EXOTIC FISHING THAILAND: 2013

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

A MAN CALLED UNCLE JIM . WE WILL MISS YOU .

It was a very sad day this week when I received a message from my Mom telling my that my fishing inspiration, Uncle Jim had passed away in hospital .

As I sat there thinking of what to say to my Aunt Janet who was by his side , I became totally overwhelmed with all the wonderful reasons why I called Jim Adams my uncle. Jim was a wonderful caring and giving man who always thought of everyone else before himself .

My family and I first met Jim not long after we moved to Canada when he was visiting our neighbors one summer afternoon . I don't remember how we got on the subject of fishing but once we did that remained the favorite topic for Jim , my Dad and I for years to come .. Having fished in England for smaller coarse fish I was totally taken in by Jim's stories of huge Pike and Bass which could he explained could be caught easily casting wooden plugs..

Some of my favorite memories were sitting in a 3 meter aluminium boat with my Dad and Jim making our way down the Salmon river near Belleville casting Rapalas under over hanging trees for whatever we could catch . I still dont know how we fit so much tackle and junk into the boat and still had room for the 3 of us.. We had some great fishing and some great laughs ..

Jim had nicknamed me "Big Ace " during a fishing trip to Temagami Northern Ontario . I was dealing cards and simply said "big ace bets" .For some reason Jim thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. He was literally crying laughing for 30 minutes . He had such a great laugh which we will all miss.

I have written about Jim here on my blog as he , like my Dad were a true inspiration for me in many different areas of my life but especially when it comes to fishing ...I remember we would often drop into the local tackle shop on our way to our fishing spots and Jim would try to convince the owner that he should let us take his new Ranger bass boat out for a spin ... Even though Jim was a great salesman that unfortunately never happened . I told Jim not too worry as I would buy my own bass boat some day ..

Jim helped me with my goal of owning my own boat by getting me my first real job at a local moving company doing office moves on weekends .. This lead to me eventually getting summer jobs and working every night after school at the mover's warehouse.. My strong work ethic and good references from the job Jim had got for me helped me land an apprenticeship in tool and die making which has served me well to this day

With the money I earner in those early days I was able to finally buy my bass boat .. Once i had that I never looked back and have been fishing like a mad man ever since :).

I would like to thank you Uncle Jim for your help and inspiration and hope that I can help and inspire some young anglers here at Exotic Fishing Thailand so they too can enjoy some great times fishing with their families and friends like I did with you and Dad..

Friday, December 13, 2013

GREAT TRIP FOR ARA-PAUL-MA

The opening of Exotic Fishing Thailand for fishing has been a lot of work but a fun experience . For me one of the highlights was when my good friend Paul came over to see the progress and also catch some cool fish.

Before I get started showing off Paul's catches I would like to thank Paul for all his support throughout the EFT project . He has not only been there for professional support but also as a true friend. I am always able to make better decisions after a bouncing ideas off Paul.. Even after a few beers or gin and tonics he has never steered me wrong . Well almost never ...

The first Arapaima Paul got his hands on was Harry the Ari a promotional plastic replica on display at the Gaff Restaurant and bar in Chalong..

There was no time wasted the following morning when Paul got his first fish after just a few casts..He was very proud to be the first " Canadian customer" to land an Arapaima at EFT.

Another fish on Paul's list was the Yellow Cheeked carp..These can be seen frequently hunting small Tilapia in the shallow margins around the lake .. Paul put on a bubble float and had this great fish before 9am..

A good sized Asian Redtail was next to hit the net .

Paul caught 34 fish of 12 different species in his 3 days of fishing .His list included Piraba Catfish, Albino Pacu ,Black Pacu, Yellow Cheeked Carp, Arapaima , Amazon Redtails, Asian Redtails, Allgator Gar, Tiger Shovelnose Cross,Siamese Carp, Rohu, and Tambiqui

He landed a total of 6 Arapaimas in his short time here .

He was especially happy with this awesome fish .. Big fish with great colours..

It was great to see you again my good friend and I hope we will see you here in Thailand again soon .Its my 50th next year so that sounds like a great excuse:). The Yellow cheeks will be even bigger by then ...

Friday, December 6, 2013

CATCH REPORT FOR OCTOBER

A little late, but we have now finished the Exotic Fishing Thailand first catch report for October. The November report will follow soon .

I would first like to thank everyone who has been involved in Exotic Fishing Thailand from the concept stage to making it a reality. I appreciate all help and support .

It has been an amazing learning curve with some huge obstacles to overcome . Several road blocks had to be dealt with at critical stages of the lake build.

By carefully respecting all Thai laws and working closely with the local and provincial governments and also supporting our community we have completed our project on time and are now open for fishing..

October was supposed to be a few friends sampling the fishing and a soft opening period for the resort to train staff and check equipment . What it turned into was a very busy time with 35 fishing days from many excited friends .

For 35 single fishing days 398 fish of 19 species were caught .. Most anglers caught 8 to 12 fish with one catching a high of 28 while the least caught by only a few anglers was 4 or 5 ...

Arapaimas were at the top of the list of target species . 44 Arapaima were caught to 330lbs with 5 anglers catching 3 or more Arapaima in one day ..

I was very interested to see which fishing swims would fish the best but found that there were excellent catch rates coming from all swims on different days.

Our catch list is as follows;- 22 Juliens Golden price carp to 26lbs, 18 Siamese Carp to 48lbs, 21 Yellow Cheek Carp to 14lbs ,27 Amazon Redtails to 42 lbs, 4 Asian Redtails to 25lbs, 20 Alligator Gar 25 lbs, 44 Arapaima to 330lbs, 4 Chao Phraya Catfish to 65lbs, 3 Chinese Black Carp to 14 lbs, 8 Hovens Carp to 5lbs, 48 Redtail Tiger Shovelnose Cross Catfish to 12lbs, 8 Rohu to 14 lbs, 15 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 16lbs, 6 Tigershovelnose catfish to 14lbs, 44 Piraiba Catfish to 14lbs, 12 Wallagoo Attu to 12 lbs, 18 Tambiqui to 10lbs, 19 Pacu to 12kg , 47 Albino Pacu to 5 kg..

The most Piraiba Catfish caught by one angler in one day was 7 ..I personally thought these fish would be a low light feeder but right now they are feeding all day and outnumbering both redtail species combined.

The most Ripsaw Catfish caught by one angler in one day was 3..These fish always take a great photo. I hope one of our bigger fish comes out soon ...

Only a few anglers tried fly fishing this month. They caught Arapaima , YellowCheek Carp , Pacu and of all things Alligator gar .

The most Juliens Golden Price Carp caught by one angler was 3 in one day .We surprisingly had more Juliens than Siamese this first month.

Some people were so happy they decided to kiss their prized catch.

The Yellow Cheeked Carp was also high on people's wish list. Most people chasing this little Gem went home happy. There were 21 of these awesome fish caught . We are really excited about the potential of this fish species and have many fish of different sizes growing in our stock ponds.

The Wallagoo Attu is sought after by many specimen hunters . They definitely made their presence known this month with 12 fish caught .

We doubled our stock of the Attu when we netted our last stock pond in November and put all fish into the main lake . Lets see how many get caught next month...We also added some other exciting new fish so lets see if any show up any time soon..

There were some beautiful coloured Amazon Redtails out so far but none of our bigger fish yet .. I was happy to see that the Redtail numbers didnt dominate the catch list.

There were definitely a lot of happy anglers and not a gripe to be heard . Well that's not exactly true as there were requests for electric fans in the lakeside salas and steps into the lake . What next aircon :)???

There were interestingly no Mekong Catfish caught this month but there again nobody really fished for them .. Lets see how the overall catch rates are next month and what new exciting Exotic species make the report ..

So that wraps up our first "Exotic Fishing Thailand" catch report . Not to be confused with several other catch reports/newsletters using our legal company name in their reports. Some are even using our name on other sites to try to boost their own google ratings.. Being a new resort we actually appreciate these sources helping to get our name our there...

Sunday, November 10, 2013

WELCOME TO OUR FIRST RUSSIAN GUESTS

We were happy to welcome our first Russian guests last week with 4 eager anglers visiting us for just one days fishing.You wont believe how many fish they caught :)

They were welcomed by many great catches with all anglers catching 10+ fish per day including some very rare Exotic species.

2 of the 4 anglers had so much fun that they came back the next day with their families who were happy to join in the fishing fun .

Carp species were high on the wish list and EFT delivered with 3 Juliens Golden Price Carp in one day

The Siamese Carp were also hungry with 4 fish landed in one day.

The Chinese Black Carp were on the feed again with this beauty coming to the net ..They are supposed to be snail eaters but they get caught on different methods.. I still cant believe that they reach 100lbs plus .. Cant wait to see how big our fish get ..

Not a big Carp but this Hovens Carp / Mad Barb is another nice Carp species

How about this for double header ?? A Piraiba Catfish from the Amazon and A Yellow Cheeked Carp from China. Thats what Exotic Fishing Thailand is all about ..

One of our smaller Arapaima was the first to be caught.

The Arapaimas just kept getting bigger as the day went on.

Patience paid off for this angler with yet another Arapaima landed ..

Carp and Arapaima weren't the only species caught . Check out this fat Amazon Redtail .

Not just the men were catching .

The ladies had no trouble landing these colourful Redtails.

Our Albino Pacu are not big yet but are a beautiful looking fish and great fun to catch.

Mother and Daughter having fun with the Albino Pacu.

A nice Redtail Tiger Cross caught by this youngster ..

There have been some recent comments by our competition about fishing venues with no swimming pool and bungalows. This family sure weren't stuck in a small town hotel with nothing to do as suggested ..

Catching fish and having fun is what we are about here at Exotic Fishing Thailand . Not every fish is a monster BUT there are lots of Exotic species to keep the whole family busy while you wait for your fish of a lifetime.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

EXOTIC FISHING THAILAND LIVES UP TO ITS NAME

Another great days fishing yesterday,even by EFT standards Only 2 people fishing but they had some great fish .

Martin from Denmark has been fishing in Thailand before at a small lake in Chang Mai . On this trip he wanted to fish a bigger lake to hopefully catch some bigger and different fish species .

He decided to fish an extra predator rod and really go for it ..

His hard work paid off as he landed 26 fish total of 11 species which included;- 1 pacu, 2 Amazon redtails, 3 barramundi , 7 piraiba, 2 albino pacu, 4 rohu , 2 arapaima to 90kg, 2 rip saw, 1 tiger redtail cross , 1 siamese carp, 1 chao phraya,