Hi

Firstly sorry about the length of this report. I could have written so much more.

A week with BKK guy – more than just fishing.

Before you leave for any holiday you have certain expectations, a set of hopes and a handful of ideas. This is particularly true when embarking on a fishing holiday. You have an idea of the species you hope to catch, the dream that these fish will be of monstrous proportions and you will often find yourself fantasizing about the way they will have your reels begging for mercy! Well, these were at least my thoughts before I boarded my flight to Thailand. I and a good mate of mine Clayton had booked a 4day fishing adventure to Thailand fishing with BKK guy (John). We would be fishing for predatory fish on the first day, wild fishing for Toman (Giant Snakeheads) for two days and the final day we would hit the Barramundi ponds for some top water action. I have been fishing seriously for about 4years and have been an avid aquarist all my life. Many of the species we were to target were dream fish of mine, many of which I had previously and currently keep in the confines of an aquarium. So this trip was particularly special to me.

Day 1 – Predatory Pond.

John picked us up from our hotel at 4am; both Clayton and I were both nursing a severe hangover. In reality, we were both probably still a little on the inebriated side, rather than hung over. Not a wise move, but nothing a quick stop to Maccas didn’t fix. The first thing you notice about John is his personality. After a couple hours of talking fish with John on the way to our first fishing location I felt like I had known John for years, to say he is personable wouldn’t be doing his warm personality any justice.  I talked fish biology with John the entire way to the first pond, everything from how often Arapaima come up to breathe to the way in which other species spawn, it felt good to talk to someone who was perhaps an even bigger fish nerd than myself, no easy feat to manage.

We got to the first pond while the sun was still down and quickly noticed a couple young Arapaima slowly drifting around the shallows. To say I was now excited was an understatement, I could see the fish. Bait fishing is not permitted at this pond; our fishing method is a little bit of a secret. It was a hybrid method between float fishing and fly fishing.  Within our first handful of casts we had both landed an Alligator gar each, a truly prehistoric looking fish that was a challenge to photograph, get your hand anywhere near the business end of this fish and you will quickly cut your day short. The fight on these prehistoric gars was a bit disappointing, but still good to get a nice picture.

The next thing I noticed about John was his photography skills; he knows just how to hold fish and the angles required getting the best possible photo. Photography is a strong point of Johns, which is great as you don’t need to worry about taking any pictures yourself; the pictures and memories you get are fantastic. Back into it – next up is a double hookup on Red Tailed Catfish, one of the previous hopeful species I mentioned, I was wrapped. Things then went a little quiet for me, and by a little quiet I mean I didn’t catch a fish for a whole 20 minutes. In which time Clayton had already managed to land another two Red Tailed Catfish, at which point we both decided they were the Samson fish of the freshwater ponds, they pull like steam trains and head straight for structure. After a couple RTC your back and arms are sufficiently warm.

Then it was my turn with another RTC, quickly followed by an African Walking catfish (Clarias sp). The walking catfish did its best to slither its way back into the water, but John knew exactly how to handle this fish in a professional manner. On the topic of professionalism, the way in which the fish were handled by John and the owner of the pond is first class. They know the importance of handling these fish in a professional manner, ensuring that the fish are not harmed and returned to the water in the best possible condition. Something that I am told other ponds do not do very well, and is subsequently why the catch rates in many ponds around Thailand is less than desirable at times.

Clayton then hooked into something, something big! This fish took him straight for structure, in the way of a bridge that went over a narrow area of the pond, we immediately called this fish for a RTC and it was. The biggest for the day and an absolute horse of a fish, a few photos a couple fist pumps and we were back to work. While at this point, I was happy that we had caught some great fish of those monstrous proportions I had talked about earlier. One thing was still missing, an Arapaima.  Which I was a little taken by as over the course of the morning I had seen a countless amount come up for air, but alas, we were still yet to land one between us. So we moved to an area of the pond that was known for deeper water to increase our chances of catching one of these truly majestic creatures. 10 minutes after a spot change and Clayton was in, we could immediately see that this was something else to what we had previously caught. A very spirited battle that had Clayton retrieving and losing line for 10 minutes and we finally saw its big golden back emerge from the water, what a fish! At an estimated 65kg, this fish was expertly put into a sling by the pond owner and hoisted onto dry land. We were both speechless, the size and even more than that just the physical image of the fish that was immediately burnt into my brain. Beautiful isn’t the word, this fish was awe inspiring, and perhaps the most beautiful animal I had ever seen. The Arapaima monkey had been lifted from Clayton’s back. As an angler, fishing with a mate you are always happy for a mate to catch a good fish, but it can make you nervous, and I was. Would I catch my dream fish on this trip? Did one of these majestic fish have my name on it? I didn’t know and it was scary. Next cast for me and I was on again, it was a good fish, but I knew in my heart it wasn’t the majestic Arapaima, and it wasn’t. The fish that surfaced was golden in colour, but it was another catfish. A species I had kept in the past at home in Perth; Wallago leeri.

John quickly told me how lucky I was to have caught this fish, as it was a rare catch, I didn’t appreciate it at the time as I was now completely obsessed by catching my prized fish. John was doing his best to put me onto an Arapaima, teaching me every secret in the book. Another dozen or so casts, and more doubt was creeping into my mind all while still being hopeful. Next cast and BANG, my line peels off at a million miles an hour. I retrieved line, I lost line, the fish swam up the bank near some trees, I followed it, and my heart was now in my throat choking me. Finally we saw the fish, a moment I will never forget. One problem though, the owner of the pond was about 10 minutes away, so the fish couldn’t be put in a sling and brought onto dry land until he arrived. The next 10 minutes felt like an eternity, luckily John expertly placed the fish’s prehistoric head in a net and kept it calm. Finally the fish was landed, on dry land this thing was a beast; part dinosaur, part crocodile with some fish thrown into the mix. One of the happiest moments of my life, I felt like a lot of my angling and in particular fish keeping life had directed me to this point. I had done it. An estimated 75kg Arapaima had my name painted onto its side in beautiful gold’s and reds. I had seen many images of anglers taking photos of Arapaima in the water holding their prized catch, so when John suggested we did the same, I had my shirt off faster than a male stripper at a hens night!

We then moved to another shallower area of the pond to target more catfish as we had our Arapaima and the pond owner didn’t want us putting anymore through the stress of capture, completely understandable.  So we moved and instantly we had a double hook up of Arapaima! I will save you the details, but both Clayton and I both landed another dream fish. After trying all day for one we had decided to purposely not target them and we caught another two, but hey that’s fishing! And I’ll take it. What a day, I had caught every fish I had dreamed I’d catch in the predator pond plus a few more. What a start!

Day 2 – Wild Toman

We were up at 3am next morning to head to our first location for wild snakehead fishing. This was not the season for snakehead fishing, so I knew things were going to be tough. John had specifically chosen this location as our first fishing spot as the terrain was forgiving. The way that things were to work for wild fishing was there were two boats, with a Thai ‘boatman’ in each boat that would drive and maneuver us through the terrain. John would also be on a boat teaching us the specifics of Toman fishing. We were fishing with topwater lures the entire time. I started with John in the morning, and quickly learnt that the key was to get the lures as close to the vegetation as possible. No problem right? Well, not really, not in a rocky boat using lures you had never seen before. Like anything in life you quickly adapt. Mid morning I had my first wild Toman, a nice fish of 3kg.

I was over the moon, catching monstrous prehistoric fish in ponds is amazing, but hunting them off season in the wild is another experience entirely. That fish meant a lot to me, the sense of accomplishment was immense. At lunch time we stopped and met up with Clayton and the other boatman, unfortunately Clayton hadn’t landed a fish, despite countless strikes. So we swapped boats and away we went. The boatmen don’t speak any English so my afternoon was very quiet on the conversation front and on the fish front, with only a small Toman landed of about 30cm. We knocked off at 6pm and arrived back on dry land, Clayton had landed his first Toman! His face was priceless, we have done a lot of fishing together but I have never seen the expression he had on his face that night, pure elation. He had worked hard, very hard and he had his prize, well done mate.

Day 3 – Wild Toman

The night before we had gotten to our hotel at 1:30am and John had told us he would be picking us up at 3am! You have to be kidding me right? He is a hardcore angler; if that means no sleep it means no sleep. But we bargained with John and scored ourselves a nice sleep in, 4:30am! Another reasonable drive and we were at our next location. Apparently the fish are fewer but larger at this spot. I was absolutely drained, but pumped. Today I was with the boatman for the early session. I quickly noticed the terrain was much more unforgiving at this location; I put a few early casts into the vegetation.

I remembered Johns mantra from the day before which was “just keep casting”, valuable advice. A couple casts later and I was on, I was on in a big way. This Toman had reminded me of the RTC from day one, powerful and dirty, pulling me towards vegetation, then under the boat. The fish was landed and unfortunately I didn’t have John’s expert camera skills with me. Because of this, the pictures of my prized Toman were not the greatest, regardless I was happy. At lunch time I showed John the photos of my prized 5kg Toman, he was bitterly disappointed with the pictures we took of this great fish. Clayton had also landed a smaller fish that morning. A good start. The afternoon session was on and I quickly landed another nice fish of 2kg. The rest of the afternoon was made up of a few close misses, without any more fish being landed. I didn’t mind the scenery was beautiful, the company was great and I had already landed a few nice fish.

Toman fishing is hard work, lots of casts and heart breaking near misses. John’s early advice of “just keep casting” is the perfect advice. My biggest fish was caught on a bit of a dud cast into a pretty unlikely area. You need to cover all bases, the fishy looking areas and the not so fishy areas. Just keep casting!

Day 4 – Barramundi Ponds

Finally some rest, bed at 11pm the night before and up at 7:30am for a quick feed. We hit the ponds equipped with our spinning gear and a handful of poppers. The first pond we fished only resulted in a one missed strike. John was quickly onto the phone to the owner of the ponds, we were then allowed to change ponds to a “virgin” pond.

This is another massive advantage of having John with us, he knows all the owners of the ponds on a personal basis and is allowed certain privileges to him and his clients, having said that John doesn’t abuse these privileges and is very respectful to the fish and owners.  These fish had never seen a lure in their life and it showed. We landed over 30-40 fish in the 5-9kg range each all on poppers. Even when you didn’t hook a fish it was great as they would hit the poppers out of the water, the visuals were great. I won’t go into great detail about the Barra fishing as this report is lengthy enough already.  

A final note – the fishing in Thailand was everything I had dreamed of and much more. Not only did we fish hard, I think Clayton and I made a great mate in John. I truly believe that we would have had only a small fraction of the success without John. He can tell you what techniques work where and at what time and why that technique works. I learnt lessons in fishing techniques but also fishing ‘toughness’ as silly as that might sound to some. Lessons that I will take home with me and apply to fishing and also my personal life. This was a truly amazing experience that will stay with me for a lifetime. I have had the fortune of fishing in a number of countries in the last few years with many charter operators, and none come close to John. Not even close. He truly cares about your experience, an absolute champion fisherman and a top bloke, I can't say enough positive things about BKK guy, a champion amongst anglers.  Thank you.