Sportfishing adventures in Thailand

[Stefano_]

Dear Sir,

This is an invitation to you to come and join us for an unforgettable fishing experience with THE BIG BLUES, the new premier blue water fishing charter operation based in Phuket, Thailand.
Join us for an amazing fishing experience and find out how paradise can be easily accessible once you have discovered the crystal clear blue waters, palm fringed shores and exuberant night life of the "Pearl of the Andaman Sea", Phuket.

Phuket is in a way a new spot on the world's sport fishing map, which manages to bring together an excellent Big Game fishing productivity with the typical Thai hospitality and an easy accessible, first class resort.
Compared to most of the spots in South East Asia here the number of Sailfish is unbeatable and nowhere else in the world can be seen tailing on the surface in such a number!!!

The fish rich waters of the Andaman Sea, also offer exceptional quality fishing for Wahoo, Dorado, Barracuda, Giant Trevally, Rainbow Runner, King Mackerel, Cobia, Queenfish, numerous species of Tuna and several species of Shark. On the other hand Black Marlin can be caught around the island on the drop off or more likely on our incredible safari trips to the Similan or Andaman islands.

Phuket today in fact is an ideal fishing holiday destination not only for would be Hemingways but also for the all family or group of friends!

At the very end an ideal place to really get away from it all and recharge the batteries.

So have a look to our new website on www.thebigblues.com, get hooked and enjoy moments of awesome beauty and incredible action.

In the meanwhile all the best for an Happy Christmas and a fabulous 2006

Best regards

Stefano Fiori
The Big Blues, owner

[nothaimarlin]

For anyone considering Thailand as a place to target marlin specifically...
I've fished Thailand and kept up with the reports for years. They have Sails, GTs, Wahoo and Dorado, but you won't sniff a marlin unless you go to the Andaman Islands on a live-aboard trip and/or are unbelieveably lucky (I'm talking miracle luck).

If you want a nice, relatively low cost fishing trip with plenty to do on-shore, Thailand is great. If you specifically want to catch marlin, absolutely forget about doing it in Thailand.

Between the commercials and the local recreational angling community, they've all but wiped out most of the sport-fishing. Until quite recently, many of the recs still killed the sails they caught.

Live-aboard to the Andamans or Similans is the best way if you want a chance at a marlin in Thailand. Similans are good for GTs and Wahoo. Hope this helps.

[Stefano_]

At the beginning of March the Blind Strike was at the Similan Islands were we had excellent time with huge balls of Yellowfin which kept our guests fully busy all day long. We also had a bite from a Black which did not give us even the time to enjoy it that was already gone!

We then moved to the Andaman Islands till the end of the month for two consecutive sessions of our famous “Popping&Jigging” expeditions. And the Andamans confirmed and even exceeded our expectations in some cases, with non stop action from dawn to dusk (or better all day long sometimes since some of our guests had barely few hours of rest every night!). Huge Groupers and Yellowfin, Red Bass and Dogtooth Tuna together with Barracuda, Wahoo, Sharks of different species and a variety of bottom dwellers of the most different sizes, colours and shapes were on the menu. GTs were numerous and among them some beauties will remain for long time in the memories of all our guests. They proved again to be the star of the trip with some spectacular strikes and fights which confirm them as the ultimate fighter pound for pound. Finally during the transfer from one spot to another we even manage to catch a Black Marlin which unfortunately, since badly injured, we were unable to release. This one, another one lost on the way to the Andamans together with other reports from other sportfishing boats confirm our thoughts according to which this place has huge potential as Billfishing destination. For the adventurous anglers this is truly one of the ultimate frontier; we barely saw a boat during our stay in those waters and we really hope they will remain as they are for long time. Moreover the area is so vast (more than 8,200 sq km) that it can offer to the returning anglers always new and sometimes unexplored fishing ground, both to the popping and jigging enthusiasts or to the big nose lovers. In conclusion I don’t think that it happens everyday to fish waters which on the map are showed as “unchartered” and I still believe that every keen fishermen should give it a try once in a lifetime!
We are already receiving booking enquiries for the 2007 season, so I suggest to every interested angler to contact us as soon as possible to be part of one of next year Special Safari Expeditions to the magical Andaman Islands.

Please go to http://www.thebigblues.com/Andaman06.html for the latest pictures of the “2006 Popping&Jigging Expedition”.

For more details on fishing with The Big Blues please contact Stefano Fiori on +66 (0) 783 45293 – 988 56233 or visit our website www.thebigblues.com

[Jonas_Nyqvist]

Dear "nothaimarlin"

Here comes an update of the Black marlin situation in the Andaman sea (Thailands south-west coast):
Last dry season (Oct-May) we released Blacks every month on "Gecko" (http://www.fishing-khaolak.com/our_boats/gecko.html ) Best month we hooked 8 fish over 100kg on the drop-off 20 miles west of Phuket. The ThonMai seamount west of Similan Islands (55 miles NW of Phuket) also produced very good marlin action for the boats that fished there. After the tsunami the commercial fishing pressure is not like before and it's not only in the Thai part of the Andaman Sea, in Sumatera most of the big commercial boats were destroyed, In Sri Lanka the whole fleet was wiped out. In Thailand 6700 commercial boats were destroyed by the killer waves. We have also seen a return of the football size Yellowfin Tuna on the drop-off west of Phuket, they disapeared for many seasons
(probably from the commercial fishing pressure) The marlin action in the Andaman islands (405 miles NW of Phuket) is still very good, we fished the area in Feb-March and had many hook-ups from marlin as well did the other boats that fished there. Blacks up to 800 lbs were released and we lost an estimated 900 lbs Black at Narcondam Island.

Capt. Jonas Nyqvist
www.fishing-khaolak.com

[Anonymous]

Dear Jonas and any other Phuket operators reading this,

Please give us some statistics for your marlin fishing last year in Phuket and in the Andaman Islands.

Number of raised fish - number of bites - number of hookups and most importantly number of CAUGHT fish and size.

Very much appreciated,