My staff had cancelled the office the week of the Fourth of July as we had discussed a possible vacation for that period. Subsequently I changed my mind but by then all of my staff had plans that would be problematic to change. When I found I could get coverage at the hospital for that time frame I decided to take advantage of the time off and booked another fishing trip to Thailand hoping this time to catch the elusive longtail tuna that had avoided me when I was there in April.

My wife Teresa and I once again made the long thirty-plus hour trip to the far-east. This time we headed west to Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and finally Phuket. We had a bit of an auspicious start when bad weather in Atlanta delayed our departure causing us to miss our connection in Los Angeles. But we made the best of it and got a room at a hotel right at LAX and got out later that night just 24-hours behind schedule. I had used the American Express Platinum Companion Travel Program so we had booked business class tickets but only had to pay for one. Although modestly more costly than two economy class tickets it proved to be very worth the price for such a long trip!

We arrived at the Phuket International Airport at 5:40 in the afternoon. Like the first trip the car I had arranged to pick us up was missing in action. We therefore took a taxi to the hotel. We were once again impressed with how incredibly friendly and accommodating the Thai people were. We had booked the Burasari Beach Resort at Patong Beach again since we had enjoyed it so very much the previous trip. Our boat captain Jonas Nyqvest met us at the hotel just moments after our arrival and we organized our live-aboard two-day fishing excursion we had scheduled to begin the following morning. Dinner followed shortly after with stir-fry pork with ginger and garlic prawns; then to bed to catch up on the eleven hour difference in time zones.
 
 

40' Pace "Gecko" in the Harbor	Terry on the First Fish	A Longtail Tuna At Last

The next morning after a quick breakfast the big Swede Captain Jonas picked us up and drove us to the boat which was on a mooring in the harbor on the east side of the narrow peninsula that makes up Phuket. We once again were fishing aboard his 40-ft Pace Convertible “Gecko.” We were met by the same three Thai mates that we enjoyed so much when we were on the boat in April; Tio, Toi, and Au. On our last visit we had gone west into the Andaman Sea to fish the Similan Islands. This trip we headed south since the wind is typically out of the west this time of year making an Andaman Sea journey rough. We had initially planned to go to the Rok Nok Islands about 36 miles southeast of Phuket but the fishing had not been that great when Jonas was there the previous week so he steered “Gecko” due south toward the Racha Islands which had proven to be quite productive earlier in the week. This time it was nowhere near as ungodly hot as it had been in April and the water temperature had cooled to the low eighties so I reasoned we had a much better chance of having success catching the longtail tuna I was seeking.

We started trolling shortly after leaving the harbor using the same seven line spread we had employed in April. There were three rods off the transom. The two outer rods were rigged with daisy-chains of “king-kings” behind a small bird and the center rod was rigged with a small purple jet-head. The next two rods were positioned pointing slightly outward in the starboard and port covering boards and were loaded with deep diving plugs like Marauders and Rapalas. The last two rods were rigged with small marlin lures and were positioned on the face of the fourth wave off the riggers. Just 30 minutes into the morning I caught the first fish which I was delighted to see was the longtail tuna for which I had come. It was a tiny fish probably only weighing about two pounds but it was a longtail. After a few quick pictures I returned it to the sea to grow up. Shortly thereafter I caught our second fish which was a large skipjack and just twenty minutes after that I caught a large kawakawa. Throughout the morning the rods kept going off every few minutes with the occasional double-header. By noon I had caught more than a dozen longtail and numerous skipjack and kawakawa. Then as we went over a small sea mount just south of Little Racha I hooked a 10-pound yellowfin which we quickly bled and cleaned for sashimi later. In less than four hours of fishing we had caught a longtail, a skipjack, a kawakawa, and a yellowfin and were just one tuna short of the 5 fish making up the local tuna slam, a dogtooth.
 

The First Longtail Tuna	Terry Hooked Up Again	A Skipjack Tuna
Another Longtail	Another Skipjack	Teresa's Longtail Tuna

After lunch we changed strategies and started fishing for sailfish off the east side of both Big and Little Racha where we had seen sailfish jumping all morning. We trolled four rods armed with Shimano Tiagra 30-wide 2-speed reels and rigged with strip-baits made from the bellies of the tuna we had caught earlier in the day with small softheads or marlin lure skirts positioned in front of each dead bait. One sail played with two of our baits but didn’t hookup. The rest of the afternoon was dead quiet. There was a great deal of bait in the water and we reasoned that the sails which continued to free jump around us just weren’t that hungry because of the plethora of bait.

We anchored for the night in a beautiful small cove on the east side of Racha (or Raya) Noi (Little Racha). After a refreshing swim, a nice Thai meal made by the mates, and 8 hours of sleep we were ready for another day of fishing. We headed due west after clearing the south end of Racha Noi toward the first of three drop-offs. The first drop-off is twenty miles to the west and the bottom goes from 80 meters down to 200 meters. The second is located 40 miles out and the bottom goes from 200 meters to 400 meters. The last drop-off is at 100 miles and the drop is more profound going from 400 meters to 1000 meters. When Gecko makes the 450-mile open ocean crossing out to the Andaman Islands in February and March they find big blue marlin around that last drop-off. The two closer ones usually hold sails and black marlin as well as wahoo and both dogtooth and yellowfin tuna.
 

A Small Dorado	Our Delightful Three Thai Mates	A Nice Kawakawa

On our way out we trolled the usual 7-rod spread and picked up 10 longtail tuna, a dozen skipjack tuna, three large kawakawa, and a small dorado. The fish were larger than those we caught our first day with the skipjack and longtail being in the 5 to 8 pound class and the kawakawa being 4 to 5 pounds. Teresa even got into the action and caught both longtail and skipjack. I believe that makes her the only other person other than myself from Valdosta, Georgia that has caught a longtail tuna. I laughed out loud as I thought of this since she also was probably the only other Valdostan who cared.

We had some dorado and tuna fixed by the “boys” Thai style for lunch just before we reached the first drop-off. We caught a few large skipjack and longtail and one more dorado as we worked the drop-off but then the afternoon was once again quiet. We worked north over the drop-off for about twenty miles without so much as a strike and then eventually trolled back to the east and Phuket.
 
 

Another Skipjack	Terry on Yet Another Fish	Another Skipjack

We took the next day off, enjoying the beach, pool, restaurants, bars, and the fantastic hospitality of the Thai people. Teresa even got the opportunity to do some more shopping. We now likely have more carved elephants than anyone else in all of Georgia. They are supposed to be good luck though so that is not necessarily a bad thing. We had visited the temples, ridden elephants, seen the snake shows, and played with the monkeys at the monkey school on our last trip so we primarily just relaxed this time.

The next morning we reboarded the “Gecko” for one last day of fishing. It was slightly cooler with a ten knot southwest wind and about a 4 to 5 foot sea on top of some three-foot slow rollers. Although not all that rough compared to many of my fishing expeditions it was the roughest day we had encountered in Thailand. We waited to put out our 7 rod spread until just before we reached Racha (or Raya) Yai (Grand or Big Racha). We trolled the east side of both Racha Yai and Racha Noi and the two sea mounts or rocky reefs to the south of Racha Noi picking up some more larger skipjack, kawakawa, and longtail. We were looking for sails, black marlin, larger tuna, trevally, and wahoo but didn’t find any wider selection of prey than we had been catching. After lunch we put out five strip-baits working hard for a sail but could not seem to entice anything to bite. We did see a few free jumpers though and one of the local boats had hooked a sailfish but broke line so we knew there were at least some sailfish there. Overall there were about 6 local boats working the area with only the one hookup reported so it was a slow day for all. The slow day gave Jonas and me a chance to talk about their treks to the Andaman Islands in February and March. The 450-mile open ocean crossing from Phuket takes 48 hours with some good blue marlin and yellowfin tuna fishing along the way. After arriving in the Andamans it takes about 24 hours to clear customs. They fish a number of different locations around the islands and the fishing can be superb. They catch big dogtooth tuna up to 200 pounds, yellowfin tuna to 150 pounds, and black marlin 500 pounds and larger. In addition they have had success with 100 pound plus giant trevally and other inshore species as well as large dorado and wahoo. They can stay there a month at a time and then must return to Thailand. They usually make two trips a year depending on the quality of the fishing and the sea conditions. The Andamans belong to India and an Indian visa is required to visit them. There are daily flights to Port Blair on the large island from Chennai, New Delhi, and Calcutta, and there is soon to be flight from Bangkok. This sounds exciting to me and if there is a way to work it out I would like to fish that area.
 
 

Another Longtail Tuna	Our Vigilant Mates

As the five o’clock hour approached we trolled back toward Phuket. On the way in deep water I caught about a 5 pound kawakawa and a 10 pound skipjack to finish off the trip. We had once again had a grand time in Phuket Thailand on the “Gecko” with Captain Jonas and his mates. For the most part the fishing had been as expected although frequently July brings multiple shots at sailfish around the Rachas and Rok Nok islands with the occasional small black marlin being caught as well. We had however achieved our primary goal which was to catch at least one longtail tuna. I had caught probably 25 of them from about 2 pounds to 10 pounds and Teresa had caught several as well. We left with no complaints!
 
 

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