Shadow Lake

[jackinbkk]

I have spent the past 2 weeks fishing Gnao nam. Not every day. Mainly one day fishing, oneday off. The last time I was here was 12 months ago. The flooding at the end of 2011 has certainly taken it's toll. The average size of the fish is much lower. There has also been far more young fish put into the lake. It also seems the fishing is far more difficult.

On my 1st day I caught a single pla buek. This was the day I tried braid and I don't think I will ever use it again for fishing busy Thai lakes. You can see the other thread for why. On the 2nd day I caught nothing but lost 2 or 3 hooked fish. The third day was slightly better. 5 hooked fish and 3 landed. Still the size of the fish was disappointing. I am still sure however that the fish I hooked on the 2nd day was one of the biggest I have hooked to date. The reasons why. It was hooked at long range near the wall with houses behind it. I have often found big fish there. It never changed speed or direction. It just didn't care it was hooked. This is usually the sign of a monster. It also didn't care that I was running a lot of drag. The reel I used was dual drag with 50lb line, more than enough for most fish.

By the end of the first 5 days of fishing I was pretty annoyed. I was going to try some other venues. I tried one other venue in ratchaburi but it also proved disappointing. I decided in the end to stick with it at gnao nam. On many days I had nearly the whole place to myself which I prefer to busy places. The price is great too.

The introduction of new fish seems to mean that many do not now favour lam as they did in the past. Bread seems the most productive method and fishing on the bottom seems to be the preferred method now. I still think however that lam has the best potential for the biggest fish. The unbaited hook seems to catch bigger fish as they create a bigger flow of water when they do eat lam. The remaining big residents will still remember feeding on lam. The down side is bread will catch you 3,4 or 5 times as many fish in the same time period. Big Fish are not averse to bread but small fish find it just as easy to eat and get hooked by. So I feel bread results in many fish but often smaller fish.

Anyway after 2 weeks my catches have improved. On my last 3 trips I caught 7, 12 and finally 26 fish in a single sessions of 6 to 7 hours. 10+ fish is pretty good for gnao nam.

I do feel now that I would recommend bung samran over gnao nam to tourists, otherwise they will probably go home disappointed. This is the first time I have ever felt this way. Gnao nam still has the ability to throw up some massive catches. I still see people getting spooled by leviathans. It is just that it has gotten much more difficult. There is still a huge amount of bait going into the water on a daily basis so I hope gnao nam will recover soon.

-Jack

[robblok]

Jack, i doubt it will recover to its former glory because some fish are gone for sure. I still like fishing there but unless the owner puts in some extra big fish (and that wont happen) the venue is now changed.

[jacnl2000]

Happy easter.

Could not resist to add following picture "easter-is-a-great-time-to-ponder-the-existential" here and now most applicable to this thread not referring to fighting businesses or catching cows with "their own" flies but posted in the spirit of the fishing aphorisme of the American philosopher Thoreau:

Edited April 6, 2012 by jacnl2000

[jackinbkk]

Well it's a funny old game fishing. As they say it's fishing and not catching. I fished it last week when the wind was blowing a gale. I expect my lam was two thirds the way across the lake before it dropped the first metre. No fish for a good 4 to 5 hours. I set a second rod with bread on the bottom. Still nothing. Finally when it was getting dark and the wind began to calm I got 4 fish within the hour. Not too big though. So a hard wind really seemed to switch the fish off. Nearly everybody was not catching. Just the odd fish here and there. Most people went home. When it got dark and the wind stopped the darn mosquitos were out in force so I was off too.

Next time after that I had 10+ fish again, then a day with just 2 fish (no idea why) and another 10+ after. It's so strange because I keep my bait as similar as possible each time. I guess it demonstrates the chance factor in fishing.