Pond Life

For fisherman living in the city, as well as for anyone with limited time and income, heading to barramundi ponds at weekends has its appeal. And why not? Barramundi offer amazing fights with aerial acrobatics, the ponds are generally quite affordable, and the fish are very tasty.

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However, one common problem for many lure fishermen regarding stocked barramundi ponds is that they seem to think any lure will work simply because the pond is stocked and the fishing is easy. While this is exceptionally true in farm ponds with minimal fishing pressure like Boonma (aka Boon Mar or however the internet wants to spell it), it is definitely not true for other ponds that have seen daily pressure like Bor Num or Pilot 111.

I am in no way a master at barramundi fishing, but I can definitely offer you, my dearest readers, some advice that can greatly improve your fishing experience here in Thailand. In this article I will cover the simplest four-step way to catch a pond stocked barramundi: via rubber shad.

1. Picking your lure

A rubber shad is a fishing lure that resembles a small bait fish and that has the ability to wiggle its tail horizontally when retrieved. The lures come in various colours and sizes and are always armed with one hook, the sharp end protruding out its back and pointing upwards to prevent snagging the bottom. Some varieties of rubber shads come with an additional treble hook below to increase hook rates, but this variety is definitely more susceptible to snags.

The best type of rubber shad for catching stocked barramundi are the three-and-a-half inch sizes or smaller. Since most ponds are quite murky, bright chartreuse colouring will often present the best results as they are the most visible. More natural colours are better for clearer waters but those conditions are rare in stocked ponds.

2. The retrieve

Finesse is the key to success here. Stocked ponds in Thailand have flat bottoms and are usually no deeper than three metres. Throwing huge lures here will generally be a waste of time as the fishing pressure in these ponds is extremely high (plus there just aren’t that many big baitfish swimming in there to start with). This is the reason why small, bottom-hugging lures like the rubber shad are easily the most effective when it comes to barramundi ponds.

Keep the retrieve extremely slow to imitate the small bait fish that usually linger around the pond. What the Thais use is a knocking technique whereby with the slightest swing of the rod tip the rubber shad is retrieved just a few centimetres at a time, at most. Another way is just a steady retrieve, keeping the lure at the bottom while travelling no faster than a centimetre a second.

3. The hookset

Most of the time the barramundi will hit that lure hard and set the hook on its own, but sometimes they may have small little pecks before taking a solid bite. These pecks will feel like little bumps. The trick is to ignore it and keep retrieving steadily and slowly until the actual bite happens. When it does, simply raise the rod quickly to set the hook.

4. The fight

There are two reasons why barramundis are such spectacular fighting fish. One, they give very strong fights; and two, they love performing aerial acrobatics during the process. Many barramundi fishermen will try to keep the fight below the surface by holding the rod tip low during the fight and retrieving the line from the side as opposed to the top.

A braver fisherman will try to keep the fight as close to the water’s surface as possible. In a wild situation this is to prevent snagging the fish underwater. But in the case of a stocked pond devoid of any form of obstruction, the only purpose for doing this is to enjoy the visual spectacle of seeing a fish fly into the air. However, there is a great danger to doing this as the fish can easily throw the hook while ferociously swinging its head mid-air. When it does this the fisherman must bow his rod to create slack, allowing tension on the line to loosen in order for the lure to not be shaken out. To do this, simply lower the rod once you see the fish break the water’s surface.

Follow these steps, keep the fight up, tire out that fish and you’ll have a barramundi in no time. In the meantime, you can watch this video below of the retrieve and fight to get a rough idea of what to do.

For more insights from Oz on fishing in Thailand, check out www.bangkokhooker-fishing.com.