Deep Sea Fishing in Koh Phi Phi
Went deep sea fishing in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand today. It was good times and the price was right. We opted for the 1/2 day as most of the large predators feast at dusk and dawn. It was from 1:30-6:30 and cost 2500 baht for the boat. The boat was one of the longtail boats, used for fishing, water taxi etc… Our guide was great and the fishing was decent.
Let’s get serious, if you fish often, you know it’s called “fishing” not “catching” so you can’t have high expectations but should always hope for the best. To begin we just used heavily weighted lines with ~5 hooks that we’d attach some mackerel or the like. We caught plenty of snappers, clown fish and multiple other types that names elude me. It was some good fun.
After that, it began raining, no pouring. It came down like there was no tomorrow for about 30 minutes and then it was gone. It was kinda surreal being in the middle of the ocean, in this tiny boat in the middle of a rain storm.
Later in the evening (at dusk) we did some trolling, we had a barracuda on the line but I didn’t manage to get it in. I’m not sure if it was my fault(very well could of been, not the first time this has happened) or the hook was just never set properly. That said I did get a bit “excited” but it’s hard not too. The guide said it was almost in the boat and he was guessing it was ~5KG which is a decent size.
After that we had the kitchen / restaurant near the fishing guides cook up our fish. They did it for 100 baht, which was a great deal. If you’re cooking small fish, always BBQ them, the fried / steamed ones tasted horrible but I could not get enough of the BBQ ones. I have to say, it’s different picking meat off a small fish compared to the juicy steaks we got from our catch in Koh Tao.
We took about 9 fish and left the rest for the guide. Our guide was “Rob’s Sports Fishing & Tour” he does fishing and multiple other types of tours, his number is 084-0572311 or 080-1488030. He gets my stamp of approval, whatever that’s worth.
All this said, sucks we didn’t catch any lunkers, I’ve seen some of the photos and there are some mammoth fish floating around the waters of Koh Phi Phi.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Had I pulled something big in, I’d of probaly gone the next day. Also fishing from a longtail is an experience in itself. Also, I got to see most of the island which people typically pay 1000 baht for. Sure I didn’t do any cliff jumping or play with monkey’s but I’m a fisherman so I did what floats my boat, so to speak. One cool thing was we passed some cliffs where they used to get the nests for “bird’s nest soup”. They have bamboo shoots along the sides of precarious cliffs, props to those who used to navigate those jagged cliffs, it’s truly something else.
