker prices would have been well over 15,000 baht, but my sister-in-law negoiated to 6000 baht! . Everyone else had the nice reels and rods also. Oh which reminds me. Everyone, go to her resturant "Steak Ta Tor" on Vatchara/ 4200 Great food!

meandwi

Any idea the real formal name for those jelly fish and centipede things ? interested to check on the web.

Sounds like you had a real great day and a nice experience. Good memory for the future

[SGhawker]

Just wonder what are good places in Krabi (or Phuket) to buy fishing gear? We are about to buy a boat in Phuket so need to have some basic fishing gear (nothing really professional expensive staff but purely for lazy/leasure fishing fo a tourist/weekender boat).

Any advise is highly welcome

PS I visited a couple of shops in Singapore but I assume anything is much more expensive here vs LoS.

We drove into Krabi and found a small tackle shop on 411. I bought 2 nice "ugly stick" rods with "shindawa" spinning reels. They filled with 20lb test line, and a tackle box completewith weights, tools, hooks, etc. Their sticker prices would have been well over 15,000 baht, but my sister-in-law negoiated to 6000 baht! . Everyone else had the nice reels and rods also. Oh which reminds me. Everyone, go to her resturant "Steak Ta Tor" on Vatchara/ 4200 Great food!

[Mosha]

It reminds of my 1st holiday in Phuket, and lounging on the beach in Patong. This tout came up and asked us if we wanted to go fishing, I declined as I get sea sick quite easy. My wife said no problem, so we go. I later found out the expression sea sick was not in her vocabulary, sea drunk she called it, and it was her who got sea drunk. However off we went. We were lead to this long tail boat, and the owner looked at me with an expression of here we go again. However once we started fishing I was the first to catch something, and that changed his attitude. He took us out every day and on subsequent holidays. He even invited us round to watch the Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson fight. They were muslims, but his wife never covered her head in my presence when in the house. We were treated like family. I sadly lost touch after I divorced, but happy days.