Hi, I’m alive and well

Hi guys!

it’s been a long time since I’ve used this WordPress blog and boy a lot has happened since! I’m alive and well. Bangkohooker has come a long way from a WordPress blog. My work grew, I was featured on several TV shows including Zeb’s Monster Fish! and eventually got my own little show on Discovery Channel called “Bangkokhooker!”

My team and I now are building an arsenal of fishing gear based off our research check out our new Website on http://www.bangkokhookercustoms.com.

The chado in the photo

best regards,

Oz Bangkokhooker

a giant snakehead caught off west Bangkok by Oz Bangkokhooker via skip casting with a Zeezar Frog

Subscriptions don’t carry over!

Dear readers,

as you know the website has now moved to http://bangkokhooker-fishing.com. Any attempt to go to the old website would redirect to the new and improved one.

Unfortunately, this also means that the subscriptions do not carry over so please, if you wish to remain updated, click subscribe when you get to the new page.

Thanks again for everything. It is your readership and comments that fuel my writing.

best wishes,

Oz Bangkokhooker.

Bangkokhooker has moved to http://bangkokhooker-fishing.com

Dear all,

Bangkokhooker’s website has now moved to http://bangkokhooker-fishing.com. Please come check it out and don’t forget to subscribe to keep up to date with all the fishing info!

yours truly,

Oz Bangkokhooker.

New facebook page – Please “like”!

Hi folks,

for a while now I have had a facebook page for this blog. However, now that it has exceeded 100 “likes” I can no longer change the name of the facebook page from “https://bangkokhooker.wordpress.com” to something simpler like “Bangkok Hooker”.

Anyway, I have created the new fan page right HERE. So if you have a facebook account and a minute to spare please log in to the facebook account to follow this blog on facebook and who knows, maybe someday we’ll link up from there and have an epic fishing trip somewhere!

Also, I am in the process of transferring this blog into a wordpress.org account (not wordpress.com) so that I can just add the facebook page’s like box right on to the website but until then we’ll have to do it the old school way.

Here’s the link again.

Once again, thank you all for your readership. It is your comments and visits that keep me writing about fishing in Thailand and there will always be more to come.

Much love,

Oz Bangkokhooker.

Happy Songkran Everyone!!

It’s that time of the year again where Thai people find excuses to drench and fondle people on the streets over the nation’s New Year Celebration. Yes I know, it is April but here in Thailand and several other South East Asian countries the New Year is celebrated from the 13th to the 15th of April. Go figure, Asia is crazy like that yo.

When you combine those non-working public holidays with the weekend, you have yourself a super five-day weekend. Some companies in the country have even just decided to say “f— it! let’s just have Monday and Tuesday off and have a super solid nine-day holiday!”

Being half Chinese-Malaysia, Songkran for me usually means my annual trip to visit the relatives in Muslim Malaysia, a country completely alien to the idea of Songkran.

BUT… here’s a list of things I would have done in Bangkok during the Songkran break if I weren’t off in Kuala Lumpur:
1. Drench someone to the point of near-death pneumonia. OK, just kidding, just a little cold and a slight fever is adequate. Everyone knows that pneumonia is so 2007.
2. Start some conversations with some pretty ladies, both local and foreign, by spraying them with my water gun.
3. Go to a foam party dressed in beach clothes to completely lose the meaning of the holiday among all the bikini-clad Songkraners while exercising activity number 2.
4. Enjoy driving in a traffic-free Bangkok (everyone’s out of town!).
5. Have a gargantuan meal with the family to the point of pain.
6. And d’uh… Go fishing.

Things I would avoid in Bangkok during the Songkran break:

1. Getting my genitals groped by weirdos in Khaosarn (a very common thing so be prepared to karate chop some horny fools in the face).
2. Drunk drivers. There are too many of these during the break for some weird reason so be careful and try not to become part of a growing national statistic.
3. Splashing a cop. Water gun VS. real gun… Care to give it a go?
4. Catching Pneumonia.

Anyway, happy Songkran everyone! Stay alive! Hopefully there will be no crazy pandemics and the protesters will leave us in peace this year.

Bangkokhooker’s Fishing in Thailand: Snakehead vs. Texas

Almost three years ago I was in a position where I almost quit fishing out of frustration. Being so new to the game I was like everyone else: super eager to land a trophy fish without the skills or experience required. Already I was disheartened by the fact that I couldn’t catch a snakehead of any kind after so many attempts. What pushed me almost to the boiling point was my introduction to the Texas Chuan Chom fishing pond.

Update: Bangkokhookerfishing.com

Yup, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve gone and purchased my own domain name. What does this mean? Not much really. The blog now can be accessed by going to both https://bangkokhooker.wordpress.com or http://bangkokhookerfishing.com.

Apart from that nothing has changed. All the material from the blog is still accessable. At first I thought about getting the domain name http://bangkokhooker.com but realised two things: (1) it was already taken by quite a talented photographer; and (2) it’ll really get way too many people coming in looking for another kind of “Bangkok hooker”.

Either way, thanks for sticking with the blog for all this time. I’ll continue to bring more information about fishing in Thailand for every one free of charge.

love,

Oz Bangkokhooker.

Bangkokhooker’s Fishing in Thailand: Bang Pakong Gold Rush

Hello again anglers and friends. It is yet another cold and chilly day in the Bangtastic City of Angels. Forecasts predicts that it’s going to be a cold one all the way until the end of Wednesday. With the weather being so weird Thai people are wearing jackets in what is supposed to be the hottest period of the year.

Bangkokhooker’s Fishing in Thailand: The One That Got Away (Got Caught By Someone Else)

 

“The one that got away”. Yeah, you’ve probably all heard the expression way too many times. Every angler experiences this phenomenon at least once in his/her fishing career. It’s normal to occasionally lose an amazing catchdue to its difficulty. Would a magnificent fish be as magnificent should it be caught very easily? Of course not, it is in the difficulties that we face in each catch that allows us to appreciate the fruits of our labour.

With that in mind let me start today’s little story about how the one that got away got caught by someone else.

Last Sunday I headed to Texas Chuan Chom with a couple of my friends. This was my second visit to the fishing pond dedicated to the Texas rig method fishing. During my first visit two years ago it was a totally fruitless trip. No bites whatsoever. This pond’s striped snakehead pond (pond number four) is as difficult as Dead Space 2 on zealot mode (okay maybe just survivalist). With the “rubber and soft plastic lures only” rule, the striped snakeheads have been accustomed to the lure and have become extremely cautious when putting random soft things in their mouths.

After many attempts at getting a bite in pond number four I was about to pack up and head home. Then, like a pretty girl flashing a smile at the bar just before I’ve decided to call it a night, I was convinced to stay on after witnessing something spectacular. One the surface of the water of pond four I spotted what looked like champagne bubbles. It was a school of small giant snakehead fry, and occasionally surfacing beside them was a big parent the size of a leg keeping guard of would-be predators. Looks like the fish had slipped by the pond dividers and started a family in pond number four.

Despite my good fortune of finding such an opportunity, the chance of catching a fully grown giant snakehead parent was missed. After two missed strikes on my surface lure the snakehead parent took its fry and swam away. I packed up and accepted that the day’s giant snakehead would join the collection of “the one that got away”. My second attempt at the Texas pond was fruitless.

It was only a couple of days later that some salt was added to the wounds. Saek, the pond owner, sent some pictures to my cellphone. He called me afterwards saying, “someone has caught the giant snakehead you were chasing!” Rats. In most cases when a fish has gotten away, chances are you will never see it again since there are so many fishes in the water and identifying an individual fish would be near impossible. When a pond has only one parent giant snakehead wandering in a pool filled with striped snakeheads, indentifcation becomes certain. Seeing the giant snakehead in the arms of another was salt to the wounds, being told that it bit on the first cast was chili and fish sauce on top.

 

Haha, oh well good on him. I’ll have my chance again sometime! Till then, tight lines and hope you enjoy the new page on Texas Chuan Chom as well as the google map locations I have added to every pond to make navigation easier!

 

Further reading:

giant snakehead

striped snakehead

How to catch the giant snakehead

Texas Chuan Chom

A Taste Of The Japanese Spirit After The Earthquake

 

Watching the news these past few days has been heart-breaking. First the earthquake that shook Japan, then the devastating tsunami, followed by many more aftershocks and to top it off there are now all these nuclear plants leaking radiation everywhere. Still, in a time of crisis we see the Japanese spirit shining through the devastation and today I wish to share with the rest  of the world a light-hearted story the best exemplifies this inspirational quality.

This story happened to my childhood friend Roj in his apartment situated in downtown Tokyo in a location that is just minutes away from the Tokyo Tower. At 2:06pm, our friend enjoyed a lazy afternoon in his one-bedroom apartment following a hard night of work. He picked up his phone and made an order for something rewarding. He ordered sushi.