August Fishing

Hi once again my fellow fisheroos.

August’s inclement weather and the shortage of tourist anglers meant there was not a lot of local action. On average I managed to get out about once a week between weather fronts and can report mediocre fishing with Tuna being caught in single figures, although for the real enthusiast, luckily, there was always “something special” caught on our return trips, two single Wahoo, a King Mack, a Sail and a pair of Dorado satisfactorily and individually finished each trip.

The weather reports have also been a bit inaccurate, as the fronts seem to be moving faster than predicted, and while I’m in a grumpy mood – what about the proposed building of a supermarket on James Bond Island? 007 / 11 indeed J

Last month’s excitement came from the sinking, at its moorings, of Mena 1 but it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good as I have been assured that she will be back, at the end of this month, better than ever with GPS, a new generator and a full refit. Apparently negligence was the cause of the accident and this is the third report of poor seamanship I have been made aware of in the last month with the other two being downright dangerous to life and limb. Although I am not prepared to go into detail, it is my considered opinion our local Thai “captains” while having intimate knowledge of the area are very often not up to accepted international standards in seamanship, boat handling and/or trip preparation. While the language barrier can be a problem, a course in interpersonal relations would not go amiss either. Yes, there’s the right way, the wrong way and the Thai way.

As things were quiet my other half decided to pull the ring through my nose and have a quick holiday, so off we went to Chumphon which was a real eye opener. While the place itself is a quiet delight, half the price of Phuket and well worth visiting, I was advised fishing in the Gulf of Thailand is now 12% of what it was in its heyday. Wearing our tourist hats, we visited Chumphon’s very busy landing docks and saw many, many tons of fish no bigger than 6 inches being unloaded from a continual queue of large trawlers, which once again led me to think about the plight of the poor old Andaman Sea, as I hear the trawling fleet is once again being expanded.

As usual, tight lines to all.

Jimmy