Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Thai Mahseer fishing

Hi Steve,

I just came across this post so I apologize for replying so late. I live in Dhaka, Bangladesh and have fished quite a bit in Thailand. I've not been on a mahseer trip yet but have fished several of the stocked ponds within a couple of hours of Bangkok. They're a lot of fun and some have amenaties that I'm sure your girlfriend will appreciate. I used a French guide named Jean-Francois, you can google him and get his info. I was really happy with him and his team of Thai guides. Let me know if you're still coming to Bangladesh, maybe we can do some fishing. Believe it or not it's been hard to find any place to fish here but I'm starting to get some leads on places to go.

Andrew

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Steve F <spfbeaver@gmail.com> wrote:

Ilene,

That sounds like quite an adventure!  I just started researching mahseer as I'll be Bangladesh at the end of the year and likely Bangkok for the new year.  The only problem I'm running into is I can't get my girlfriend to spend a night in SNP, let alone share a zip code with tigers, leeches, and vipers.  She has quite the irrational fear of the creepies and crawlies. 

I was hoping to spend a day or two out in Kanchanaburi and maybe get away for a quick mahseer trip.  Is that where you ended up?  Were you able to find much info on reputable guides?  

Great report!

Steve F.

On Sunday, 25 March 2012 12:19:49 UTC-4, ilene wrote:

Thai Mahseer fishing

My husband and I hired a guide to take us into the jungle at the Burma/Thai border to fish for the rare Thai Mahseer.  We were staying in Bangkok, where he was presenting at a conference, and had a few days down time between presentations.

Our guide, a Swedish expat who spoke fluent English and Thai, has made the elusive Mahseer his passion, if not obsession. He picked us up at our Bangkok hotel in an air-conditioned 4x4 we drove 3 hours west to the Thai –Burma border, followed by a 2 hour drive on a very bumpy one lane road to Base Camp in the jungle. The next morning we packed up our gear and made an early 10K hike down the mountain to get to the river and set up camp.  Once there, you have no medical care and if anything happens it's hard to get out quickly.  We weren't deterred.  You also have to be ok with sharing the jungle with tigers, leopards, black panthers, king cobras, green pit vipers, wild boar, mosquitoes and Africanized honey bees (oh and leeches always seem to find their way onto your skin!).  Actually the mosquitoes and leeches weren't too bad, as we went during the dry season; the bees were another matter though. And I would be remiss if I did not mention marauding wild elephants, which necessitate camping on river islands and keeping a camp fire going throughout the night!

But back to the fishing:  You need to wear camouflage clothing because the Mahseer are incredibly spooky and spot you if you wear bright colors or white. Long casts with particular attention to the back cast are mandatory, given the wary quarry and dense streamside vegetation. We used 5 wt rods and bead head nymphs, although we saw fish occasionally taking yellow butterflies that fell into the river, so we also fished large yellow Royal Wulffs. This produced some interesting rises and sphincter tightening refusals.

We caught quite a few Mahseer in the 2- 4 lb. size range in 2 days and they really put up a fight.  They take off like a bonefish – hopefully up river. A large fish heading downstream is an almost guaranteed LDR. But then, that's a good problem to have, no?

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