A fishing trip to rivers of Thailand was planned back in year 2010, with an ambitious target that is to catch a 4kg hampala barb on rod and line. Things in life came one after another and I finally made it to Thailand on April 27th this year. Two of us, my fishing buddy CK and me, supposed to make it together but due to some personal matters on CK, 2 weeks before the date I started to prepare to do this on a solo basis.
About the same time, the charter informed me that the rains in the targeted fishing ground came 2 months earlier. We were planning to fish in river at Hua Hin, a tourist town located at south of Bangkok reachable within 3 hours of driving. The rains have change the fishing ground and accessibility to it considerably; that river water level is higher, water is murkier, and above all, trekking route became slippery and physically not reachable.
Huge giant 3-headed elephant statue not far from highway.
Saw this when we were travel along the ring-road highway and thought it is unique and snapped a photo of it. After I got back home I did some searching and got the identity of the statue; it is the landmark of Erawan muzeum and the name of the area is Samut Prakan.
Kanjanaphisek Bridge.
Bangkok city is on the right. Was told by fishing guide that thousand of Thai drove their car and parked it here for days during the 2011 Bangkok flood.
Forest ranger office for tourist registration, only if you are doing overnight stay in the park.
So the fishing ground has changed from Hua Hin to somewhere south. I have no clue where exactly is the place I am going to fish until the second day I reached Khao Sok National Park. We overnight in Surathani after some 6 and a half hours drives from Bangkok Airport, and travelled about 700km.
Embarking jetty of Khao Sok National Park.
Looks quite similar with Kuala Tahan jetty, except the long wood boat with it's top-propeller. The propeller design supposed to have superior manoeuvring in shallow water that is needed in river banks, penalty that came with it, unfortunately, is the engine is not able to do reversing, completely. The process of getting the head of the boat reverse to leave a fishing spot or when the boat is stucked at shallow river bed could be a very labourious and time consuming one, as I have experienced.
The cheerful skipper.
The boat ride from jetty to our wooden bungalows took an hour and a half. Half way through the fishing guide asked me to prepare with lures on rod and cast immediately when fish rises are at sight. We spotted fish school rises for 2 times, with body colors resembles hampala barb and width about 4 or 5 inches, but all dived and disappeared when the noisy boat approached them.
Scenery of limestone karsts, waters and plants.
Karsts were everywhere in the middle of the reservoir. The route to the camp is basically crossing all these nice stones.
A rather tall karst.
I thought this was uniquely beautiful and asked the skipper to move closer for this photo. Obviously my simple dummy camera was not able to deliver the beauty of the stones. A wide angle lense and a filter would make huge difference, I believe.
Who is this?
Nature scenery and the fishing mood made me an excited man.
The camp that I will settle in for 3 days in Khao Sok.
I have prepared for a much lower living infra in this fishing trip so was ok when I see this camp. The toilet is located high up on the hill, accessible through soft soil walkway that turned very slippery after rains. Nearly fell down and slip down in my 2nd evening here, feeeuuuuuuwww ...
My bungalow.
Every time I asked where am I going to sleep, I was answered "floating bungalow". So it is, it is correct to certain extent to say this is a bungalow though.
There is a small lamp provided and during night time, frogs, 5 or 6 of them, will be wandering on the mattress area looking for prey. When I walked to the mattress area all of these greenies will do one hop and dive into the lake, in fraction of second. Have been getting into my sleep with the greenies conversation around for that 2 nights there.
My bed.
Care taker came after this photo was taken and wrap the mattress with cover so, no complaint.
Felt sole shoes.
Now this is something new for me, shoes with felt sole. I brought a pair of new outdoor jungle trekking shoes with rough sole and thought that I will be safe when walking on pebbles. Jonas, the fishing guide, asked me what is my feet size and passed my this shoes. The sole design was said to be able to grab on stones on river bed and the walking could be therefore easier.
The fact was, I slipped twice while wading on the river with this shoe on, so it is either the shoes are not good or perhaps the slips were because of the walker. I remember the brand of the shoes and did some research on it after I returned, and found out the felt shoes are quite popular in United States and European countries.
My first fishing spot, a small stream.
I arrived at this fishing ground after 26 hours I left home. I was expecting a wider river but start fishing here with a curious mood as I don't know what would this new place got to offer. I started casting around noon if I remember correctly.
One of the many small pools along our way climbing uphill.
This is how the first fishing ground looks like. With polarized glasses, I was able to see fishes in each pools. Some deep holes in pool with plenty of fishes were not easy to reach with lure, as the trees and branches were covering it and there was no clearance or path for me to cast it in. Lure casting is something I have not been doing, more so at this tight fishing spots. After some half an hour I got more feel on the casting accuracy, and paid the price of leaving an Abu Toby on branch of trees somewhere here.
Along the way Jonas keep telling me where to cast and move on after fishes got spooked with our presence. Though mostly were small, fishes of all species were aplenty in this river.
Elephant stool along our way up.
Plenty of these; big and small, from young and old elephant. Jonas sighted a wild boar that shied away from us but not me.
My first fish in Thailand; a snakehead, or Channa Striatus if you like it in complicated way.
I was delighted, it is not the size but after you traveled for 20 over hours and you get something, well yes, I was happy. I unhooked the fish and got a good look on it, very beautiful green. Release her and puff she went hiding underneath sand within 2 seconds, ha!
A junior Thai mahseer on Abu Toby.
Very beautiful fish with goldish green. I got another bigger fish of same specie and thought that it would be a dirty fighter when the weight grown to over 1.5kg.
Another specie of snakehead, spotted snakehead or bujuk as we call it.
On Abu Toby too. There are many of this size in pools around, some are bigger with length not more than 12 inch.
All fishes were released.
Dinner prepared by the camp caretaker.
We left the stream at 5 30pm or thereabout, which was already quite dark. The walking from the last pool to the meeting point where the skipper was waiting took us an hour or so. I asked Jonas how far was the walking distance and it was approximately 3km.
Dinner was served at 7 30pm. I don't know how to appreciate curry with coconut milk so basically the omelette, the fried "paku" and the fried vege with chicken were my dinner. The dinner was good, or rather I was extremely hungry that time.
The canteen, or restaurant, basic but sufficient.
Bottled drinking water was available so my stay here for 3 days was stomach-trouble free.
Jonas in fishing mood
After the river fishing on the 1st day, I got a knock-off sleep in the night because of the travelling. I woke up in the morning and felt my left knee didn't like the uphill and downhill walking. The fishing spot planned for second day was another river and I asked Jonas if the walking would be tough as the previous river. Fishing ground was then changed to another river that is not as steep.
When we were at the rivermouth, water level was really low and the long wooden boat got stranded even with its top propeller. Water flow was slow and riverbed was therefore, muddy. Jonas and the skipper tried few times and dropped the idea to go further up to the river, we fished at the rivermouth that is deeper, around 5 ft depth.
Surface activity was good, we heard water splashes where bait fishes did air-jump to escape from predator, as well as very frequent fish rises. We caught couple of junior barb and toman, but no whopper.
The rivermouth where we fished. Our boat got stranded about 300m from this fishing spot and could not move further up.
Flatter ground with slower river flow will have mud as silt and steeper river will have stones instead. Goverment of Thailand instructed all reservoirs in the country to release much much more water than usual so as not to repeat the 2011 Thailand Flood, causing water level at all dams at their lowest level ever.
Junior barb.
Caught couple of barbs at this size, no drag scream though. Ultima-alike spoon with shinning-tail and spinners worked well for them. Got a huge strong take after I follow a rise and casted my fake ultima over, a heavy thud followed by drag scream for half second but no hookup, ha!
Dinner at the 2nd evening there, with hungry Jonas.
Got crystal rice noodle with pork balls, fried vege and chicken, omelette and a baked toman on table. Love the crystal rice noodle and baked toman as I have not taste something like that before.
Baked toman with spicy and sour sauce (in the light blue bowl that is)
I never love giant snakehead (toman) meat, as I always feel the meat is not sweet and it is tasteless, sometime even with an awkward smell. Some restaurants here in Kuala Lumpur serve sweet and sour fish slice with toman flesh, and I remember how they taste like for I wouldn't want to try them for second time. However the camp caretaker baked it with some donknowhat marinate before, and the fish taste sweet, with brilliant texture melted in my mouth. When mixed with the spicy and sour sauce, it was just great! I wallop all my rice that night for I could not resist the fish!
Misty jungle in the morning, 6 30am Thailand time.
We pushed off as early as possible on the third day, but still a bit late in my opinion. The brightness of 6am in Bangkok is like 7am in Malaysia, and actually I wish to fish much earlier to catch the dawn fish rise. I talked to Jonas about this and the difficulty is the caretaker got to wake up as early as 5am if we want to start fishing at, let say, 5 30am. Push off to fishing ground at 6 30am, Malaysia brightness, would be ideal.
Dead dry trees, sky, water reflection and greenery in the morning sun light
Morning sun light came from left and delivered the colors of each individual objects, the contrast of them, all in a very detail manner. I thought it could be a fantastic view and snapped it. The photo, however, is not able to deliver the effect of what my eyes have seen. I know I need longer exposure to let more colors be captured. Catching nice photos at the expense of hauling one 2kg+ or even 3kg camera if you carry more lense, however, is something I have been avoiding doing.
The abandoned camp
This abandoned camp located just opposite where I stayed and it was where the camp used to operate. During the 2011 Thailand flood, the water rise to the roof level of the house on the hill. Then after the current camp was constructed, as I have been told.
Photo of the camp
My camera got the behavior of "light spillage", as on the left part where the sky is. Perhaps it is suitable only to take photo on my catch, ha!
Karst showing white gap because of low water level and former soaked stone were exposed.
The fishing guide, Jonas
He came to Thailand at the age of 24, and this year is his 27th years in Thailand, and still counting. He used to operate sea fishing charter in Phuket and changed into freshwater fishing guide couple of years back. We talked about fishing, our favorite cooking on fishes, hooks, funny experience, funny anglers, extinction of fishes, and many more. He continued with his fishing trips when I left Surathani and said he got to continue staying outside until May 9th, then only he will go back to his Thais home.
"tough job" he said.
"You got a job that you love doing, I don't", I said.
He laughed and say "yes", and I knew he did.
Display board of Khao Sok National Park
The hotel I stay on April 30, with a very American name
I left Surathani on late afternoon and reached Bangkok early evening. This hotel located not far from airport and the price is reasonable, quite conve for overnighter like me. I dropped the idea to take train to this hotel from airport and took a taxi instead, for I really not sure which interchange I shall get out from the train, and I think the people in the train cabin would probably hate the bazooka I had with me. The taxi fare of THB 200 (approx RM 20) really impressed me and I then could not stop thinking why the heck taxi fare in Kuala Lumpur International Airport cost so much.
Fish balls rice noodle and pork herbs noodle
When my stomache tookover my attention, I get out and walked around the hotel looking for some new, seemingly strange, and perhaps nice food. Plenty of food stalls around the hotel and most are open stall right beside the road. Being carefull I thought I should opt for something safer. Not too far from the hotel there is this air-cond restaurant with a familiar "张" on it. I went in, look see look see and decided to have my dinner right there.
Well, I ordered the fish ball rice noodle (it is actually wide kuay tiao) because there is this pig intestine with it in the photo of it. I was curious how these 2 would mix and told myself to try them out. Then from the photo on the menu, I thought the pork herbs noodle looks great too, arhhh ... and irresistibly order that one. Ya I was greedy, I really was, "worse case scenario I cannot finish at least I got them tasted and remembered them ma..." I thought.
When the fish ball noodle served, I tried it and it was sour and spicy. I felt "wa...!", simply I never prepared for a sour and spicy fish ball noodle. There are also fish paste, fish cake and pig intestine in it. Not bad, scored it with 6.5/10.
The pork herbs noodle was the second meal. Fine noodle, smells great, and the little soup in there surprised me with pork taste and herbs aroma, yet they compromised each other very well. Not bad not bad, I scored them 8/10.
Walked out from the restaurant happily.
Pig innard, small squids, chicken feet and pork as ingredient for fried noodle beside busy road
After my dinner I had a walk around the area and checked on foods they offered. The display looked tempting but not the surrounding; buses and cars with exhaust soot passing by 5 ft from where the chef was standing, and even the chef herself put on a mask while she cooked. Nevertheless, the local people seem all right with the atmosphere and business was good.
Traffic jam on street.
The last time I came to Bangkok was on year 2001, during which the whole Bangkok was having horrible traffic jam because of construction acticvities on rail train project. I remember my business dinner scheduled on 8pm then was delay till 10pm. The traffic in Bangkok today was much better, cars moving smoothly with 3 layers of flyovers were easily seen.
My breakfast
Had a very "porky" breakfast in the hotel; other than the fried egg, the rest are pork, the sausage, ham and bacon. Paid THB 140 for the breakfast buffet and thought the price is very reasonable for choices were plenty.
My room
Snapped this photo before I start packing and heading airport. THB 890 per night, well you can get a hotel at this price in Kuala Lumpur but not the location and the room size.
I brought the interesting findings and fishing experience back home after my trip. I got a chat with Jonas on next fishing trip and I was advised to come on wet season, during which barbs that were scattered over the whole reservoir will gather at rivermouth and fishing would be much better.
I could not be sure if I will come back to Khao Sok for fishing, as there are plenty of other interesting fishing ground such as cheowlarn, Bhumipol, Sri nakarin, Chiang mai and others in Thailand.
Until then, Goob Bye Thailand!
