Sweaty March Fishing

Welcome to sweaty March me hearties.

I see Chalong circle is now getting a bit more “free flow” and the Pier repairs are moving forwards at a rate of knots. Could this be the “Power of the Press” or something more probable, like the importance of losing considerable amounts of money on a daily basis? It’s well seen that Phuket’s road system has not got a similar “toll” or earning capacity structure.

So me faltering fisheroos where are all the fishing reports, as I have heard nothing but “It’s too bloody hot and the fish are going deep or out to the ocean.” Well me cockleshell heroes, that don’t fill the cooking pot or the column inches!

Now that we are coming up to Songkran and the “cooling off” season, hopefully things will improve as it did about this time last year when I remember sitting at my keyboard, as now, hot, sticky and also being hit over the head by a big lump of writers block, but I soon came out of the doldrums when checking my records from March – April last year which chronicled my 4th Marlin in my 16 years’ experience fishing out of Phuket.

Once again, where do these supposedly experienced fishermen get the idea they can arrive here and land a Marlin on a day trip, “guaranteed” is well beyond me, you don’t go to a golf course and demand a hole in one.

BUT me hearties historically speaking this is the time to catch the big ones, for while checking my historical anals, J I reported last year that:- “Dorado, Mena 1, Fish Eagle and Mena 1 again all catching a Marlin within a few days of each other”. (April was even better) And now the Phuket Sport-fishing Club posted this picture of a 72.5K fish which originally I thought was one of the big Tuna but now I believe it to be a Chinese Mackerel (Scientific name:- S Sinensis – Seerfish being a term for numerous large Mackerel) caught in their 7^th annual “March” competition so although things might be “slow” in general there are trophy fish out there and this beastie is definitely “up there”, only a kick in the behind off a world record.

For those who don’t speak the language, I have been assured that there is a Thai word for logic but I am still trying to find evidence of this in practice: – Let’s have a water festival when there is a water shortage – Logic!

To allow sewage to flow freely into the sea, yet you can’t feed the fish for conservation reasons.

Let’s build the Chalong terminus for the new light railway – where??? Over the underpass. (for April 1 edition) Although this would not surprise those of us who have stayed any length of time in The Land of Smiles.

Any further contributions delving into the topic of “Thai logic” should be sent to The Comedy dept. Phuket News.

As usual, tight lines to all.