Paul Arden | Tuesday, 28 October 2025
I’m looking forward to welcoming three new fishing guests this Wet Season as well as returning regulars. And for those of you who are thinking of joining me next year, here are the shot preparations and packing list!
The first thing that you absolutely must do is to train your Snakehead Shot. If you are not slipping line on the lift, briefly touching the line and then immediately shooting line into the backcast, and if this is not automatic, then you will almost certainly not catch any Snakehead! It’s possible that you could fish around the edges and pick up some small juvenile snakehead, but that’s not really the game!
While we talk about speed of the shot and possibly shots up to 18 metres distance, the most important thing of all is accuracy. Finding time to take your time is key to success. So tie a size 1 popper, a 10’ leader, use an 8-10WT line, and train train train your shots. This means to really pick the target, slip line, touch, shoot to ring the backcast bell. Ideally you should then continue slipping line all the way through to the forward hit (Slide), the hauling is down-down (no up), you want to check the shoot and place the fly line over the rod index finger, ready to strip. The forward cast is Stopless. Torque Twist helps. All these little things we will go through on Zoom and we can work on these once here too. However you need to engrained automatically slipping line on the lift since it’s just not possible to learn here.
Work on targets from 3-15 metres predominantly. Yes working on distance is good for technique. But the shots are gong to be 3-15 or hopefully up to 18 metres. And it would be highly beneficial if you can make the backhand Snakehead Shot too. All the same things apply (apart from Torque Twist). There are situations where this is the only possible shot. Very few actually have this shot in their weaponry, so while not essential, it’s something I certainly have and use frequently. If you don’t have it, there will fish that we will have to skip.
3m is basically a rod tip distance away. It’s a Reach Cast. And you can get very good at this. This is a shot I myself practise daily, reaching both left and right. Basically I can put the fly on a dinner plate, all around the boat. You will definitely get shots that require a Reach in order to put the fly closer to you than rod length plus leader length.
From my experience, if you have the Slipped Lift ingrained, then you should catch fish here. But if you have really worked on your accurate shots, then you have the possibility to catch a fish every day! Don’t panic, we can and will train shots here. But the more training you can do before you come, the more successful you are going to be once here!
GEAR
I have all the gear. I even have a HT9 Prototype that you can use. However I know many or indeed most of you want to fish your own gear. The packing list I would suggest is as follows:
An 8/9/10WT Snakehead outfit with tropical line to fit. I use an 8. 10 is not out of place. A backup rod is a good idea.
A ~6WT Gourami outfit with tropical line. I have spare tropical lines.
Raincoat. Waterproof pants. Shorts. Camo or brown or green shirt. Hat. Polaroids. Headlamp. Sunscreen. Toothbrush. I actually have all of these things too if you are stuck. Although you might look a bit odd wearing my shorts.
You have two options. Camp bed or hammock. I sleep in a hammock. Some people (Piffen) liked the hammock so much that he got rid of his bed and put one in his bedroom when he got back to Sweden. Now that he’s married of course both of them will sleeping in the hammock.
I provide all the towels and bedding, delicious meals, beer and wine. You are not going to go hungry or thirsty.
Your feet will swell up to double their normal size. Some people wear socks in the boat. If you are planning on wearing socks then bring socks that are seven sizes too large.
During the Wet Season the lake is about 28-29C. So chillier than during the Summer months but still nice for a swim/bath/dip/falling out the boat.
It will rain. Usually/mostly at night. Rarely in the morning. Often in the afternoon. I have umbrellas but you will need a raincoat even though it is 30C. You may or may not need waterproof pants. I use them.
If you have any special requests please let me know. For those who are doing some DIY fishing I have marine walkie talkies. But you will want to download Google Earth off-line maps of the lake. Otherwise you will get lost and we may never see you again. I haven’t had a guest eaten by a tiger yet. Anti-tiger Spray is a must-have item of course.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all!!
This week I’ll be making my annual pilgrimage to Langkawi so that I can swim, bike and run around the island a couple of times.
Cheers, Paul