News - February 2007 - Fishing Khao Lak

News.
By Fishing Khao Lak.

February 2007:

First of all a big apology again for the news being so late!!!

Freshwater fishing in Thailand got started this month with a trip to Bungsam Lan Lake in
Bangkok with American angler Cannon. The Giant Mekong Catfish were not feeding like
they usually do, maybe down to the low temperatures, but the Striped Catfish kept us busy
most of the day. In the end though, we had a fantastic day when later in the afternoon we
landed this fantastic Giant Siamese Carp, which was followed an hour later by this
awesome Giant Mekong Catfish!
this massive Striped Catfish was also landed by Cannon, one of the biggest I have ever
seen landed from Bungsam Lan.
Cannon later sent us this nice email about his day.

This month I was joined by Peter Langstraat from Holland, whom I fished with for many
days, both at Par Lai Lake in Phuket and Bungsam Lan lake Bangkok.
We started at Par Lai Lake, and over the following days Peter managed to land almost
every species of fish in the lake except Giant Snakehead!
Peter is a very experienced angler who has fished all over the world, and has a long list of
species that he has landed under his belt, including many billfish.
Pacu soon became one of Peter’s favorite sporting fish species, due to their incredible
speed and power, not to mention aerobatics! One Pacu that Peter was fighting actually
jumped out of the water and landed on an island!
Please take a look at a selection of the fish that Peter caught from Par Lai Lake.

Pacu. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
Giant Gourami. 1, 2, 3,
Tarpon. 1, 2,
Rohu. 1, 2,
Striped Catfish. 1,

At Bungsam Lan, using very light tackle compared to normal,
Peter had some great sport with the Striped
Catfish, and using very similar tactics to those he learned at Par Lai Lake, his good run
with the Pacu continued, although they did take a couple of days before they turned up in
the area of the lake we were fishing.
Early in the campaign, disaster struck when the first Giant Siamese Carp was lost right at
the net. Peter had to wait a while to rectify this loss, but did so in spectacular fashion when he landed this massive 41 kilo specimen, also on light tackle.
Here is a photograph of Peter just after the fish was released with the light outfit he was
using. Peter rated the capture of this incredible fish as in the top three fish he has ever
caught, and when you have released Marlin over 500 lbs that really tells you something, as
does the look on his face!
Our good run with live-baiting slowed down a bit, but the fight this Cheow Pyra Catfish
gave was really impressive. The first runs from these fish have got to be one of the best of
any fish anywhere in the world!

Please take a look at a selection of the fish that Peter caught from Bungsam Lan.

Pacu. 1, 2, 3, 4,
Cheow Pyra Catfish. 1.
River Catfish. 1.
Striped Catfish. 1.
Giant Siamese Carp. 1. 2.

Bjorn an angler from Sweden whom I fished with last month at Bungsam Lan also had a
great days fishing at Par Lai Lake, when he caught Giant Gourami, Tilapia, a very nice
Striped Catfish and a few nice Pacu.

Two lady anglers from Australia had some decent fishing also at Par Lai Lake;
the best fish of the day was this, good sized Striped Catfish.
They had lots of Tilapia, Rohu and unfortunately lost some good Pacu in the snags.

Martin a young angler from Sweden fished his first day at Bungsam Lan along with his
father. It was a very busy day at the lake because it was Chinese New Year, and all the
best bungalows had been booked long in advance. (Please always try and book your
fishing days at Bungsam Lan as far in advance as possible to ensure you get a good
positioned bungalow. It really makes a big difference as to the number of fish you are
likely to catch!).The fishing was quite slow, and we had to wait until late afternoon before
the fish started to come regularly.
Here is a pic of Martin playing a nice Giant Mekong Catfish.

Jan from Sweden enjoyed his first trip to Bungsam Lan, with a steady catch of Striped and
Giant Mekong Catfish. Action all day took its toll, especially after he had only had a few
hours sleep the night before due to his flight from Sweden being seriously delayed!

Rudi and his son Florien from Austria maintained our great run of good sized Giant
Snakeheads on their visit to the jungle. The best fish was this one pictured here
caught by Rudi. Unfortunately we had to cut the trip short because Florien was suffering
from a stomach illness he had picked up before the trip. Here is a pic of one I caught on
the trip.
A funny incident happened on this trip between some Spanish people and a party of four
other people…
These other people were being very noisy and stayed up all night playing loud music,
getting drunk and pretty much annoying everyone else who was there.
The Spanish people had a big argument with them the next day about their behavior, as I
did, and eventually had their revenge on them when the other guys went on a boat trip and
left their stereo behind outside their bungalow…
Before the other people returned to the bungalows, the Spanish people had left.
When the other guys did return, they were in for a bit of a surprise…
I heard one of them say that there was something wrong with the stereo, and that it
smelled quite bad! One of them said it must have been a stereo smell!
What had happened was that one of the Spanish people had sneaked onto their bungalow,
taken the stereo apart and passed an act of nature inside the stereo before screwing it back
together!!!
The Thai people who work at the bungalows were in hysterics, actually rolling around on
the floor laughing, holding their sides!
Please note that this is the first time ever I have encountered a problem with other people at
the jungle, after spending hundreds of days there.

Saltwater report to follow shortly...

Tight Lines!

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