My First Gamefishing Trip

mrsswordfisherman · May 13, 2006

One of the things that we wanted to do on our recent trip to Phuket Thailand was to charter a gameboat. We researched prior to leaving and emailed the owner of a company called Wahoo Charters. John sent us many emails regarding recent catches of sailfish. It is not really sailfish season there at the moment but several had been caught.

On our arrival we went to Patong Beach to the Wahoo shop and met Bebe. Of course we showed Bebe the FR site and joined her up. The price for the day out was about $1000. We watched some dvds of charters and got excited and spoke to John on the phone about going out for a day.

The next day we had to meet some friends in Patong for a drink and dinner. We had a problem getting transport then came across an accident involving motorbikes and a tuk tuk (small transport vehicle) . We ended up being an hour late. When we arrived our friends had started talking to a bloke and his 2 daughters from Sydney who had just been to the Wahoo shop and were trying to decide if they should spend the money for a charter. Woooohooooo we had 3 others to join us now. The 5 of us raced to the shop and booked the charter.

At 7am on the day we were picked up and taken to Chalong Bay. We bought some nice tshirts with Mahi Mahi on the back (same as FR logo). We walked over to the wharf and were greeted by the crew and introduced. Onboard now and the weather was exceptional. The esky was filled with cold drinks, beers, soft drinks and bottled water for us to help ourselves. I cracked my first Singha beer at 10am!!

The crew prepared all the tackle. There were 7 rods, 4 x 24kg, 3 x 15kg all Tiagras with fully rollered custom Wahoo rods and 2 high speed spin sticks loaded with 80 lb braid on large Shimano Stellas. We watched eagerly as they fed the lures over behind the teasers. It wasn't long before we heard the zzzzzzzzzzzzz and swordie leapt into action (REGGIE THE ROD GRABBER) knocking everyone arse over head to get the first strike of the day. Swordie had 2 stripies on at the same time on a daisy chain and he proceeded to show the crew his prowess on a game rod.

The action continued furiously with strike after strike as we rotated thru our hits. When it came to my turn I was sweating heavily with anticipation for my first strike ever on a game rod. I sat in the chair and suddenly zzzzzzzz the 30lb goes off and it was thrust into my hand. From the game bridge I heard the captain yell "Give it to the woman".

Swordie was screaming "Hammer it, hammer it". I had no idea what I was doing but I landed my first ever game fish, a Striped Tuna about 3kgs woooohooooooo. Swordie said to hold it up for a photo and the bloody thing started to go berserk and shook the #$%^ out of me.

The familiar zzzzzzzzzz continued and all 5 of us grabbed rods and had multiple hookups on Striped Tuna, Mac Tuna and Northern Bluefin. After a few hours, John asked us if we would like to swim and we all agreed that would be fabulous. We pulled up at an island in the middle of nowhere in the Andaman Sea that had water that blue and crystal clear we could see the bottom at over 10 mtres.

The crew threw some mango peel into the water and the fish went crazy. We dived into this blue clear water and swam and then the crew chucked us sets of masks and snorkels. I noticed swordie clinging to the back ladder and beckoned him to don a mask and get into it. He still remained on the ladder hmmmm. I swam over and he informed me that he had NEVER snorkelled and was shitting himself in fear of shark attack . I did a bit of and he finally got a mask and snorkel on and was amazed at the fish and coral below him. We saw Moorish Idols, giant Trigger fish and all manner of other ooglies that were unknown to us. I watched swordie swim VERY fast back to the ladder (almost up the exhaust pipes). Later he told me that a fish bit him on the toe and he chit himself again. What a man

When we climbed back onboard they hosed us down with warm water showers. Lunch was served inside and the Bluefin I caught was served up as fresh Sashimi with wasabi sauce. Even swordie ate it with relish as well as all the other Thai dishes that were delicious with our salad.

Time to head for some sailfish action. We watched the crew member prepare belly strips for sailfish baits. It was amazing how skillful he was. The lures and teasers were now a lot bigger and the mood was electric as we trolled to Racha Island and scanned the water. Suddenly someone yelled "Look sailfish" and we saw one freejumping. The crew leapt into action. They were here in numbers wooohoooo.

First strike came on the right rigger and the hook pulled. Dammmm it, so close we could taste em. The second strike on the left rigger was a screamer. The crew set the hook and the boat surged forward with sail taking line and swordie was just about to take the rod and the hook pulled again. No luck and the crew were really disappointed. The captain put the 44 ft Riviera up on the plane and we headed back to Chalong Bay.

Time beat us eventually as the sun was starting to set we all agreed that the day had been one to remember for all of us in many ways. We can't wait to do it again.