Eric was deep sea fishing with a group of friends on his catamaran on March 7 off Racha Noi when he snagged the impressive fish.
“Every week I go with a group of friends to an area off Racha Noi where the depth is about 100 to 150 metres,” Eric told The Phuket News.
“It is a perfect spot as typically the sea bed drops suddenly from 70 or 80 metres to around 150 to 200.
“The trawlers do not fish in these waters as their nets cannot reach,” he added.
“On this particular occasion we were about 20 or 30 miles south of Racha Noi on my 20 metre catamaran with some friends around 7am. We always use live bait and electric reels as it is too deep to hand reel.
“Suddenly I had a bite and very quickly realised it was a huge fish as it was very powerful and resistant.
“It was a real struggle,” Eric added.
“The normal breaking strength of a fishing line is about 20 pounds and this one took a long time to get aboard without breaking the line.
“The reel was overheating and had to be cooled down with water every five minutes or so. It took close to na hour for us to reel the fish in.”
Unfortunately the prize fish was dead when it was finally reeled onto the boat.
“Fish caught in deep waters usually are unable to decompress when they hauled from the depths to more shallow waters and therefore often, unfortunately, die due to the differing water pressure,” Eric said.
“It was a grouper, a beautiful fish and genuinely I believe one of the largest of its type to be caught on a line in Phuket,” Eric concluded.
Eric’s Catamaran Leopard 51 is available to hire for fishing, diving and recreation. It has three bedrooms and can be chartered daily or for multiple days and weekends. Currently there is a special COVID rate of USD1000 (approximately B30,720) per day which includes fuel and three crew. For further details please contact the Khun Moddang on 0842465999.
Dicko | 20 March 2021 - 20:48:38