Fishing in Thailand

[matisse]

I am going this January to fish the Similan Islands on the Andaman Sea near Phuket with "The Big Blues" (www.thebigblues.com). Has anybody used this charter before or been to the Similan for some big game fishing?

Thanks in advance for any information which will be posted

Mat

[PanamaJack]

Hi Mat
One of our club members fished there last December, just before the tsunami struck. As well as trolling - unfortunately the weather was indifferent and, on the billfish front, they just managed a solitary 100lb Sailfish - they had some success deep water jigging.

There's a brief report on our Club web site - http://www.scbi.org.uk/pages/News_WhatsNewNfc200412.asp.

Interestingly if you click on the hot link in that report you'll see a picture of a 13lb (5.9kg) Bonefish that was caught fishing on the bottom in deep water. Don't take you fly rod, I understand they're particularly rare.

Every success.
Dave

[DaveIrving]

Hi Mat

Have never used this boat before but have fished the Similans a few times. Actually fishing around the islands is illegal (marine nature reserve) and you have to travel something like 2 km from them before you are allowed to fish.

The fishing there is pretty good at the moment with a lot of wahoo, yellowfin and the odd small black marlin (a 200lb black caught last week). You will also have a good chance of dorado, skipjacks, GTs, bluefin trevally, Spanish mackerel, cobia and all the usual bottom species.

Jigging can be done at the sea mount where they had a recent trip catching plenty of wahoo on jigs.

There are plenty of sailfish close to the islands (John Pearce once landed 21 sailfish on the Reel Hooker from there in just 4 hours fishing) ...but your skipper may not be keen to get too close as the area around the islands is often patrolled to prevent illegal fishing.

Bottom fishing at night can be productive....try dropping a full skipjack tuna just off the bottom.....on a trip in March 2004 we landed GTs to over 30Kg, Leopard sharks to 60Kg, spanish mackerel, mangrove jacks and stingray whilst the boat was anchored up for the night!

The fishing is not the best in the world but I guarantee you will have a good time!

Hi Dave

Yep that last trip we had there wasn't so good, in fact last year fished pretty poorly for Similans standards. This year the fishing has improved. A lot of the commercial fishing boats were put out of action by the tsunami and as a result the fishing has picked up again!

For up to date reports on the fishing in that area check out...

http://foro.wahoo.ws/viewforum.php?f=4

Cheers

Dave

[Fynn]

I was going to fish in Thailand once but I thought Phuket... Uh sorry just couldent resist

[sailfish]

I am going this January to fish the Similan Islands on the Andaman Sea near Phuket with "The Big Blues" (www.thebigblues.com). Has anybody used this charter before or been to the Similan for some big game fishing?

Thanks in advance for any information which will be posted

Mat
me and a mate have just booked a trip 3days/2nights to the similians,land in thailand 30 jan ,trip starts 2nd feb ,you still there then.can compare sailfih and shark photos.
also anyone know if ant tiger shark are being caught out there lately.
by the way i book http://www.phuketdeepseafishing.com/deep_sea/similan.html