Species Hunting Adventures In Phuket: Part 1.

After landing in Phuket, picking up our hire car and driving south to our accommodation, we went for a walk along Rawai Beach. We started at its western end, and I was very excited about reaching Rawai landing pier at the other end. Several species hunters I know have caught an insane variety of species from the end of this long pier that goes quite far out into the bay. I was told that there were a few small no fishing signs in the pier, but that people regularly fished on it without any issues. Arriving at the pier however, we were greeted by a large sign that looked fairly new. The message on it was pretty clear.

Traditional boats on Rawai beach.

No fishing signs don't get much clearer.

Doing a bit of Googling as we took a walk out to the end of the pier, it became clear that the authorities were serious about the ban. Earlier in the year, some dugong had been sighted around the seagrass beds near the pier and the decision had been taken to ban all fishing in the vicinity. This was a bit of a blow, as I was really looking forward to fishing on it, but there was nothing I could do. We went for a wander through the nearby fish market, before heading off for some food. Back at our accommodation, I had a look at the other fishing spots I had saved on Google Maps and formulated a plan. Nai Harn Beach and the rocks at either end of it were the next best options close by, so in the morning that’s where we headed. To begin with, I fished around the seaward side of the sluice gate on the large pond behind the beach. The area was sadly strewn with quite a lot of rubbish and there was a fair of debris floating in the water. Regardless, it produced a surprising amount of different species.

My first, and not so giant, giant trevally!

A lot of crested grunter. They are very spiky little swines!

A tiny mangrove jack! Also, my first.

It took me a while to catch this small, dark fish. The hoardes of crested grunter kept stealing my bait, but eventually my first ever harry hotlips managed to get to the bait first. Such a cool name!

Casting out a bit onto some sand, I caught a few of these juvenile dory snapper in amongst even more crested grunter.

Before we left, I noticed some small silver moony lurking under some discarded netting, coming out occasionally before seeking cover again, but they were incredibly shy and showed no interest when I lowered a tiny bait in their vicinity. Fed up catching endless crested grunter, we walked up over the road and I tried fishing around the inside of the sluice gate. This only resulted in about a dozen more crested grunter, so we jumped back into the car and headed around to the rocks at the northern end of Nai Hard Beach, where a floating pontoon pier is located. There, I started off fishing in the large rockpools that had been exposed by the tide. There were a lot of blenny in them, but they were incredibly spooky and generally weren’t interested in a chunk of prawn. That didn't matter too much because there were so many other different species of fish in the rockpools too. So many, that I spent the whole session fishing in them!

Lillian relaxed under the shade of some trees whilst I fished away.

Unlike the fussy blenny, super aggressive damselfish that would swarm the bait as soon as it was dropped into the water. Several species were present, including one spot demoiselle,..

…two spot demoiselle,…

…and three spot.... Only kidding, this one is a grey demoiselle.

There were a few argus wrasse too, both initial phase,..

...and terminal phase.

When my bait did manage to reach the bottom, these colourful ornate goby were waiting to gobble it up.

Dropping a piece of prawn into a dark gap between a few submerged boulders, I pulled out a Cook's cardinalfish.

Before we left, I dropped a bait down in front of a very large submerged flat rock in one of the rockpools. Something came darting out almost immediately, slashed at it wildly, missed, and shot back under the rock again. Recasting out on top of the rock and slowly pulling my bait back towards me, it dropped off the edge of the rock and landed even closer to the gap underneath. After a brief moment, the fish charged out again and grabbed the bait. Striking quickly and pulling it straight back out again, an awesome looking fish was quickly swung up to my hand. I recognised the family, having caught a crimsontip longfin in Okinawa, but this fish was much larger.

I’d identify this very colourful, funky fish later on as a bluegill longfin.

I was really enjoying fishing in the rockpools, so much so, that I lost track of time and had Lillian asking me when we were going to leave. When this happens, I know I've been fishing for too long! Before we did go, I did some grovelling and was allowed to have an additional ten minutes so I could have another go at catching one of the fussy blenny. Try as I might, it didn’t seem to matter what I did, I just couldn’t tempt one. I really, really wanted to get one, and decided to go back for another attempt the following morning!

Tight lines, Scott.

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