Your best fishing venues

[tomato]

First of all Merry Christmas to the forum users and especially the anglers

I have put together a list of fishing parks I have fished and rated them out of 50.I have also included a very brief tackle and tactic guide.These are just my views and are based on my experiences.

I have rated the parks on 5 categories:

Price The cheaper the better,based on using my own tackle

Facilities Tackle shop? Toilets? restaurant?

Fishing Is the fishing good?Plenty of bites? Fishing involvement? Too many rules?

Species The more species the better

Experience The feeling after a days fishing

Here goes:

Number 1

Hua Hin Fishing Lodge

Species caught:arapaima,red tail,alligator gar,cahor,rohu,juliens carp,snakehead,gourami,pacu,sawai,silver barband tilapia

Tackle Lower pond,uptide sea rod,shimano 6500 reel,30lb line size 2 hooks

Upper pond carp rod,shimano 6000 reel,20lb line size 4 hooks

Tactics lower pond,chicken or fish freelined or legered for arapaima,redtails pacu and gar

upper pond bread flake on a coil feeder

Price 4

Facilities 9

Fishing 7

Species 9

Experience 10

total 39/50

Number 2

Bungsamran

Species caught Mekhong,Cahor,Sawai

Tackle 50lb boat rod,shimano 6500 reel,50lb line coil feeder size 2 hooks

Tactics big balls of Lam on coil feeder float fished for mekhongs.Take the float off and fish the platform legs for cahor

Price 4

Facilities 8

Fishing 10

Species 4

Experience 10

total 36/50

Number3

Cha'am fishing park

species caught sawai,mekhong

Tackle uptide sea rod,shimano 6500 reel,30lb line size 2 hooks

Tactics Any method will catch sawai (lots and lots) but the best way is with freelined paste.

Price 8

Facilities 6

Fishing 9

Species 4

Experience 8

total 35/50

Number 4

Skunar fishing park

Species caught Sawai,Mekhong

Tackle 30lb boat rod,shimano 6500 reel,20lb line size 4 hooks

Tactics Buy your bait at the shop and they mix it for you into a paste.Pack the paste around a foamfeeder and a bit on the hook and cast into the middle

Price 9

Facilities 4

Fishing 9

Species 3

Experience 9

total 34/50

Number 5

Greenfields

Species caught Pacu,Red tails tilapia

Tackle carp rod,shimano 6000,20lb line,size 2 hooks

Tactics bread flake oncoil feeder.Paste and fish for redtails

Price 4

Facilities 7

Fishing 9

Species 5

Experience 8

total 33/50

Number 6

Khao Yai fishing park

Species caught sawai,mekhong

Tackle 30lb boat rod,shimano 6500,30lb line size 4 hooks

Tactics Mix bread,waterand additivesinto a paste and packonto a coil feeder with a bit on the hook.The lake behind you

can also be fished with light tacklefor small catfish

Price 9

Facilities 5

Fishing 6

Species 4

Experience 8

total 32/50

Number7

ShadowLake

Species caught cahor,sawai

Tackle carp rod,shimano6500,20lblinesize6hooks

Tactics coil feeder on bottom with mix of lam/bread with sweet additive

Price 6

Facilities 5

Fishing 6

Species 4

Experience 8

total 29/50

Number 8

Jurassic

Species caught Red tail,Cahor

Tackle carp rod,shimano 6000 40 lb braid

Tactics fishery halibut pellets legered

Price 3

Facilities 7

Fishing 7

Species 4

Experience 7

total 28/50

and finally number 9

Boon Mar ponds

Species caught barramundi

Tackle lightspinning rod,small spinning reel,20lb braid,shads

Tactics slow andsteady retrieve

Price 6

Facilities 4

Fishing 7

Spcies 3

Experience 5

total 25/50

Phew...........

[tomato]

Heres a few further comments about the above venues:

The more I fish in Thailand the more I prefer the local places like Skunar and Cha'am.These places are more like fishing in the UK (except of course for the size of the beasts in Thailand) You mix the bait yourself,tackle up,bait up,strike,play the fish, land and unhook the fish and release it.At some foreign owned places with exotic species your only involvement is playing the fish.What's the point of that?

Bungsamran would be my favourite place if I was 10 years younger.I just find it too hard now for a day of back breaking battles with big mekhongs. At Skunar and Cha'am it is mainly Sawai with the odd Mekhong,which is great.

I know Hua Hin fishing lodge is foreign owned but I just love being there.The staff are great,the place is lovely,lots of different kinds of fish and good facilities.

Jurassic has the same potential to be like Hua Hin but has a confusing pricing structure (why do you have to pay more to use your own rod?) Greenfields is similar to Jurassic but with too many 'rules'

Shadow Lake and Khao Yai are local places which I will fish a lot when I have more time.

Boon Mar ponds is not really my cup of tea. I prefer fishing with bait

[Rhys]

I have been told there is a place in Krabi as well...

[tomato]

Gilham.s? I haven't been there so I wouldn't like to comment.

[tingtongfarang]

Heres a few further comments about the above venues:

The more I fish in Thailand the more I prefer the local places like Skunar and Cha'am.These places are more like fishing in the UK (except of course for the size of the beasts in Thailand) You mix the bait yourself,tackle up,bait up,strike,play the fish, land and unhook the fish and release it.At some foreign owned places with exotic species your only involvement is playing the fish.What's the point of that?

Bungsamran would be my favourite place if I was 10 years younger.I just find it too hard now for a day of back breaking battles with big mekhongs. At Skunar and Cha'am it is mainly Sawai with the odd Mekhong,which is great.

I know Hua Hin fishing lodge is foreign owned but I just love being there.The staff are great,the place is lovely,lots of different kinds of fish and good facilities.

Jurassic has the same potential to be like Hua Hin but has a confusing pricing structure (why do you have to pay more to use your own rod?) Greenfields is similar to Jurassic but with too many 'rules'

Shadow Lake and Khao Yai are local places which I will fish a lot when I have more time.

Boon Mar ponds is not really my cup of tea. I prefer fishing with bait

Shame you only like bait fishing, there is some fantastic fishing to be had both in the wild and fishing parks with lure and fly, unlike yourself i i drifted away from bait and wait years ago.

[tomato]

I suppose I'm a lazy angler. I prefer to let the fish come to me rather than chase them. I fish for pike in the UK ,'wobbling' a deadbait which is similar to lure fishing. But in the UK winter it is just too cold to cast a bait out and wait for a bite.

If I ever move to Thailand I may try wild venues for snakeheads,etc.

[tingtongfarang]

I suppose I'm a lazy angler. I prefer to let the fish come to me rather than chase them. I fish for pike in the UK ,'wobbling' a deadbait which is similar to lure fishing. But in the UK winter it is just too cold to cast a bait out and wait for a bite.

If I ever move to Thailand I may try wild venues for snakeheads,etc.

Fishing in thailand is great, can just go out the door with a rod + baitcaster hanging on your back and start walking around casting a wooden frog in any water you find.

[tomato]

You make it sound great tingtong.But don't you miss scraping dried up lam off your gear and the soles of your shoes?

[tingtongfarang]

You make it sound great tingtong.But don't you miss scraping dried up lam off your gear and the soles of your shoes?

I still get gear and myself messed up with baits lam included, just dont so it as often as i used to, Lure fishing became a passion for me here in thailand, Guess its the abundance of predator fish around also surface strikes are more exciting.

[tomato]

I think for my next visit to Thailand I will bring a bait casting outfit and some lures. Are frogs the best lure? Near my hotel in cha am I have noticed several ponds. I'll give them a try

I know what you mean about surface strikes being exciting. It's the same when you see a pike following a dead bait being 'wobbled' in the uk

[UKJASE]

great info here Tomato

can you tell me where skunar is please? is there only sawai and mekhong in do you know?

i have tried most of the others.......

my top three are cha am fishing park, greenfields and hua hin fishing lodge

[tomato]

Jase, here are the directions in thai to Sakuna,taken from the bangkokhooker website.It is in Samut Prakan.

Directions in Thai/ทางไปบ่อตกปลา:

ทางไปบ่อ สกุณา เขตสมุตรประการ

1.ไปทางถนนเทพารักไปทางบางพลี

2.ไปที่ กม. ที่ 8 แล้ว กลับรถแล้วชิดซ้าย

3.เลี่้ยวช้ายที่ เซเวนที่มีป้ายหมู่บ้านลลิล

4.ตรงไปเรื่อยๆ แล้วพอหมู่บ้านลลิลอยู่ซ้าย ตรงข้ามทางขวาก็จะเป็นทางเข้าบ่อ

I gave that to a taxi driver and he found it OK.

I have only caught sawai and mekhongs in here I don't know if there are cahor in or not.It's cheap as chips though and it doesn't get too crowded,whenever I've been during the week there have been a maximum of 10 other anglers.

You buy the bait and they mix it for you,it's great.The first time I fished there I used a small carp rod and my first bite was from a mekhong so it took a while to get in so you might need something stronger but not as strong as the gear for Bungsamran.I now use a 30lb class boat rod with a shimano 6500 baitrunner reel,30lb line.You buy the foam paste feeders at reception,but I change the hook on them for a barbless hook as theyre easier to take out.The locals use jigging rods and multiplier reels.

I like this place and I will be spending more time here in the future

[bigjules007]

Once you get into lure fishing for the big snakeheads in the wild, its hard to go back to fishing the fishing parks. Especially when the fry start showing, its heart stopping stuff, I recommend it, but it can be hard going fishing the huge reservoirs, depends what you want from your fishing I suppose.