Longkang Gang/Sombong Gang in Hatyai 10th January

To start out my "brilliant" Hatyai trip,I had to lie to my parents that I was going to Sungai Petani for a fishing trip the night before.Then to make things worse,I was stopped by the authorities at the border for having a passport which is 3 months before the due date.For those that don't know the rules(I was one of them),six months before the expiry date of your passport,you are NOT SUPPOSED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY.I was held up for an hour or so before I finally managed to access Thailand after giving "coffee money" to one of the authorities.

This trip was joined by a total of roughly 20 anglers from Penang comprising of Longkang Gang and the up and coming Sombong Gang.

View of the restaurant.Note that you can even fish from the balcony!

The rig.

Rigging process.

Longkang Gang's Achievement.

Loban in action.

Walah!~

Double hook ups are very common.As you can see,Are-Bear in the foreground had one in his hand.

Are-Bear having a jolly good time with his Basstera setup.

Line stripping fish tests both angler's skills and endurance.

Jeymatt with a hook on.

The mekong catfishs' here just don't learn eh?Check out the swollen mouth!

Wildboar with fish.

Wildboar's Tica reel was totally WRECKED by his fish.Line could not be retrieved and had to use the handline method for retrieval.Cip Pirato did the honour of retrieving.

Tiger2My in action.Fish after fish was landed by him.

Sunshine2Sally.The sole female Longkanger that came along.Gave the Plabuks no chance at all.

Cip Pirato,the pioneer of Longkang Gang with a Baitrunner setup.

Jackpot the Crackpot.Really fun guy to fish with.

When Crackpot has nothing better to do,he will disturb other anglers as demonstrated above.

Again Crackpot with disturbance.This time disturbing the Pedukang.

Sombong Gang

Nique with his prized plabuk.He was the first person to land an over 20kg fish of the day.

Alan being the second person to land an over 20kg Plabuk.

OrangMinyak a.k.a Ben with his Xzoga rod paired with Hyper Certate Custom.Whoa!~

"Come here Fishy,Fishy,Fishy..."

Alan with his PE3 jigging rod and Freams J 4500 loaded with 30lbs line.

Tiring fight which lasted well over 30 minutes.Tight drag yet the fish was able to fight so long.

Alan's biggest catch of his life and the biggest of the day from all participants.For his effort,the Boss of pond gave him a complimentary shirt.

Me sleeping after a very tiring day.Huh?Tired from?Taking pictures?No fish also?

Answer : WRONG!I had the first fish of the day but because it was small,I didn't bother taking pictures of it.As of other fish that I landed,it was no bigger than the one I landed in Tambun paypond.So in the end,no pictures were taken except this.

Advice :
- Make sure your passport is more than 6 months from expiry.
- Use mono line.I learned the hard way.I used braided lines and it kept on snagging to others when fighting fish because of its buoyancy.
- 20lbs mono is sufficient.
- 10-20 rod to give maximum fun.