Santa was good to everyone who fished at Exotic Fishing Thailand in December with some great catches and some truly special fish gracing the nets.
We were happy to have 46 "angling days" this month with 452 total number of fish caught . That's an amazing average of 10 fish per "angler day"..
We count one person fishing for a full day or even half a day as an "angler day" . We feel this is an important factor to consider for potential customers who are comparing catch rates from different resorts. We obviously don't expect our catch rates to remain the same when we have more customers every day but for that reason we do limit our lake to only 12 swims to be fished at one time.
......Our catch report for December which includes 33 different exotic species is as follows.....;- 2 African Walking catfish to 25lb,...18 Alligator Gar to 35 lbs,..32 Albino Pacu to 10 lbs, ..34 Amazon Redtails to 45 lbs,..48 Arapaima to 340lbs,..14 Arawana to 8lbs,..10 Asian Redtails to 25lbs,..1 Atlantic Tarpon of 10lbs ,..4 Barramundi to 18lbs,..1 Black Shark Carp to 10lb,.1 Blue Channel Catfish of 6lbs.
,..5 Chao Phraya Catfish to 70lbs,..8 Chinese Black Carp to 15 lbs,..8 Giant Gourami to 8lbs,.. 2 Goonch to 8lbs,..12 Hovens Carp to 5lbs,..15 Juliens Golden Price Carp to 22lbs,..1 Marble Catfish to 6lbs ,..2 Mrigal to 8lbs ,..23 Pacu to 18lbs ,..39 Piraiba Catfish to 15lbs,..54 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 12lbs,..13 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 18lbs,..16 Rohu to 13lbs, ..23 Siamese Carp to 50lbs,..2 Spotted Featherbacks to 7 lbs,..22 Tambiqui to 10lbs,..6 Tigershovelnose Catfish to 14lbs,..3 Vundu Catfish to 15lbs,..1 Vulture Catfsh of 3 lbs,..14 Wallagoo Attu to 22 lbs,..25 Yellow Cheek Carp to 15lbs and last but not least...... 1 Wallagoo Lieri stocked at 119lbs.
Our "Fish of the Month" for December had to be this huge Wallagoo Lieri caught by Stretton Honor . Stretton specifically wanted to target big Wallagoo so I suggested he purchase a flock of chickens :) and we bait up a large area in the early evening ..Less the feathers of course.
We finished baiting up just before dark and to my surprise and definitely to Stretton's surprise we landed this monster no less than 1 hour later ..I must admit I was initially a little shy to put my hand in the cage to pick it up :).
Another great month for Arapaima with more Arapaima caught this month than "angler days"
This Arapaima was another one of Stretton's many catches ..We had thought to rename the December report Stretton's catch report:)but we didnt want his head getting too big for his hat .....
Neil from the Gaff restaurant and Bar in Chalong had no trouble landing his target fish this visit and a beautiful red coloured one at that,..
The Englund Family were all smiles when Mr Englund senior landed this huge Arapaima. What a nice family and so great to see 3 generations of the same family happily catching fish together.
Tim Coakley got in on the Arapaima action with this nice fish on his first trip to EFT. If you have photos of any really big fish you have caught in Thailand then why not join Tim's facebook page "Big Fish Thailand "and show off your catch at ;-https://www.facebook.com/groups/455277261248209/
The Wallagoo Lieri weren't the only Wallagoo on the feed with 14 Wallagoo Attu caught in December with the biggest around 22lbs
This father and son team had a great day catching 15 fish of 9 different species . This African Walking Catfish was a real slimy chunk to handle.
It was no surprise to us that the Yellow Cheek Carp came out in big numbers again this month..
We have had more than a few startled customers due to these aggressive feeders attacking Tilapia in the margins right next to where the customers are fishing..
This German Angler caught this awesome Yellow cheek but will be mostly remembered for hooking 7 Arapaima in one afternoon while wearing a cowboy hat and Speedo. I was responsible for landing his fish and had to literally run the length of the lake each time he blew his whistle .. I need the workout but it just about killed me.. Time for a motor bike I think...
Yellow Cheeks can be caught on the fly quite easily with any Tilapia imitation . Unfortunately we can only allow 12 weight fly rods as the Arapaima also love Tilapia pattern flies :).
Kevin Synman of South Africa guided by Neil Robinson of Fishing Khaolak had what can only be described as the most incredible fishing day. He landed 4 Arawana , ..2 Arapaima,.. 1 Yellow cheek Carp, 1 Alligator gar, ..1 Tiger/Redtail Cross, ..1 Gourami ,.. 2 Pacu and ..1 Tiger Shovelnose Catfish . Yes in the same day!!
Kevin worked so hard for his rewards, casting his 12 weight all day with only a few short breaks to change flies. Awesome work Kevin you deserved every fish .. . I am more than a little jealous as I couldn't cast a 12 weight for that long to save my life...
If you haven't seen Kevin's Fly fishing Video yet it is a must see at the following link;-https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmxh4cyzcdbh7zm/Fly%20Fishing%20Water%20Marked.mp4
One species Kevin didnt catch was a Chao Phraya Catfish . This fish gave these anglers the fight of their lives with some typical Chao Phraya long lightning fast runs ..
Another welcome surprise this month was this acrobatic Atlantic Tarpon ...
This toothy Alligator Gar made Mr Englund,s day complete.
Meanwhile his grandson was pulling in this cool looking Goonch. It's lucky it wasn't one of the bigger Goonch or it might have pulled him in instead...
There weren't just predators caught in December . We also had lots of beautiful non predatory carp species.
One of my favorite Carp species is always the Black Shark Carp...
There were some good Siamese coming out also and the numbers were up again this month.
Our Chinese Black Carp are always on the feed with 8 showing this month.
This nice sized Black Carp was more than a handful to hold on to for this fisherman.
Our Juliens Carp are coming out regularly with some great fish caught again this month. Tim Coakley landed this lovely specimen along with some other great catches including Yellow Cheeks , Albino Pacu and Arapaima.
Matt "The Gardener" as he is known in fishing circles and his good friend Phil also dropped by for a few days fishing .The Juliens Golden Price Carp was at the top of Matt's target species list. He was more than happy with this stunning fish which he caught in the first hour of fishing.
He also landed Tambiqui, Piraiabas ,and some Tiger/Redtail Cross just to name a few.
Matt loves to catch new and interesting species . He was over the moon to catch our first Vulture Catfish . At least that's what my fish supplier calls it due to the fact that it eats just about everything...
Not to be outdone, Phil landed ;- Asian Redtails,.. Yellow cheeked Carp,.. Albino Pacu ,.. Arawana ,.. Piraibas and Arapaima
By the way if you forget your hat like Phil did we do have some fashionable ones available :).
The most honourable mention for this month goes to Stretton Honor who during his short visit landed over 40 fish of 15 species including a huge Arapaima and a monster Wallagoo .. Stretton is such a relaxed and easy going person and fun to be around. It was a pleasure to fish with him ,except for the fact that I now need therapy for both arms after making 500 ground bait balls for his Mekong quest :).Not sure what he meant by this Stretton but Ross says it was great to meet you "Dagling" lol.... Sorry we didnt get any Mekong this trip Stretton let's save them for your next visit..
Stretton added another one of many new species to his list with our first Blue Channel Catfish... This tough Asian Redtail gave him a good fight as well.
Our goal with our catch report is to give accurate information as to what was caught each month and show some cool photos of our Exotic fish . We unfortunately dont have time to show photos of every client or every fish . We apologize if we didn't show a photo of you with your special catch .
..If we don't have peoples pics then sorry but we unfortunately cannot include them in the catch report. If any customers have some cool pics from their visits to EFT and would like to share them with us then please contact us through facebook at;-https://www.facebook.com/pages/Exotic-Fishing-Thailand/427820143951674 or if they are Arapaima pics then you can post them direct to our Arapaima group page at;- https://www.facebook.com/groups/arapaimafishinginthailand/
We will have more news on our EFT Mountaiin Fish Park and show more progress on our restaurant build in the January report . We have just got all our restaurant permits and are working on our tasty menu...We will open the restaurant in early February.
We would like to again thank all customers who visited us this month. We hope you had a fun time and caught lots of exciting fish .We really appreciate your business. If you feel there is anything we can do to improve your fishing experience here at EFT then please let us know at Exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com.
Special thanks also to our good friend Dean who has been responsible for some of our incredible photos and videos in the last few months .. Safe trip home Dean and good luck in all your future endeavours.
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