Fishing in Thailand - Phang Nga Bay

[leatherjacket]

Hi Fishraiders,

The Wife and I got away from the winter blues for a week in Thailand staying on Koh Yao Noi Island in Phang Nga Bay near Phuket... On the last day it was my day to choose the activity as we had already done all the other excersions like James Bond Island and Ko Pee Pee Lee (AKA "The Beach").

So I booked in to go fishing on a traditional Thia long boat for about $4,500 Baht or $A150 for the two of us. We meet the skipper and guide (deak hand) at 6am and set out for the day. It quickly dawned on me that this was not a professional operation as some of the rods were broken at the tip, damaged guides and all had rusty reels with not enough line if you conected to a big fish! But what peaked my interest was the land-line set up they had with 100lb line, wire trace and a Rapala all attached to a 10ltr plastic bottle in case it was lost overboard or spooled.

Anyway, I caught the Barracuta trowling with the hand line which was awesome fun!!! Nothing like the feels of wet mono running through your hands and being in direct contact with the fish as it was jumping out of the water trying to throw the hooks and then hoisting it over the side

We had the restaurant at the resort grill the fish for dinner that night and they did it Thia style with lemongrass, coriander and lime - It was great!

I hope you enjoy the pics and the other thing I wanted to mention is that their is too many fish traps, taking of undersized fish and drift fishing in Thialand. They use three types of nets - Prawn, Fish and Blue Crab. Their would be about 50 long boats on the bay each day fishing and anything over 15cm is a keeper! Out to sea the powerful lights from commercial squid boats can be seen each night. It left me with the impression that we are very lucky in Australia in how the fisheries are managed in a sustainable fashion.

Cheers,

Andrew

Edited August 13, 2011 by leatherjacket

[Basil D]

a face only a mother can love

[kadavu]

Takes a lot to make them taste nice sounds like they did a good job though

[leatherjacket]

Takes a lot to make them taste nice sounds like they did a good job though

I thought it tasted fine - mild and flaky flesh like a shark. But now I'm a bit shocked after reading a article that says you can get ciguatera fish poisoning from Barracuta...

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/eat-barracuda1.htm

Won't be eating Cuta again soon!

Cheers,

Andrew