Flyfishing in Phuket - Thailand?

[Kristian]

Hi everyone,

I´m planing a family vacation to Khao Lak 50 miles north of Phuket in Thailand. Since I´m crazy about flyfishing in hot saltwater I can´t go there without a flyrod or two.

But I have never been in this part of the world before, and not heard about flyfishing directly from the coast (Indian Ocean). The Similan Islands only two hours boat right away so I hope that the coast of the mainland can produce some nice fishing. Just a little Jack would make me happy.

Does any one have flyfishing experience from this part of the World?

Best regards

Kristian

[mctrout]

I am a fly guide in NY, But did not bring my rods when I went to the Phi Phi Islands (15 miles from Phucket) in 1993 and had not started saltwater at that point anyway so I did not see any Bones (MY favorite fish) but went diving and saw all knids of reef fish. The place we stayed at had a huge flat out from and I always wondered if there are bones there. didn't even know enough to look for holes or anything but I will bet they are there as there are close around like you said. I looked at the website of the place you are going and it sure looks nice. it dosen't take much to find a flat or shallow cove. please post your results when you return as I have always wondered. bring some poppers and charlies. I know the localls eat allot of snappers so there are some fish there.
good luck
Brendan McCarthy

[venture]

Took a two day offshore charter out of Phuket last March with a bunch of my friends from Bangkok. Pickens were tough. The captain claimed that the offshore fishery has been depleated due to overfishing by the netters. You will see some small boats out there with miles of nets running below the surface. No regulations of any type are in place, and the netters stock the tourest trade in Phuket. The captain claimed that the entire Asian rim vacations there for the seafood which by the way is great.

Anyway we went snorkeling off some out island on the second day and had many reef species feeding on hand fulls of cooked rice tossed overboard. We also saw some mackerel type fish of about five pounds swimming pretty close to land. They were very tasty, especially eaten sashi with a Thai chilly dip. Everything that we caught was immediately cooked and eaten. We had a blast. There are some false albies offshore, which we caught trolling. They call them bonita, but they are false albies. They were deep fried immediately with no breading. Funny thing was that in the USA, no one eats them. They were really great. They deep fried them with no breading, and were served with a hot sauce.

I am sure if you bring your fly rod, you will do some damage. But be sure to bring you knife and fork as well. Nothing is sacred there and the cooking is great. Howie