One of the most strange and powerfull fish of Asian freshwater is the mekong catfish.

When some years ago I discovered the existence of mekong catfish fish on a Singapore magazine, I was immediately surprised and fascinated about that fish. I thought that as soon as I should have discovered a good and easy destination in Asia, I should try to organize a fishing trip with the goal of catching it. So when last year I found on the web that there was the real possibility to do a serious trip in Thailand for snakhead to fish mekong catfish in a lake near Bangkok, I didn’t waste the time and I started planning my trip to that country. 

  THE ADVENTURE

So after an intercontinental flight of 12 hours, taxi rides, days in hotels all was ready to start the adventure.

Bung San Lam Lake, a small private lake near the capital Bangkok. Here there are mekong catfish up to 75 pound, striped catfish up to 20 pound, siamese carps up to 220 pound, plus many other strange Amazon fishes like the pacu and  the arapaima.

Created seventeen years ago from a gravel pit of about twenty acres, it is stocked with a huge variety of native Thai and imported fish. So far, so uncontroversial. Yet this is one of the most extraordinary fisheries in the world. Chris and I visited Bungsam Lan for the first time on a hot, humid October afternoon, accompanied by our guide, Jean-Francois Helias of Fishing Adventures Thailand. Francois is a Frenchman, fluent in both Thai and English, a passionate angler, and one of the most charming persons one could wish to meet.

One of the most misteryous Thai fish is the Pla Buk or mekong catfish. It has an oblong, slightly compressed body with rounded-shaped jaw and a relatively large head.

These fish are found in the Mekong River and its main tributaries in Thailand. Most of them can be found in the Mekong Basin where it serves as the international boundary between Thailand and Laos.

The male has a relatively small head, rounded snout and a more slender body. The female has a larger size of head, blunt snout and bulky abdominal portion. The eye is relatively small, entirely separate from the eyelids. Teeth are absent. A short pair of pinkish maxillary barbells conceals in a groove behind the mouth. Two pairs of nostrils are well separated to each side of the head. The caudal fin has a fork shape. The coloration of live specimen displays the reddish grey on its back, bluish grey laterally and relatively white ventrally. A black spot locates on each side of the body at the tip of the pectoral fin, and the other three spots scatter on the caudal fin. In body size, the Pla Buk may reach 3.0 meters in total length and weighs up to 250 kilos. Typically, the size of Pla Buk is between 15 to 40 kilos. However, the biggest Mekong Giant Catfish caught so far by an angler weighed 106 kilos.

We were visiting Bung Sam Lan as part of on investigation intoThailand's potential as a fishing destination for anglers. Around noontime Francois met us at our hotel, and we piled into the air conditioned mini bus equipped with the heaviest tackle we possess, and additionally with a pair of Shimano Big Bait Runners loaned to us by Francois

Everywhere you look there is something fascinating to see - temples, roadside food sellers, intriguing stretches of canal bordered by traditional wooden houses Bangkok was once called the Venice of the East - but we were in a hurry to get fishing and couldn't spare the time for mere tourism.

Eventually we turned off the busy main road, down a side road lined with small shops and restaurants, and suddenly in front of us was the gateway to Bung San Lan. Tropical plants and decorative pots filled with fish and water lilies stood guard on the bridge that we crossed to reach the entrance. We walked across the bridge, through the tackle and bait shop and out onto the water itself, where we were greeted with one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen. Roofed pontoons around 300 yards long and packed with anglers stretched out on either side of a lake of about eight acres. Beyond, there was another similar area lined with small wooden thatched bungalows. Brightly coloured floats and huge balls of bait were being whizzed out by determined looking Thai anglers in every direction

 THE WATER WAS BOILING WITH FISHES

The water was boiling with fish. Silver, gold and olive, backs, fins and tails surged and rolled out of the soupy green water. And these were big, serious fish - 20's, 30's and more - the surface of the water for as far as the eye could see was covered with fish activity. 

For Bung Sam Lan holds some of the world's largest freshwater fish. There are a few Mekong catfish of over 100 kilos, around 250 between 50 and 100 kilos, and thousands more smaller ones. There are several giant Siamese carp to over 100 kilos, and many more small ones. There are no less than 30 piraracu (Arapaima gigas) especially imported from South America. As if this isn't enough, Bung Sam Lan holds giant siamese carp, giant snakehead, gar, striped catfish, tilapia and who knows what else. 

The water is stocked to a density of some 20 to 30 times more than any European fishery. Because of the high temperature of the water - about 33 degrees C, like a nice cup of tea - the fish come up from time to time to take oxygen - hence the continuous boiling on the surface. At night, the water is oxygenated using a system of pumps and paddles, and with this density of anglers, feeding the fish is no problem. 

Our tackle once loaded on to a garden centre style trolley, we made our way past a row of small tackle shops and restaurants, along the pontoon filled with Thai families fishing, eating, snoozing in hammocks and swapping tall stories, all of which was being carried out at the characteristic high Thai volume level. 

We crossed a rickety wooden bridge and then left into a quiet section at the far end of the pit with just two bungalows and about two acres of water. Our bungalow consisted of a large fishing pontoon with a small room at the rear with a sleeping platform. There was electricity so we could make coffee and run the fan provided to supply a much needed cool breeze. We made ourselves comfortable, set up the rods, then sat down for a delicious lunch purchased from one of the water's restaurants.

WEIRD FISHING

The fishing technique to use in this lake is quite easy, but the real secret to have excellent results is the bait. Jean Francois and his guides have discovered a super-bait that allows to catch a huge amount of fishes.

Like all good baits, the recipe is a secret, in fact I promised at Jean Francois to not to reveal anything about it, but I can tell you it involves bread, coconut milk and some other fairly ingredients.

The hook bait is a strip of bread about an inch wide cut across the width of the slice, folded in half and squeezed flat before the hook - about a size 1 single - is threaded in and out again and the point buried in the ball of bait. We are using a style of fishing known as la pelote. It's essentially the method - the pelote is an ovoid shaped cage made from a single thick coiled wire and sometimes with a coloured rubber middle for extra buoyancy. The bait mixture is squeezed around this to about the size of a cricket ball. The hook bait suspends about 4" below the pelote as the bait breaks up. The large, brightly coloured and highly buoyant floats serve to suspend the pelote at around 8 to 10 feet in a depth of 15 feet. We put out four rods set up in this fashion, casting about 50 or 60 yards out.

Here the biting was so furious that after a couple of hours of fishing I lost the count of the catch. Every fishing session I alternate 2 hours of fishing at half hour of total relax, because the fighting were so hard that I need a rest to recharge my batteries. I think that the mekong catfish are the most powerful and fighting freshwater fishes; their fight can be compare only at the one of the tuna. To catch a mekong catfish of 20 kilos I needed always at least no less of 30 minutes of fighting.

All this fishing trip was more than positive and exciting, I will be back surely again in Thailand.