A very low water level and slow start to the day had us thinking we were wasting our time but the fish soon started to bite. I ended the day landing 16 Mekongs the largest of which was 19Kg. I managed to straighten one Gamakatsu hook and break another.
This place had been recommended to us as a good pond for large Mekongs so I took my heavyweight tackle with me. It’s a 60km drive from Pattaya to the other side of Rayong. I arrived about 10am and caught three fish on my first 3 casts, unfortunately all small striped catfish. After a few more small striped catfish I caught a silver barb which the owner promptly fed to his pet crocodile (a ten year old called Lacoste). I then caught another 15 or more small striped catfish. Between two of us fishing the largest fish we caught was about 3.5Kg.
An 8am start from Pattaya and some fairly light traffic in Bangkok had us arrive at Bungsamran for 10am. Having never fished there before and reading some stories of people catching nothing on their first visit, we decided it best to pay the ฿1,000 for a guide for the day.
The fishing fee for foreigners is ฿2,000, Thais pay ฿400. With a sack of ground rice husks (“rrum khao” in Thai) ฿620, and the guide choosing 6 bottles of bait flavourings at ฿30 each, between the two of us we paid ฿5,800.
The guide asked us what tackle we had, I showed him some feeders, floats and a hook link ready made up with 80lb braid and a Gamakatsu size 17 hook which he sneered at. He then asked for ฿200 to buy some more tackle. He returned about 15 minutes later with some large feeders, some floats similar to the ones I already had and and a packet of size 17 Gamakatsu hooks.
We left the rigging to the guide, the basic set up is a large float running free on the main line, an elastic band or float stopper about 8′ – 10′ above the float, a very large in-line coil feeder and 4 1/2″ braided hook link with size 17 hook. In the absence of any bait two polystyrene balls are put on the hook to make it neutrally buoyant.
The fishing was a little slow, the first three fish we landed were all striped catfish around the 12Kg mark, then the Mekongs started to take the bait. The first one I landed tipped the scales at 28Kg. My fishing buddy then hauled out a Siamese carp weighing in at 22.1Kg.
With the guide making massive bait balls (approximately 5″ in diameter) the large bag of bait didn’t last very long, we spent another ฿460 on bait and flavourings. Despite costing us ฿1,000 the guide packed up 5pm leaving us to fend for ourselves.
My buddy then landed the catch of the day, it was quite a struggle to get it on the scales, a Mekong of 48.3Kg. In ten and a half hours I landed 6 striped catfish and 11 Mekong catfish, the largest weighing in at 32.4Kg with 4 more in excess of 25Kg.
