Bang​kok Fishing Guide Service

During the journey, I was able to spend the travelling time getting to know more about Bobby. Half Thai and half Karen, Bobby has a special relationship with the Karen villagers and was able to start a conservation program where villagers are benefiting from keeping the rivers clean and the fish plentiful. A sizeable portion of the fishing fees fly anglers pay to fish the rivers goes to a fund set up for the villagers to improve their community. So far, the funds have been dedicated to the improvement of the villager’s education system as well as infrastructures that improves accessibility into the village. Personally, I have found that Bobby’s efforts and passion in developing the villager’s livelihood and conserving the natural habitat to be highly effective and Thailand’s fishery elsewhere would benefit greatly using this conservation model as a case study. Apart from setting aside funding for the villagers, Bobby also employs young villagers as helpers in transporting drinks and equipment which he stated that he envision them to become a guide themselves eventually. His initiative in getting them introduced to fly fishing has already started with providing the kids with a fly line where they attach it to a makeshift bamboo rod to start casting around.

The river that we were to be fishing is a little river called the La River, which was rather quite accessible yet, somewhat remote. As we approached a bridge that crosses the river, I immediately jumped out of the car to check out the river from the bridge and to my surprise, there were hundreds of Golden and Blue Mahseer just hanging out just at the bottom of the bridge. At that point, I couldn’t get into my wading boots fast enough. What a rush to see all those fish that could possibly end up tugging at my fly line! As previously mentioned, most of my fly fishing experience was in still water and I’ve only had a handful of trips that I was fishing in actual rivers or streams. There was a lot to learn about fishing dry flies and nymphs including the proper presentation that would not spook the fish away. Fishing still water, the importance of landing that fly is not as important when compared to the clear water these fish are accustomed to. With excitement gushing through my veins, I sent out a fly like I would normally do fishing for Bass or Barramundi right into the school of Mahseer that I previously saw on the bridge and to my amusement, none of the fish was interested in taking the fly. Seriously? Hundreds of fish less than five meters away from me and I can’t get them to take a fly? At that point, I knew that all my fly casting skills that I’ve picked up so far is going to be thrown out the door and I’m going to have to pick up the new techniques up fast if I was to have a productive day. After leaving me to chase all the fish away without catching any, Bobby gradually steps up beside me and asked if I was ready to catch some fish. His knowledge of the water from the insect’s life cycle to the various stages of the local fruits that Mahseer feeds on amazes me. All I needed to do was to make that cast to where he is pointing and there was going to be a bite. Sure enough, the moment I was able to land that fly at the exact position with the right landing technique, a fish came up and takes the fly just as Bobby have described.