1. Main hut (west side)
5+ anglers
The default choice: comfortable, shaded from late morning, and a short walk from the car.
The Story of the Lake
From a rice field to a monster lake.
Buriram Monster Fishing Park is Win's second park — everything you fish today was learned, and earned, over more than a decade on the water. Here's how it happened, in his own words.
~2010
Where it all started — PP Fishing Park
Win's life on the water began about five years before this lake existed, with a pond called PP Fishing Park on the road into Buriram city — seventy rai of land, two fishing ponds and a little tackle shop. It was mostly local anglers, weekend competitions and the odd trophy.
"Every time I talk about PP Fishing Park, I smile — it was the first point that made us fishing-pond people."
The dream
A reason to build better
The land belonged to family, so there was no room to grow. And Win is honest about the rest: back then the fish care wasn't what it should have been, and the rules weren't strict — anglers would hoist fish for photos and the odd one got dropped. That stayed with him. If he ever built again, it would be with proper care for the fish, and proper rules.
May 2014
Buying the land
So they saved, and bought their own plot — fifteen kilometres away, with space to build something that could actually grow. Win bought the land in May 2014. There was just one catch: the previous owner was still farming rice on it, so they waited for the harvest to come in that November.
Mar 2015
Turning a paddy into a lake
When the backhoe finally rolled in, the old rice-field soil was still too wet to move. It wasn't until March 2015 that the real digging and earthmoving began — turning a waterlogged paddy, load by load, into the lake you fish today. That's Win in the thick of it, digger behind him — and the long hair is no accident.
2015
Building it, load by load
Every bank, every hut, every metre of the shoreline you fish from was shaped on site. No contractor's showpiece — a working build, done by hand and by digger, through the heat, until the shape of the lake matched the one Win had been carrying around in his head for years.
2015
Moving a whole park
Meanwhile the old park had to close. Through the final months they ran tournaments almost every week to fish the ponds down — in the last month, just one baht a rod, handing out tackle daily so anglers would come and help. Around 22 tons of fish went to market. But three to four tons of their favourites — and even the plants they loved — were carefully carried across to the new lake, day after day.
Stocking
Why the fish are this big
This is the chapter most parks can't tell. The monsters in this lake didn't arrive as fingerlings and grow up in a stock pond — Win moved them in, alive, by hand. Nets, tarpaulins, tanks on the back of a pickup, a fifteen-kilometre run against the clock, and straight into the new water. Every giant you fight today was carried in by the man who'll be standing behind you with the net.
Apr 2015
A quiet goodbye — and a vow
At the end of March 2015 they closed PP Fishing Park with a small banquet for their regulars. No big party — as Win put it, "tomorrow there is still work waiting for you." On the first morning of April, he made himself a promise: he would not cut his hair until the new park was a success. Then he got to work.
Mid 2015
Nothing to offer but a promise
That summer, friends from abroad came out to Thailand to fish with him — and there was nowhere to put them. The old park was gone and the new one wasn't finished. All Win could give them was his word: it's coming, and it will be worth the wait.
Oct 2015
Almost there
By October the park was close to 100% finished. The opening was set for 10 December 2015 — and by then, Win badly wanted his unkempt hair gone.
Dec 2015
The doors open — and the first angler through them
The park opened on 10 December 2015. A few customers answered the announcement, but not many. Then, on 14–15 December, the first angler ever to fish this lake arrived — on his own. A Briton called Adrian.
Ten years later, Khun Adrian still comes back. Every single year, he and Win see each other again. You can't buy a review like that.
2016
An MOU with Buriram College of Agriculture and Technology
In 2016 the park signed a memorandum of understanding with Buriram College of Agriculture and Technology, taking on students to come and learn at the lake. It has run ever since — a working fishery that also teaches the next generation how to look after fish like these.
Thanks
Three people Win wants to thank
All three were customers at the old PP Fishing Park first. None of them had to keep showing up. They did anyway.
Noi
A customer from the PP Fishing Park days who never stopped being kind. Always there with advice, always helping to push a problem out of the way — and still is, to this day.
Terry
Another from the PP days. Terry saw fishing as a sport — not the way most people around here saw it, as something you did for the table. That way of thinking is a big part of why this park exists at all.
Nobby
An old PP customer who comes back to Thailand every year and always comes to see us. There hasn't been a single year we haven't met — except the COVID years.
Today
A lake with a reputation
Ten years on, anglers from over a hundred countries have made the trip. Seven huts, one lake, and fish that have been growing here since the day Win carried them in.
And the hair? Win kept his promise until the park found its feet — then, finally, he cut it. The lake you're looking at is what all that hard work built. Come and fish it.
