 Dear Mega Fishing Thailand, With February being renowned for being a big fish month, and after last years February trip being so successful having broken the Mekong giant catfish all tackle IGFA world record I was keen to return once again to Thailand to battle the mighty leviathans that inhabit one of the worlds most prolific fisheries Bungsamlan.
My itinerary included two fishing sessions at Bungsamlan, the first one of four days duration in early February whilst the weather was still cool hopefully to target in particular the awesome Siamese Carp, and secondly a five day session at the end of February which providing the weather would be hot enough and my ‘Karma’ was right, to do battle with the Mekong giant catfish.
I am usually guided by ‘Noi’ a full time professional guide. However, these days he is very busy guiding clients at the ‘New Predator Lake’. So Francois hooked me up with a new guide ‘Mee’ who although he is only a recent addition to the team, already has the reputation of guiding client’s to successfully catch big carp. I was picked up from the hotel in a mini bus as usual at 7:30 , and myself and several other eager anglers made our way slowly through the Bangkok traffic to the lake. I was met by my smiling guide and after a brief wait for the overnight patrons to finish up and leave the bungalow, we were fishing. Within an hour we had a few heavy showers which cooled things down a bit, not so good for Mekong fishing but hopefully it would tempt the carp into feeding. At about midday after already having caught a couple of small striped catfish early on one of the rods suddenly screamed off. I struck set the hook and after a short fight landed a 19.1kg Siamese giant carp. Not the biggest, but it is always feels good to get the carp for the session as it is a great confidence booster. After quickly photographing and releasing the fish the rods were recast and we sat back and waited with eager anticipation.
At 2:45 the same rod absolutely screamed off. From the onset I could feel this was a much better fish and by the way it was fighting making hard fast runs, and from the heavy boils in the water make by its tail as it dived back to the bottom each time I managed to gain some line to try and bring it to the surface, my hopes were high. Finally after around fifteen minutes the fish surfaced and our suspicions were confirmed it was a Siamese giant carp of 46.3kg (102lb)
 Tim Webb with 102lb Siamese giant carp caught while fishing in Thaialnd at Bungsamlan fishing park. Bangkok.
This was a truly brilliant start to the session having finally caught a Siamese Carp over the 100lb mark; anything else was now going to be a bonus. We decided to fish on to 9pm as the local Thai Anglers believe there another window of opportunity to catch Carp about one hour after dark. Strangely that day the Mekong’s were quiet, and when the line screamed off at around 6:45pm, I struck and hooked into what felt like a reasonable Mekong Catfish and I thought to myself about time. The fish fought hard and took a good 20 minutes before I felt that it was not far from finally being beaten. Suddenly, it broke the surface and to mine and the guide’s absolute amazement it was another big Siamese Carp which weighed in at exactly at 50.0kg (110lb). I said to the guide if I had realized it was a carp I would not have been fighting it so hard that’s for sure.
One of the species you seem to get more that your fair share of when fishing for carp are the striped catfish most of which are between 6 and 14kg. However, on the second day the fishing was quite quiet so I decided to drop one of my baits very close in actually between my bungalow and the one adjacent to it. It had been there less than one hour when the line started to madly strip off and I struck into what turned out to be my biggest ever striped catfish at 20.15kg which I was well pleased with. I also caught another small carp of 13kg later that day.Day 3 turned out to be another good team Karma day with five good fish landed on the day. The day started off very slowly at least that was until late afternoon when the Mekongs suddenly went into a feeding frenzy with three good sized Mekongs of 41.0kg, 52.3kg, and 53.3kg being landed over a three hour period. Then the day got even better with another good sized carp of 33.7kg pictured below.
Just as I thought that was it for the day at around 19:30 one rod absolutely screamed off as a colossal rate. I struck set the hook and tightened up the clutch but the line carried on screaming off. This fish was very fast and extremely powerful and I did not consider my chances of landing it in the dark very high as the fish seemed almost unstoppable. 30 minutes into the battle the fish managed to get under the next bungalow and then swum through several more. Now we were in big trouble; Q my guide who entered the water and swam following the line under the line of bungalows in the dark. After 10 minutes he had found where the fish had turned back out into the lake some five bungalows away. We quickly cut and retied the line and finally the day was capped off in fine style with another a big Mekong of 68.5kg pictured below, thanks to the fantastic efforts of my guide ‘Mee’. Over the four days we also tried the special Thai bait that is used at Ratchaburi and the Pacu certainly have a keen liking for it as I caught many Pacu including the two pictured above of 6.5 and 7.6kg caught on the fourth day and several others of around the five kilo mark. 
The second session of five days at Bung Sam Lang due to the much hotter weather only produced two small carp but did produce a total of nine good Mekongs of 37.6kg, 40.5kg, 42.6kg, 43.8kg, 47.8kg, 52.1kg, 53.0kg, 79.8kg, 151.0kg. The biggest fish of 151kg was landed on the first day and put up a truly incredible battle that took over 2 hours to finally subdue the giant. The fish moved very slowly but incredibly powerfully making long runs and then kiting round as I desperately tried to retrieve some line whilst it readied itself for its next run onslaught.
After forty minutes it kited round past the first bungalow and then with its next run made its way under the coffee shop where it tangled the line around the structure and stopped. It then took 3 guides 30 minutes to follow the line and coax the massive fish back out into the main part of the lake, where finally the leviathan was subdued and netted.
The catch was witnessed by many onlookers and a team of six people were required to weigh the fish on my 500lb certified scales. The lake staff even turned on the oxygen to the water where the fish was held until it had sufficiently recovered and swam back into the depths of Bung Sam Lang. The third day was another good numbers day with four Meekongs landed including the 79.8kg one. This fish took forty minutes to land and this time I managed to keep it away from all the structures landing it within the IGFA rules and coincidentally without the use of a harness or a fighting chair. There again I do come from the right side of the Tasman and am more that 4’10” tall. 
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