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View Full Version : RFI - Fishing in Viet Nam



CoffeaRobusta
05-23-2008, 01:28 PM
This isn't a report but a request for information.

Does anybody know anything about sportfishing in Viet Nam? I might go there in July and I'd like to do some fishing. I think I'll be close to the Mekong Delta. I'll fish salt or fresh so I'm not picky. I wouldn't mind checking out some commercial fishing operations while I'm there too. I won't have much time (one week - maybe two).

Anybody got leads?

Thanks,

boxl0bster
05-24-2008, 06:20 AM
wow sounds like it would be a TASTY trip. i love vietnamese food. :Envious:
you should try and target those huge catfish that are in the mekong i think :p sorry im not much help.

good luck bill.

Troutman65
05-25-2008, 05:23 PM
:Shocked: What a fishing trip that will be. Be sure to get lots of pics. Good luck.


Troutman65

CoffeaRobusta
06-05-2008, 03:47 PM
wow sounds like it would be a TASTY trip. i love vietnamese food. :Envious:
you should try and target those huge catfish that are in the mekong i think :p sorry im not much help.

good luck bill.

You mean the giant mekong catfish, Pangasius gigas? Apparently they are pretty rare. There are other things too as shown in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zcRX0YjmNU) (snakeheads look like they'd be a blast to catch!).

So it turns out I may go to Thailand and Vietnam. In Thailand I'll be near Chaing Mai. I googled but only found a few sites about sport fishing in Vietnam and a whole lot about fishing in Thailand.

This one is a fishing club.....I think.......I don't speak viet.
Hanoi Fishing (http://www.hanoifishing.com/fishing/)

Nha Trang looks like the place to go to base a marine fishing trip...
Water Sports at Nha Trang (http://away.com/tripideas/nha-trang-scuba-diving-300317.html)

I think this island is also in Nha Trang.
Fishing tour at Mun Island (http://www.adventuretours.vn/vietnam_fishing/fishing_tour_vietnam_adventuretoursdotvn.htm#FISHI NG%20TOUR%20AT%20MUN%20ISLAND)

So it looks like Thailand for me will be all about freshwater...
Dreamlake (http://www.dreamlake-fishing.com/fishing-photos/index.php?cat=2)

http://www.megafishingthailand.com/content/view/253/45/

http://www.anglingthailand.com/index.htm

Oooooh yeah......fishing in Thailand should be real nice.....
Cat with a cat (http://www.anglingthailand.com/gallery/getimage.asp?cat=femaleanglers&yiyi=373)

kpn
06-25-2008, 01:10 PM
CoffeaRobusta,
I used to live on Bamboo Island close to Mun Island for afew years dating back 28 years ago.....Long time.
Until I left, there is no such paid operations around, so I don't know what kind of the fishing trip they're offering.
About Mun Island there are alot of bottom fish around that island, and if you have the right bait and fish the right depth you may run into some wahoo on the bottom and mackerel, skipjack, bonito and some small bluefin tuna too. It've been too long since I left (and haven't been back since) thing may change.
But fishing or not, that's a nice area to visit.
Good Luck and post a report when you come back.

KPN.

camrydad
06-25-2008, 01:51 PM
I wished I had seen this last week. My uncle from vietnam was here and mentioned a lot of fishing lakes, I think he said, you'd pay like $2/day. I don't recall where though. Sorry, couldn't be of more help. Best of luck over there.

CoffeaRobusta
07-22-2008, 07:41 AM
I'll be in Vietnam next week. No firm plans yet but I figure on bringing a telescoping rod and fish whenever the opportunity presents itself. I wonder if I need a liscense? I was thinking of hitting the salt at Nha Trang or Ha Long. I figure there's freshwater everywhere so I'll hit whatever rivers, lakes, or ponds that present themselves. There's still a chance I'll hit Thailand too. Maybe I'll catch one of these....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-stingray20-2008jul20,0,5344242.story

Wingnut
07-23-2008, 10:29 PM
I'll be in Vietnam next week. No firm plans yet but I figure on bringing a telescoping rod and fish whenever the opportunity presents itself. I wonder if I need a liscense? I was thinking of hitting the salt at Nha Trang or Ha Long. I figure there's freshwater everywhere so I'll hit whatever rivers, lakes, or ponds that present themselves. There's still a chance I'll hit Thailand too. Maybe I'll catch one of these....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-stingray20-2008jul20,0,5344242.story

Hey, be careful and have fun! Take lots of pics and share with us when you come back. That's my homeland. :D

CoffeaRobusta
07-24-2008, 06:58 AM
Hey, be careful and have fun! Take lots of pics and share with us when you come back. That's my homeland. :D

Right on man. I didn't know that. My mother's Viet; Dad's from US. I was born there but left when I was like 2 years old. I was raised mostly by my Dad so I don't know a lot about the Viet side of things. My Mom lives in Sweden now but I'm suspossed to meet up with her in Ho Chi Minh City.

It should be fun and interesting.

Thanks Arthur.

Wingnut
07-24-2008, 10:19 AM
Right on man. I didn't know that. My mother's Viet; Dad's from US. I was born there but left when I was like 2 years old. I was raised mostly by my Dad so I don't know a lot about the Viet side of things. My Mom lives in Sweden now but I'm suspossed to meet up with her in Ho Chi Minh City.

It should be fun and interesting.

Thanks Arthur.

Very cool, the Ho Chi Minh city I remember was Saigon. I left there in 75 when Saigon fell. I was nine years old. Haven't been back since, but Phuong (Blackwater) and I are planning a trip back there maybe next year to visit our roots. :D

Have fun! Go to Da Lat if you have time, I remember it was beautiful. :cool:

soulsurfer
07-25-2008, 08:34 PM
Hey KPN, we should go back there to check to see if the wahoo and tuna are still there....How about it Arthur, group trip?

BTW Arthur.I left there in 75 also and haven't been back....you know what is more scary? I was 9 yrs old also when we left the mother land.

Rod Sterling

Wingnut
07-25-2008, 08:47 PM
Hey KPN, we should go back there to check to see if the wahoo and tuna are still there....How about it Arthur, group trip?

BTW Arthur.I left there in 75 also and haven't been back....you know what is more scary? I was 9 yrs old also when we left the mother land.

Rod Sterling

SO YOU'RE MY LONG LOST TWIN BROTHER!!!! :Shocked: :Envious:
Very cool, we have a lot in common. Should get together one of these days and swap stories... I do have lots of good, and not so good memories back there. :Wink:

fish_sauce
07-26-2008, 11:01 PM
Have you guys seen the National Geographic's special on "Fishzilla" ???

http://ngcblog.nationalgeographic.com/ngcblog/2007/12/snakehead_frenzy.html

If you're fishing from the Mekong River Delta, expect to run into a lot of those...among with many different types of catfish...can't wait for the fishing report! :Wink:

CoffeaRobusta
07-28-2008, 09:21 AM
Preliminary report.....I've only been here like 48 hours.

This trip is mostly about family so I'll fish when I can...

Today we visited my Mom's friend outside of Saigon. There's one of those places nearby where they raise catfish (some type of pangasius). They have little verandas and will give you a bamboo pole and bait, serve beer and cook your catch for you. I was able to manage a couple of catfish with the telescoping rod I brought. Which then became lunch. Also tried fishing the Saigon river near my Mom's friend's house (Mom has property there too). Tide was out and water shallow so managed some bites but no takers. Dang! When I left someelse was arriving with a rod. Knew I was leaving at the wrong time. But had to get back before dark.

Tomorrow I'm off to visit my grandma and to see where I was born. Maybe I can fish somewhere near there too.

BTW, you guys were talking about a fishing trip to Vietnam. I'm wondering if there isn't a business opportunity here to take touristas on guided trips, like they do in Thailand. Just a thought though, there might be some difficult issues to work out though.

After we visit my grandma we are going to go to the ocean somewhere. Haven't quite decided where. There's some island way down south and of course all the tourista beaches like Nha trang.

Sorry no pictures yet. Those will have to wait until I get back. Can't upload them here. Oh yeah, I found out I don't like hard boiled baby duck eggs. ugg

sansou
07-28-2008, 10:23 PM
Man, it sounds like you are having an awesome & distinctly unique trip so far. I can't wait to see the pics!!!

Wingnut
08-06-2008, 10:06 AM
Hey, how bout' an update?!? :Cool: :Envious:

CoffeaRobusta
08-07-2008, 05:47 AM
An update hunh?

I was gonna wait until I was able to get the pics off this camera onto the computer but....I can give you a little taste.

After Saigon, we went down to Ca Mau, which is about as far south as you can get in Vietnam. Down there I visited my grandmother, aunts and uncles. Cripes don't ever sit around drinking homemade rice wine with your uncles and thier friends...they put me on the table. My grandmas house is right on a river and they have a fish and shrimp pond out back. I tried fishing the river there but no luck. Same was true for the fish pond. My grandfather isn't around any more and there's only one aunt still living with her so the ponds were a little run down. I tried fishing with worms and shrimp. My other problem is that I didn't pack well for this trip in terms of fishing gear. I ran out of small hooks and most of the fish out here are pretty small. At least that's what most people use.

Anyway, the next day was at the house of one of my aunts. They have a canal that runs in front of their house and a nice pond out back. Beautiful place in its own way. Since I ran out of small hooks I scavenged some treble hooks of of some of my freshwater lures. My cousin joined me in fishing the canal out front with pieces of shrimp. I was getting bites but no takers as the fish were small. My cousin manged two little fish on his bamboo pole. A little catfish and a small...something that looked like a perch or sunfish, though I think it's in the cyprinid family really. After that I moved to the fish pond as I could see lots of activity there and managed a couple of catfish. My cousin busted out a huge hook that he baited with a big piece of banana, but no love for him.

After Ca Mau we made our way back to Saigon and then on to a relatively new beach resort area called Mui Ne. Yes! Time for surf fishing! When we got there I was disappinted to see that it was windy as heck. Waves were not bad ... about 1-3 feet at the most but the wind was easily 20 knots or more at times. Still I saw locals surf fishing too. Sometimes they had bamboo poles with a hand reel and sometimes a spinning rod. Spent the next few days there working the surf when I could. By late evening the wind would lay down but the tide would be out. Still fishing is not always about catching fish (at least that's especially true for me!). Met a local there who showed my the technique for digging clams out of the beach sand. Probably the best bait. I was managing to get nibbles but again...the whole small hook thing. (Fishing shops were hard for me to find here. On the last day I met a young boy and his older brother who saw me fishing and they gave me a small hook to use (#12). We dug some clams and they busted out a bamboo pole and fished with me. I let the young boy use my rod and he managed a small perch-like fish that had yellow fins and a black spot near the tail. Pretty little thing. Next his brother pulled in a bigger fish that had brown strips on the side. Well I kept at it after they left and finally success! A little perchy with the brown stripes.

I am back in Saigon now as I leave Saturday. I may have not caught a lot of fish this trip but certainly had a fun time and made some connections with other fishing folks.

Can't wait to share the picutres with you all.

Troutman65
08-07-2008, 01:48 PM
CR, I have been following along with this post for some time now. Thanks for the updates from abroad. I look forward to when you post the pics. of your trip.

Troutman65

Wingnut
08-07-2008, 04:31 PM
Have a safe flight home and I'm looking forward to those pics too. :Cool:

HBJapo
08-07-2008, 04:45 PM
Thanks CR! This is a great blow by blow account of your trip. This is a very entertaining, informative post, thanks for keeping us updated. Can't wait to see the pics.

Japo :Envious: