By Shan Cunningham
With my wife Sali having been born in Thailand and raised in Canada, and still having family there, we try to make the most of our travel plans to visit her family, hit the beaches, and of course get lots of fishing in.
It had been six years since we last visited Thailand, and on that trip we visited Gillhams Fishing Resort and caught some amazing fish on their 12 acre lake that holds 52 species, several of those being over 100lbs! We also fished their smaller pond where we were able to fly fish and managed to catch numerous fish on the fly including an arowana which was no easy task with their sharp teeth and bony tongue.
We had been trying to get back to visit Thailand again since that trip, but because of all the covid travel restrictions for so many years those plans had to be placed on hold. We were finally able to put those plans together for this year, and booked all of our flights, hotels and fishing trips months in advance for the two of us, along with our daughter and Sali’s mom. With two weeks to go before we were to depart, we were surprised to find out the Sali’s family had actually moved a few hours outside of Bangkok. We had already paid for the hotel in full for her mother to stay, that we had booked and was only a couple blocks away from where they originally lived. So now we had to adjust our plans, but as luck would have it, the location her relatives had moved to was only 5mins away from Jurrasic Fishing Resort.
After over 30hrs of travel time from Nova Scotia, Canada to Bangkok, we spent the first few days enjoying the amazing food options the city has to offer. For as much as we love fishing, we also equally love food! And my advice for anyone traveling to Bangkok is to explore the markets and the local shops/restaurants and try everything! Most of the local shops and vendors are very inexpensive and we often walk around and will eat at the locations that were the busiest with locals. Many of these places have very limited menus and most are completely in Thai with a lot of their staff not speaking English, so we often just point to random items on the menu and will be surprised by what we’d receive, but it’s almost always delicious!
Then we had a taxi arranged through Jurrasic Fishing Resort to pick us up in Bangkok and take us to their location a day early so that we could spend some time visiting Sali’s grandmother and cousins. It was great getting to see them again after 6 years and they treated us to a feast of Thai dishes and toured us around to see the area that was a mixture of rice fields, cattle farms and large rock formations that seem to jut up from the land in random places with their sheer cliffs and caves that held thousands of bats that you could watch exit these mountainsides to hunt each evening.
The next day we were dropped off at Jurrasic Fishing Resort and with the package that we purchased, the first day was a non-fishing day which allowed us to explore this amazing place and take it all in. The villa suite that we had was just incredible. It was larger than most people’s homes, and it had two outside seating areas in the front overlooking the pool and gardens, and another backyard seating area which overlooked the local rice fields and large jutting cliffs with one large cave that had a lone monk from the nearby monastery living in the cliffside cave. We would watch this lone monk daily as he’d come and go from the cave entrance and left us wondering what kind of life he was living way up there looking down at all of us living the life of luxury.
The resort itself is stunning. With trails that lead all the way around the large lake and perfectly set up “swims” which are small structures with a roof at each fishing location, seating, a table and a fan, along with a concrete area that extends on the edge of the lake. Near each swim, they have washrooms with running water, and even have showers to cool down, or wash off after wading into the lake for your “grip and grin” pictures. They use the WhatsApp system where you can message the staff for anything that you might need, and they literally come running. You can order food or beverages and can even bring you a cold ice cream on a hot day! They have “gillies” which are their fishing guides near each swim, and they not only help get you all set up and show you the best places to cast, they’ll also come running when you blow your provided whistle when you get a hook up with one of the numerous fish.
The next day, we were taken at daylight for their saltwater lake. We had selected this option as it was the area that they would allow us to use our flyfishing gear that we brought. While flyfishing isn’t that common at this resort, the staff and management were very open to letting us give it a try in the saltwater lake. We spent the entire morning casting numerous flies in 40°C weather and managed a few strikes only to have the fish break almost every leader that we brought with us. Finally Sali managed to land a nice barramundi on the fly…. and not just any fly, but one that was tied and given to her to try on our trip from a gentleman back in Nova Scotia. We switched up to spinning gear and live bait for the afternoon and we were not disappointed! The barramundi were hitting so fast and so often, that rather than fish at the same time, we took turns as we were landing fish as fast as we’d cast out. Sali also managed to land the only grouper of the day as well.
After a long day fishing in the hot sun, it was great to relax back at the resort in the saltwater pool and enjoyed the food and hospitality back at the lounge. We headed to bed early as the next day was going to be a sun up until sunset fishing day and it was supposed to be just as hot and sunny.
Early the next morning we headed to our assigned ‘swim’ (which they select the night before by a random draw of numbers from all of the anglers fishing the next day). We had a great location on the lake with the sun behind us, but shaded by the lush vegetation so as not to get too overheated. And it was a good thing we were able to relax in the shade, as we spent many hours of the day taking turns fighting and landing some very large chao phraya catfish and they can pull like you’re trying to reel in a vehicle on the other end of the line!
The resort manager Tom Broomhead came down to visit us at our swim and asked what species of fish we’d really like to target. After telling him how much we’d love to try and land an arapaima, he spent the last hour of daylight personally helping us in our attempts to catch one. And while the attempts proved fruitless, we did manage to hook one more large catfish instead to finish the day. That’s fishing!
We took the long taxi ride back into Bangkok and the next morning we boarded our flight to Phuket in Southern Thailand. We spent the next week between the pool, the beaches, and shopping. This area of Thailand is definitely more tourist designed, and draws a lot of travelers from locations all over the world.
At the end of that week we were picked up by another taxi that was rearranged by Real Info Phuket Fishing to take us to the pier for our own private fishing charter. The captain and mate took Sali and myself deep sea fishing and it didn’t take long to start getting hookups with the numerous tuna, and we were treated to having some of the fish that we caught for lunch as the crew prepared an amazing meal of traditional Thai dishes. They even made us a plate of sashimi from our very freshly caught fish!
We anchored up on a small sheltered bay where we got to jump in and snorkel while feeding the fish our lunch leftovers by hand. The water was so refreshing on such a hot day for sure.
After taking a break, we got back at the fishing and this time the crew were mostly targeting sailfish as we could see them jumping all around us. And while we didn’t manage any hookups on these fish, we could still reel in more of the small tuna and thoroughly enjoyed our full day aboard.
Thailand should be on the bucket list for many, and while it can be a lot of travel to get there, it’s definitely well worth it once you arrive. From private lakes and ponds that are stocked with monster fish species, to back country jungle river trips for wild, native fish, and lots of saltwater charter boat fishing options, it is a great destination for fishing and vacation at the same time.
