Bob9863

I definitely wasn't expecting them, I hoped for a Gar as I hadn't caught one yet and got it early in morning and another around lunch time. I've caught hundreds of Mekong catfish but definitely didn't expect one on a lure and the pacu was an even bigger surprise and it's, the biggest I have caught to date. I'm looking forward to going back there and another park to catch a big tiger fish. There's, still a, few, others I want to tick off the bucket list like 150kg + or better yet a 200kg + arapima and a few rare catfish. I'd love a 250kg or bigger stingray too.

A, few interesting catches from my last trip away. The 1st is a pacu, what's, truly interesting about it is its a vegetarian, and this one was caught on a soft plastic which is next to unheard of. The middle is a Mekong catfish that is also a vegetarian and just as if not more unheard of to catch on a lure. The last one is a, definite carnivorous beast, an alligator gar. What's unusual about this is its notorious for being very hard to catch on a lure, or even in the mouth. They have incredibly hard mouths and despite being top predators they are dainty about eating. They usually like to grab, swim and then think about swallowing whole so hooking one on a plastic is a real achievement. And I caught two that day. All 3 are fish we will never see here unfortunately, but it would be nice to have a, local lake that was allowed to stock them. The 1st two are really hard fighters although strangely not the gar, they are pretty quick fights. I've caught them on bait before but never on a lure, this particular park is lure only which did make me wonder why they were even stocked at all. The best I can figure is that by slow finesse fishing the plastic I must have got it right in their face and they bit out of annoyance.

You know one rod Ive always liked and have never managed to break is the good old uglystick. I've got rid of a lot of gear but one old set up I've kept is an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5600 and an 8kg uglystick. Ive caught everything from carp to bull sharks on it, heats of barra and GT's and it was my favourite rod for Spanish mackerel too. Bloody solid dependable rod. Theres plenty of others but for my money until you start going over the $300 mark there's nothing better in that price range. I've got a 15kg overhead ugly stick Bluewater I keep overseas and it's, great to cast with and has handled some pretty big Siamese giant carp that fight harder then any GT with ease. I've even used it on some pretty big grouper. I'd go an 8-15kg 6'6 ulgy stick gold 2 piece or the 15kg 5'6 ulgy stick gold. They will cast good, come in under budget and will handle anything you throw at them.

What reel is it? Pretty much all of the sub $200 ones have zero water or dirt protection for the bearings. Most of the rest have limited protection and it doesn't take a lot for bearings to corrode. A number of reels aren't even salt water approved, that's always, something to check out before buying one. I always wash my either before bringing them home or 1st thing when I got back. I'd keep some water and a rag in the Ute. Most bearings can be replaced pretty cheap and easily,theres plenty of youtube videos showing how to do it correctly.

And the rod

I just finishing off a bit of clutter clean out. I've got a Abu Garcia Revo Inshore right hand, used about 4 afternoon trips before being upgraded. In immaculate condition and comes with an after market spare carbon fibre handle. $185 posted. Up next is the big Abu Garcia Revo T2 S51 left hand, ony spooled and little test casting done, as new. I'd actually keep this one but due to a shoulder injury I can't fight a big fish with the rod in my right hand. $300 posted Lastly an ultragraph 8kg travel rod, light weight rod with good strength and a medium action. It's been overseas twice, good rod but I prefer a, stiffer faster action rod for plastics, but it's, brilliant with hard body lures. $100 posted

Guides are 50/50, I never had one and made mistakes my 1st few trips. But some of the parks are great to deal with, they might not speak enough English but are pretty handy with Google translate. Your hotel can usually make some arrangements for you, and it's easy to hire a taxi driver for the day. I did that my 1st outing to bungsamran, cost me 2000baht or about $90 to hire him for the day. Took me a while to figure out how to mix the bait up and what works, which made some locals laugh, but it's a bit of an art. Bait fishing is a bread based putty or pellets most places, you use a little burly cage with a hook hanging off it to make giant bait balls. But if you go to the smaller lakes they really look after you, most of the ponds won't it's pretty much a case of being treated like a local. The small lakes will use a lot of live bait, but will mix up vegetarian baits for some of the non predator species. There's plenty of package tours but I don't like them, I've fished near a few and they are all pretty much focused on getting everyone a minimum amount of fish to keep them happy and you pay a lot more for the privilege. It might be worth doing one or two and pay close attention to how they set the gear, the bait and mix it and then you should be fine on your own.

There's plenty where you can holiday in a proper hotel, then go fishing for a couple of days while the wife gets a massage and goes, shopping. They are usually run by expats and prices to match, but not any more expensive then a good hotel package. I like the other parks for two reasons, my wife is, Thai so we have a house over there, half the time I go fishing with the brother in law or the wife and sister come out for a day to eat, drink and catch up. For the bigger parks out of town, usually an hours drive or there abouts, I get the neighbour to take me out for the day for 1000baht, about $50. So about $180 all up for a days catching arapima ect including beer and food with door to door transport. I've actually got my own mini fishing Park at the in-laws farm, they built a big pond for me and filled it with a few hundred talipa, a few dozen catfish, 6 regular snake head and two giant snake head. And thanks to covid I still have not had a chance to fish it yet. But at least the fish are growing up.

I will see if I can upload a few videos of a couple of my favourite smaller Thai fishing parks around Bangkok. The 1st one is a place called Amazon fishing Park, it's an in town sister park to the bigger Amazon BKK. It was actually on an episode of monster carp. They have some nice Siamese giant carp, not real monsters but they fight hard and there's lots of them, they have some big pacu, peacock bass and a few other species like that. Great food and a shady location. Small Siamese giant carp Arapima fishing Park, this place actually breeds arapima for bigger parks which is their main business. They have a couple of really big 150kg+ which I have hooked twice but one came unbuttoned and the other hit a snag and broke free after about ten minutes, but watching a fish that big jump a couple of metres out of the water definitely has me going back to get one, my current PB is 120kg. They have red tail catfish, alligator gar, Piraiba, tiger fish and many more. But mostly it's a, lot of different sizes of arapima and some great Barra too. Arapima Barra Other great parks are Amazon BKK, if you like your lure fishing they have some great action to be had, lots of different predators. It monster lake, not much of a monster lake for the big fish it has in it, but it gets hit harder by tourists and I find the fish all show signs of mouth damage from being hooked too often and given enough time to heal. Barramundi fishing Park in town is brilliant if you want a great day chasing that dream Barra, but usually catching a heap of every other size that beats the big ones too the lure. If you want some magnificent fishing there's some big holiday parks with much bigger prices, but these ones are $120-$150 a day for the big parks and you usually have to yourself and that's just brilliant. The little parks in town cost about $15-$20 a day, I will put up some Mekong giant catfish videos from one of them, they aren't massive but it's the best days fishing you will ever have for that kind of money. The small parks and Amazon BKK you will have to take your own gear, most places don't let you use treble hooks to protect the fish, I like to use circle hooks as they must also be barb less. The bigger parks will have gear they prefer you to use but most will let you use your own gear. One word to the wise, if you want to actually catch your fish and not have a guide bait your rod, hook your fish and then hand you the rod then avoid bungsamran, they are also way more expensive and fuller. Good food and a nice little tackle shop, you can do it yourself but you might want to get someone to mix your bait for you, it's a little tricky to get right, but that's true of all the bait parks, I'd practice making some over here before going and watch a few youtube videos on how to do it. And don't underestimate the river fishing, I've caught some small squeaker catfish, put them on a big rod and pulled out meter long catfish and even a couple of 50-60kg freshwater stingrays. You can even pull some big wild Mekong catfish out of it too, along with sticks, cloths, toilet seats and assorted other rubbish. Fishing for snake head is the real joy, lots of roadside ponds and the local waterways have heaps of them and they are great fun fishing with surface lures like hollow body frogs.

That one's an Arapima, not the biggest I've caught but the red breeding pattern on her was just incredible. I will have to put some videos up of catching a few different things at different parks. I tend to view fishing here these days as practice for catching fish like that, it's great to be able to catch a half dozen different species from around the world in the same day. The big tourist parks have some massive fish and prices to match but the smaller local parks are cheap, anywhere from $15 to $120 a day. You can't beat that for value. Also the big parks don't like you catching too many fish, they like you to get a couple but considering a big arapima is worth a years pay each they don't like them getting caught to often. The smaller local parks are different, they don't have as big a fish but they still have monsters, and they like tourists to catch a good haul so you come back and tell your friends. I like to go to 2-3 a week when I'm there, different parks each time, one of the more expensive ones and one or two of the cheaper smaller local ones in town. I usually stay for around a month so I get to visit quite a few. Each one has its own techniques that only really work there so it can take a bit of learning to figure out how to catch good at each one. I might do a separate thread on it with some photos and video.

I'm down to a piraiba and a tiger fish on my list of must catch fish, I've found a park that has both so hopefully I can tick both them off in the bear future. Catching in a park might seem like cheating a, but but it's just not possible to go fishing fir many of these species in the wild any more and it still comes, down to you being able to entice a reluctant fish to bite. It's a lot harder then you might think, the fish are well feed and are very hook shy so you have to be spot on in your presentation. They also put a lot of nuisance fish in that you gave to work your way around to get the big ones. I've landed 15 barra in under 2 hours trying to entice a reluctant bite from one of the big ones. Who would think catching that many barra would be a PITA.

Should add a few pic's

Thought I'd say G'day and mention a bit about myself and my fishing. My favourite forms of fishing are land bases shark fishing when I can get to the coast, local finesse fishing for Redfin and yellow belly, trout to when I can get out to the rivers and I love fishing in the various fishing parks in Thailand. Definitely my favourite fish is arapima, having a 150lb or bigger fish on the line that jumps like a trout is just amazing, although the hard fighting red tail catfish is a real dirty fighting pit bull too. Tarpon are probably a close 2nd, they are a hoot to catch but can be a bugger to hook up on. The gear I use over there is, Main bait fishing rig is a, Shimano tekota 300 on a 15kg ugly stick, I love the clicker for bait fishing and it doubles as a respectable casting rod too with medium/big lures. That lives over there. My casting outfit is a Nitro gangster megabeast 10kg travel rod with a Diawa Ryoga reel, I run both with 50lb jigman Xbraid. I also use a Nitro Viper 8kg rod with a Shimano Vanford 5000 spin reel and 40lb Shimano kairiki braid. That's more of general purpose outfit good for everything. Locally I love ultra light finesse fishing, I started doing it because the slow deliberate technique used to feel bites on the smaller fish like redfin and yellow belly is the same as with the larger gear I use in Thailand, the fish bite the same. I find both aren't really aggressive feeders a but like cod, you have to put the lure in the right spot, slow fish it as neither then to chase for the most part. So here I use a nitro powerbream 3kg finesse rod with a shimano Vanford 2500 reel with 6lb shimano kairiki braid. Im buying another more plastic specialised rig this week, a Nitro Vapor 2kg with a Shimano Vanford 1000 reel and 4lb Shimano kairiki braid. That should be the perfect rod for flicking ultralight plastics for soft presentation for redfin in the shallows and for stream fishing for trout. Lastly for cod I use a Nitro undertaker 6kg with a Diawa Steez ct reel and 30lb Shimano Kairiki line. My land based shark rig is a Diawa big game 24kg 3 piece travel rod and a Shimano Tyrnos 30 reel with 100lb spectra braid. Because I do so much travel fishing and have for years I've always been on the lookout for good travel rods, I've had some OK ones and some crap ones but once I found the nitro range of travel rods I never looked back, I've also got a 4kg Nitro traveler spin rod I put the 2500 Vanford on when travelling. Great set up for talipa and snakehead. But then when I was looking for some two piece rods for around here I naturally went for the nitro rods again I just live them, the sane with the Vanford reel, it's just so lightweight and smooth and very reasonably priced. I always loves my Abu Garcia Ambassadeur reels, but only have one left now as a backup reel and for bait fishing with the Gangsta rod. I generally find when I buy gear I really like I stick with it and other stuff gets re-homed. I've got a few other rigs but they are getting moved on, I moved on a lot of gear recently to make space as it just wasn't getting used any more.

Are you fishing hard body lures or plastics? I don't do much bream fishing but plastics for redfin and yellow belly is my go to any day of the week fish, I use plastics and definitely find a stiff fast action rod the only way to go. The rod I use is actually called a power bream and was built to target them with plastics I've got a 9ft 3kg rod for casting right out for trout but it's soft and very slow on the action and it's useless for plastics but works fine with hard body lures, it absolutely launches a tassie devil way way out. I've used medium action spin rods for both and they do the job pretty reasonably with both. I'm actually picking up a new rod especially for finesse fishing plastics, it's 2kg, very stiff and will be fished as a 4lb outfit.

I used to catch a few as by catch while shark fishing in Darwin. I preferred overhead reels a Shimano Tekota 800 was my preferred reel on a 7ft from memory one piece 24kg ugly stick. I've caught some big Ray's in Thailand fishing the rivers, the key in both when shore fishing is to use the current be it river or tide to get your bait out. I could cast a pretty decent way with that rod with a heavy bait and some practice but a spin would be much better for casting, but your going to want at least 300 yards of 65lb minimum braid or 50lb mono as they can take off and I've seen reels spooled by them more then a few times. If your fishing from a boat it can be a lot simpler, heavy rod, heavy line and muscle them. They to either is to use constant pressure to keep their head up and try and turn them. I've got a set up I use overseas a lot, a, shimano Tekota 300 on a 15kg ugly stick, that would do the job. It's got 250 yards of 50lb jig an super line on it, that casts beautiful with heavy lures out to 40 yards. Something like might be a really good option as a dedicated rod for Ray's.