Fringed with white sandy beaches and lapped by the warm waters of Andaman Sea, the island of Phuket it is a veritable tropical paradise and now also famous for great sport fishing action.

The island of Phuket, in this recent years, became famous thank to the massive presence of sailfishes and a rich sea plenty of pelagic fishes and other small predators. Only few years ago this island was know as a tropical tourist island, but now can be considered the sailfishes Asian capital.

Phuket island is the gem of Andaman coast and the most beautiful island of Thailand. Shaped like an irregular pearl and measuring approximately 21 kilometers wide by 48 kilometers long, Phuket is Thailand‘s largest island, a province in its own right. Sparsely populated outside Phuket town, the landscape is one of lush green hills, coconut groves, rubber plantations and a coastline dotted with a dozen spectacular beaches. Set against a backdrop of palms and cauarinas and charm of its own.

A MULTITUDE OF FISHES

More than the natural beauties, Phuket offers at the fishing lovers a wide range of preys to caught with the most various techniques.

In open sea you can find: black marlin, sailfish, yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, dogtooh tuna, longtail tuna, dorado, cobia, whaoo, giant and bluefin trevally, rainbow runner, narrowbarred makerel, tiger and hammered sharks.

Near the cost and at the mouth of the rivers, near the mangroves forests: snapper, golden jack, sea bass, permit and even barramundi of a weight, sometimes, over 20 kilograms.

The techniques are consequently varies; you can do offshore trolling, shark fishing with anchored boat, light trolling near the shore, spin and fly fishing near and inside the mouth of rivers.

Surely the most famous famous fish it is the sailfish. This fish populates in a massive way the waters around this island and it isn’t rare double, triple or quadruple hook-ups of these fishes. A particularity of this sailfish is that in these waters it goes in small schools of 5 or 6 fishes and it is for this reason that in a fishing day it is possible to have some multiples strikes. The medium size of these fishes it is between 30 and 40 kilograms, but fishes of a weight over 80 kilograms are been fished.

In Phuket, over a wide selection of fishes, are present many fishing boats. By now there are 23 boats for offshore fishing and one specialized for shark fishing; most of them are local-made boats, from 10 to 12 meters, equipped with rods and reels, fighting chair, outriggers, gaffs, lures. These boats can be hired for a cheap amount, but obviously the tackles furnished aren’t of good quality, normally 30 or 50 pounds, and also sometimes the crew isn’t so expert. So in this case is better to bring his own trolling rods and reels in the range of 12, 16 and 20 pounds and a large escort of octopus, kona-heads, jet-heads, Rapalas and all necessary.

There are, also, four very good boats: "Wahoo", "Jaws Too", "Andaman Hooker", "Reel Hooker" that as experience and professionally and equipment have nothing to envy respect boats of the most famous and renowned fishing places in the world.

The "Jaws Too" ,moreover, is the only boat that organizes serious fishing trips for sharks, either during the day or during the night and also for 3 or 4 days in very far and unknown reefs. All the sharks are strictly released, obviously after all the clients have played some photos of the catch. The fishing is made with anchored boat and with the help of a tank of blood and with chunks of sardines and tunas, are attracted the sharks. The catches are: bull sharks, reef sharks, mako sharks, hammered sharks but main target is the tiger shark that seem be present in these waters with an average size of 200 kilograms, but bigger are normally been caught. Once, the "Jaws Too" was literally weighed anchor and a big tiger shark have pulled the boat for more than 10 miles before breaking the line.

ZONES AND SEASONS

Breaking fish were visible from hundreds of meters away. As we approached the activity, we found ourselves surrounded by cavorting sailfishes, some appearing within meters of the boat, yet seemingly obvious to our presence. We watched hundreds of sailfishes swimming, free-jumping, and wildly splashing on the surface. It look like a classic feeding frenzy, except we couldn’t see any forage and the baits and lures we were trolling went totally ignored.

I had never seen so many sailfishes, save one time in Senegal and those fishes were feeding schools of sardines.

"So what is the story ???" Nobody had an answer; the strange activity started some day at around 2 in the afternoon, even though conditions such as tides and water clarity were constantly changing. Spawning, plankton feeding, parasites and overcrowding were some of the theories offered to explain the behavior.

All this happened in the main area of fishing it is at about ten miles from the tourist port of Chalong, in the south of the island. Here there are two beautiful islands, Racha Yai e Ko Hei, with sandy and coral bottom; this area it is a zone of feeding of all the oceanic fishes, from the small barracuda to the big black marlin.

Racha Yai is particularly famous for the constant presence of sailfishes that swim until near the shore to eat small fishes. Trolling, near this island, it is always made in the under wind side also at few meters from the shore with a bottom depth from 20 to 50 meters.

In the waters around the island of Ko Hei, only sometimes it is possible to find sailfishes but it is more probable to meet black marlins, wahoos, yellowfin and skipjack tunas.

Other very interesting and productive zones are the world famous Similan islands, a superb marine park consisting of nine uninhabited islands with clear water and magnificent coral reefs. They are situated about 60 miles north to Phuket. As much far and as much evocative are the Surin islands on Thailand’s marine border with Burma (Birmania). These beautiful islands are inhabited by the "Chao Ley", sea gypsies with no nationality who live in primitive but attractive villages along the totally unspoiled beaches and earn their living by fishing from canoes and long-tail boats. These areas are very productive for black marlins and for all offshore fishes, but strangely not so good for sailfishes.

The number one sailfish hot spot in all Thailand and may be of all Asia are the Longnose islands; two spectacular islands covered in dripping rainforest full of wild orchids and home to numerous species of exotic birds. Whale sharks, whales, sea turtles and dolphins are generally seen on trips to this truly splendid location. The sailfish action is often amazing and occasionally simply staggering. Multi hook-ups of 3 or 4 sailfishes can almost be considered normal on trips to these islands.

To fish at Similan, Surin, Longnose islands are necessary, at least, safari of 3 or 4 days living on board and having so the possibility to fish around the clock.

The best seasons for the fishing correspond at the dry season, from November to March. The other months are equally productive but the condition of rough sea and weather with rain and wind, not allow a perfect trolling action.

Sailfish can be caught year around but the "hot" times are generally from November to March with another run during the rainy season in July and August.

Black marlin are found from September to April, with the season reaching a peak during February and March. Black marlin average is from 80 to 120 kilograms.

Tuna, dorado, wahoo, barracuda and narrowbarred makerel are caught throughout the year. The tuna are generally not giants with skipjack, school yellowfin, respectable dogtooth, small longtail and kawa-kawa representing the most abundant species. The hard-fighting dorado are most common in peak season, with occasional individuals reaching over 25 kilograms.

Huge catches of wahoo have been recorded with trophy size specimens nearing 40 kilograms taken in deep water over the continental shelf. Last year a charter fishing boat, in two hours, fished 21 wahoos and the smallest weighted 25 kilograms.

Barracudas range in size from bait stealing pests near world records; giant trevally reaches a nice weight and some monster of over 40 kilograms have been caught and there is a fantastic action to be had by casting poppers over a reef, for mid size specimens, surely not recommended for the week-hearted.

To give yourself the best shot at fishing, try to schedule your trip for the first three days of new moon or the three days before the full moon. These are the best times for all species because of a stronger water movement generated by tides.

A RICH SEA

During my holiday in this wonderful island I have had the possibility of fishing either with local boats or with a top class boat: the "Wahoo" a 48 feet built in Thailand equipped in an excellent way by the skipper and owner Philip Watkins.

Born in England, Philip from about 30 years lives in Thailand and from seven years menages this boat. He was the first person to seriously research sailfishes and black marlins in the water around the island of Phuket and now is the best expert of the techniques and zones of this sea. Philip is also the manager of the "Phuket Sportfishing Centre" who assembles a good number of charter fishing boats that cover any kind of techniques.

The main target of the "Wahoo" are sailfishes and the day average is 2 or 3 but to catch 10 or more sailfishes in a day is enough common. The day record for this boat is ended with the catch of 23 sailfishes. Every season the "Wahoo" release from 450 to 500 sailfishes and about 30-40 black marlins. Obviously these ciphers can vary if the clients want to go at the Surin and Similan Islands where the main target is the black marlin.

The crew of the "Wahoo" is one of the most serious and professional that I have never seen and the fishing tackle on board cover all the possible techniques: Penn and Shimano trolling gear from 12 to 80 pounds, bottom fishing rods and reels, spin gear from ultra light to heavy-strong one for the fighting giant trevally.

The fishing day starts at 8,30 in the morning and end at 5 in the afternoon because, normally, the sailfish comes up on the surface for feeding in the first hours in the afternoon; irregularly in some periods of the year it can be met also during the morning hours. Out of the Chalong bay the boat starts trolling at a speed of 7-8 knots with big "jet-heads", favorite lures of all the fishing charter boats in Phuket, and also with small octopus to catch juvenile tunas. When the Racha Yai and Ko Hei islands are reached, back of the transom, two teasers made by chains of soft squids, preceded by a wooden bird, are arranged at about 15 meters; the speed of the boat is reduced and the artificial lures are replaced with tuna strip baits for the exclusive research of sailfishes.

Unnecessary say that this my experience on this boat was excellent and incomparable ended with a multitude of multiples strikes and with the catch of 7 sailfishes of medium size immediately released and, with the catch of lots of other small oceanic predators. In Thailand, it’s customary to celebrate the catch, and the Thai crewmembers seemed equally enthusiastic over a skipjack or a sailfish, creating a very light-hearted atmosphere onboard the "Wahoo".

Equally funny, but more spartan and very less professional was the fishing with local boats, that in any way they have made me appreciate the richness and the abundance of this sea with the catch every day of an enormous number of fishes: rainbow runners, dolphins, wahoos, yellowfin and skipjack tunas, kawa kawas, narrowbarred makerels and enormous needlefishes (garfishes).

I have made my trip in this beautiful island in a not good season for the fishing, and the results was excellent and I can’t imagine what will happen in the hot season. The only way is to try. I will be surely there!!