Fishing for big pacu and patin at Sukida Resort

sukida-resort-pond-panorama

Sukida Resort is a picturesque place to wet a line. Located along Jalan Sg Lalang in the once sleepy town called Semenyih – located in Selangor, Malaysia (Google map at end of article), it has some of the Malaysian kampung (village) feel to it.

Only 3 bucks to fish?!

Sukida encourages catch and release, and stocks many freshwater fish. It is also one of the cheapest place to fish, costing only MYR10 or about 3 US dollar to fish from dawn to late evening. Yes, 3 dollars! Curiously, the fee have not increased since they started operations sometime around 2006.

It is made out of a couple of ponds though most fishing are done on the main, and biggest pond. The most popular target species here are the pacu (Piaractus brachyomus), pronounced as pa’ku, and patin (Pangasius pangasius). The patin is a native species and is commonly called the pla sa wai in Thailand. The beauty of Sukida is there are still many big ones here to keep many regular anglers coming back for more.

Some long time buddies have recently been visiting this place and the photos of huge pacu caught by Gary piqued my interest.

This hefty fish caught by Gary looks like a black pacu (Colossoma macropomum) or the tambaqui in the Amazon.

Fly-fishing for pacu

So when a long weekend came up we arranged a trip there and I wanted to catch something big by fly fishing. I’m happy to have caught a decent pacu using a nymph and on 10lb tippet.

Why 10lb? Because I was fishing a terrestrial fly just before I tied on the nymph and so I got a little lazy putting on a heavier tippett. Lucky for me this particular fish had the nymph hooked right at the corner of its jaw and no bite-off.

Most of my pacu are caught on nymphs either during the drop or slow figure-eight retrieve. The other flies I’ve had success with are the (dark coloured) woolly bugger and shrimp patterns which are slow stripped on the bottom. The patin fish can also be caught using the aforementioned methods (much less common).

Hard fighters

The fighting characteristics of the pacu – nicknamed the freshwater GT by some – is a finger burning sizzling run when hooked. This will be followed by many more runs while zipping to the left and right. If there is cover nearby, it will make a run for it. You will also know you have a pacu at the end of your line by the twitching rod tip. Again, reminiscent of a GT!

The patin on the other hand will give steady, less sizzling but powerful long runs. Your rod tip will bop up and down during the patin’s run.

On this day of fishing we lost two patins during landing. One was barely hooked and it pulled off when I had my hand on the leader and another snapped the leader when Poh grabbed it (Note to self: Bring landing net!).

Sadly though, the facilities and surrounding at Sukida is a pale shadow of its glory days. Sukida was THE place to fish back when they opened, even attracting anglers from Singapore who drove all the way here for some fishing. The only saving grace is perhaps the fishing can still be good with high probability of landing some big pacu and patin.

Jimmy with a common sized fish at Sukida Resort
A big tummy is a prerequisite in order to join this fishing group!
Gary was on a roll that that with his bait caught pacu

Watch this short video made when we took Marc Petitjean for a quick session in Sukida

16 thoughts on “Fishing for big pacu and patin at Sukida Resort”

      1. hi,
        can you give me the direction how to reach to sukida resort ?
        is the any signboard to sukida resort ?

        thanks,
        hafiz
        0193636757

        1. Hi Hafiz, welcome to SFA.

          For directions to Sukida Resort, you can either click on the link “view larger map” just under that Google map posted at the end of this article or, you can also use a GPS device. I know the Papago system has it as a POI. Just key in Sukida Resort.

          Hope that helps.

  1. The name of the Pacu in Thailand is not the “Pla Sawai” but the “pla Jalamet”. Sure, the Sukida Resort is a picturesque place to wet a line and in the future you can find me once on that place.

    1. Hi Ad,

      Thanks for leaving a comment. I think you’ve misread that paragraph as it was referring to the patin as pla sawai. Thanks for sharing the thai name of the pacu, though.

      Check out the place and let us know what you catch.

  2. Hi Admin,
    Is it still RM10 right now ?
    I am staying around petaling jaya. Do you have any coordinate for that place or any other ways for me to get the direction to that place since i don’t think I could find the exact place when i type sukida resort in google map.

    1. Hi Victor, there’s a google map at the bottom of the post. Most GPS maps also have Sukida as a POI. Sukida is not far after Nirvana Memorial Park if you’re coming from Seminyih town, keep a look out on your right after Nirvana. The fee is still RM10 when we were last there. Good luck!

      1. Thanks A Lot! I think it is near to fish valley semenyih. Btw mind sharing the combination you have used to catch those big rahu ? (as in tacket, bait, rig, line)

        1. Medium light tackle will be suitable. What bait to use will be tricky as we can never predict what the fish wants that time and day. Anglers there experiment with all sorts but basically bread and fruit type of baits are popular. We often do fly fishing, too.

  3. Hi there JW,
    What line weight did you use for patin on fly?
    Also please share if you were using floating/intermediate/sinking lines?

    Thanks, Daniel

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