Bob9863

The pacu would be a GT, the alligator gar probably about a cod and the catfish, hard to say they fight out of proportion to their body size. Maybe a larger sized Spanish mackerel then the catfish. 

Even the small ones fight like a big barramundi, but they don't tire out very easily. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.