The weather has been seasonal this September with a good share of rain .. We don't mind the rains as they keep the lake topped up and there is no need to water the gardens.
It doesn't matter what the weather. Rain or shine, it's always service in your swim with a smile here at EFT
The Giant Snakehead have been going absolutely crazy in September with 18 sensational fish from 6 to 9kg caught .
There was a total of 42 angler days fished in September with 390 fish landed for an average of over 9 fish per angler day .
This Amazon Redtail was one of many to make our catch report for September which contained 29 different species.. The report includes;- . 18 Alligator Gar to 75 lbs, 22 Albino Pacu to 15 lbs, ..52 Amazon Redtails to 60 lbs,..41 Arapaima to 340lbs,.. 2 Arawana to 8lbs,..32 Asian Redtails to 30lbs, 1 Black eared Catfish to 12lbs . 4 Chao Phraya Catfish to 38lbs,..4 Chinese Black Carp to 20 lbs,.. 7 Giant Featherbacks to 11lbs, 4 Giant Gourami to 8 lbs,..18 Giant Snakehead to 19lbs.. 4 Giant Stingrays to 1m .. 13 Goonch to 26lbs , 2 Hovens Carp to 7lbs... 3 Mekong Catfish to 165lbs., 26 Pacu to 24lbs ,..6 Piraiba Catfish to 16lbs,.24 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 17lbs,.18 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 18lbs, .36 Siamese Carp to 55lbs,. 2 Soldier River Barb to 6lbs..5 Spotted Featherback to 7 lbs. 16 Tambaqui to 15lbs,..12 Tiger Shovelnose Catfish to 19lbs,...7 Wallagoo Attu to 18 lbs, 8 Wallagoo Leeri to 16lbs..1 Wels catfish to 8lbs...2 Yellow Cheeked Carp to 21lbs.................................................
A nice Siamese for this day ticket angler visiting from Khao Lak
Daniel Sing from Singapore landed a rare Wallagoo Attu on his first visit to EFT
Our good friend Koen was visiting again from Belgium and also got in on the hot Snakehead action
Koen loves catching different species like this nice Ripsaw Catfish
He also landed this good sized Siamese Carp
Next Koen got right into the Pacu Family and look alikes .. Here he is with a chunky Pacu
Next up was this beautiful Albino Pacu.
Not to be left out he also caught a nice Tambaqui.
Switching to Thai species this Spotted Featherback was next to have its photo taken .
Koen always has at least one target fish when he arrives at EFT and this time it was the Goonch . The Goonch have adjusted to their new environment here at EFT . They are definitely on the feed lately and are getting caught quite regularly with 13 fish coming out this month alone.
Like many people Koens standing target here is one of our huge Wallagoo Leeri . He got the right species this trip but the monsters did not cooperate
Koen has caught many of our Arapaima but told me he prefers to catch them at night .. I agree as it is always more exciting and mysterious fighting them in the dark..
Our good friend John Pearce was visiting to help with some upcoming promotional videos. He has caught many Arapaimas at EFT , but he just had to catch one more before he left Thailand for an exciting new business opportunity in Panama
A really fat Tiger Shovelnose caught by yours truly during filming ..
Lek was helping while filming so I had him jump in for some of the fish photos .Here he is with a healthy Wallagoo Leeri and Goonch . One of 26 fish for the day
We are always happy to see our good friend FLOB who visited again this month with some friends from Walkabout Sports Bar In Karon beach .. FLOB Caught some interesting species with this difficult to handle Ripsaw Catfish being one of his favorite ..
Jez Wilson visited with FLOB and and as usual caught some nice fish including this months feature fish the awesome Giant Snakehead ..
Andy Bright from Rawai Beach Fishing Club made his first visit to EFT and started his catch report with an Albino Pacu .
Andy finished the day on a high note with a first for him with this nice EFT Arapamia caught on chicken .
Lee Garnett also came with the FLOB group and wasnt left out , catching several fish including Siamese Carp and this Amazon Redtail
Our new customer Adrian was here on a day ticket and had an absolutely awesome day . Adrian started off his catch report with a Spotted Featherback
It wasn't long before he landed his first Arapama.
Adrian went on to catch 4 Arapaima just one short of the record for one day .
There were no huge Arapaima but Adrian was happy with 4 fish over 50kg.
He also landed lots of different species including Amazon Redtails
The Siamese carp were also on the feed for Adrian.
This beautiful Giant Snakehead also put a big smile on Adrian's face
Eddie Singleton and Bruce Lee [Yes that is his real name :) ] visited us also for the first time this month .. Bruce started off the day with a nice Siamese.
Eddie was not to be outdone and landed a another nice Carp not long after .
Both anglers caught Ripsaw Catfish but this one gave Eddie a bit of a problem to hang on to .. They are not easy to hold as they are covered in quite sharp spike which can give a nasty scratch if you are not careful.
Bruce caught a Chao Phraya Catfish which even though wasn't huge took off like a rocket
After lots of different species were landed in all boilied down to the battle of the Arapaimas. Bruce was the first to catch with this nice fish ..
Eddie again answered the challenge with his first EFT Arapaima.
After some initial trouble lifting this fish Bruce displayed the biggest fish of this visit. We are looking forward to a rematch of these 2 fun characters some time soon .
We had a really fun group visit us from Malaysia .. Even before the fishing started they were joking between them and making side bets on the first Arapaima and Chao Phraya Catfish to be caught .. The Arapaima bet didn't last long with the first Ari been caught on the first cast of the day .
The weather was not great to say the least for the Malaysian visit but everyone caught fish. Chris the busy trip organizer started his catch report with a Siamese Carp
Chris wasn't the only one catching Siamese Carp :)
There were some nice Amazon Redtails caught including this beautiful fish.
The rain seems to bring on the Alligator gars with this being the first one caught
Next up came a real monster gator for Chris . Even I got in the lake for the photo :)..This is nowhere near our biggest gator as we have several bigger and one which is well over 55kg.
The trip started with an Arapaima and ended the same way .. Even when the weather is bad there always seems to be some species that are biting well here at EFT .
Chris we really do appreciate your visit and especially after you explained that a much smaller fishery near Bangkok was pressuring you to cancel with us and go to them. It really is amazing how low some people will go....Thanks for keeping your booking and sticking with us and we hope to see you all back when the weather and fish are more cooperative ..
John from the US was one of our most intense fishermen to visit so far this year . He was to say the least very excited to be here to try to catch Arapaima and literally everything else which swims:). He started his catch report with his first of many beautiful Giant Snakehead.
Our best advise to excited anglers is to try to relax, take our advise as we fish here every day and the fish will come .Once John relaxed a little and got over his initial jet lag it wasn't long before he landed his first Arapaima..
The second day got off to a rocky start after John convinced our Taxi driver to bring him to the resort early and then tried to pay off our guide Noo with 20 baht [ yes 20 baht lmao] to let him start fishing 1 hour early .. This after he had been told 3 times that we do not allow fishing before 8 am . I explained nicely to him any more antics and we would refund his money for the day and he could head home ... I also explained that he is lucky he didnt try that at another fishery or he probably would have got a broken jaw and thrown out on his ass :)..
We do understand that sometimes visitors are very anxious to catch fish and they can get over excited as we are anglers too :)..If you respect our rules we will literally bend over backwards and do our best to get you your dream fish .When you catch fish everyone is happy and everyone wins:).. As a side note if you want to try to bribe us or our guides ;' Noo likes Thai whisky .. Ross likes Rum and I have a weakness for Bombay Gin :)
John caught numerous other species including Giant Gourami which often get caught on the float rod .
This Stingray was a surprise for John and he was happy to get a photo once we explained that the sting had been removed and how to hold it.
The next species to get caught on the float was this nice Tambaqui
After his second day John started to mellow out waiting patiently for the fish to make a solid run . His patience paid off with yet another nice Arapaima :)
John caught so many species and some great fish [ Goonch , Wallagoo Attu, more Snakeheads etc ] but unfortunately didn't send us any photos after he got home . I am sure he is busy applying his intensity to his next goal or venture. We wish him well whatever it may be ..
Ola Hagensen and his wife , both expert Trout anglers visited us for the first time from Norway . Ola had several fish throughout the day including some Redtails and this Wallagoo Leeri
Ola's wife was a true professional and even though fishing was slow early in the day she stayed calm and knew that the fish usually come to those who work hard ..Well work hard we did and even I got involved to try to catch a good fish . We finally hooked an Arapaima just after 6pm ....
Just minutes after we had blown the whistle to signal an Arapaima hook up Ola's rod screamed off and he was also into a decent fish
Its not every day we have an Arapaima double header so we made sure to get a cool photo .. Its not easy when you have to get both fish calmed down at the same time .but as you can see it worked out well..:)
Without a doubt our angler of the month for September has to be German carp angler Michael Schneider . Michael got in on some serious Snakehead action landing 6 big Snakehead as part of his impressive 101 fish in seven days catch
Michael also let the Arapaimas know he meant business landing 4 fish over 70kg.
Here is one of his night time fish
Another big smile for a happy Michael with yet another Arapaima.
Michael caught both spotted and Giant Featehrbacks . Here is his best Giant Featherback .. A really fat fish estimated at close to 9kg and very close to the current world record for this species ..
Another new species . This was one of several Wallagoo Leeri .
Our Redtail Tiger Cross catfish are really piling on the weight . Hard to believe that this fish among many was raised at home in tanks from the size of my baby finger just 2.5 years ago..
Michael caught many of our Catfish species including this nice sized Asian Redtail
Another Catfish was this awesome Goonch catfish one of several Goonch Michael caught in his week here
Being a Carp enthusiast Michael was very happy with the mint condition Siamese carp he caught here at EFT .
Michael was experimenting with his own boilies which fooled more than a few of our Carp species .
He fished rain or shine was even seen fishing from inside his bamboo sala at times :).. Michael's efforts show how many fish can really be caught at EFT if you work hard and fish for a whole week. . . This is probably the most productive week for one person so far here at Exotic Fishing Thailand. Congratulations Michael , great fishing
Gordon Lambie returned to Thailand and was unfortunately greeted by constant rain . With the rain though came some great fishing including this his first Arapaima on his first trip to EFT ..
This Tiger Shovelnose catfish was caught on the float..
Another Catfish species was this Piraiba Catfish which came on a dead fish bait on the bottom ..
This Giant Gourami also fell victim to laam on the float ..This technique is working well right now as the non predators including the Gourami get caught on the laam . The bait fish surround the laam ball and atrract all the predators which get caught when they attack the bait fish .
This was one of several fat Amazon Redtails Gord caught in his short time with us
This has to be a first anywhere .. A wels catfish /Tiger shovelnose , double header.. There was some discussion about Wels or Wallagoo but we believe it to be one of the small Wels we stocked. Either way a great combo .
Gord also got in on the Giant Snakehead bonanza with 5 Snakehead caught
We didn't get many of them in photos as they are hard to handle and not easy to photograph. Once Gord had a few pics he decided it wasn't worth getting wet again for a fish that would probably jump out of his hands ..
The highlight of Gord's visit was this very colourful Arapaima to end his trip
This was a very nice Arapaima for this day ticket angler who fished a combination of fly and bait fishing throughout the day . This combo gives the angler a break from using the heavy 12 or 14 weight fly rods while also giving the possibility of other species that most likely wouldn't get caught on the fly
This second Arapaima was taken on the fly
If 2 Arapaima wasn't enough in one day he went one better and finished up with a magnificent looking Mekong catfish . Simply some of the best fishing for a day ticket anywhere in Thailand.
Our good friend Roy Toh visited us again for the 3rd time from Singapore. Roy was visiting this time with his good friend and started off with this double header .
The next fish was a very nice sized Alligator gar
I think Roy was quietly being the ultimate gentlemen and letting his friend catch most of the fish , including this Arapaima
This Stingray made for a happy photo to end their trip ... Hope to see you again soon Roy whether it be with friends or family or both :)
We had some fantastic catches this month but I think one of the best catches of September was catching the attention of the ice cream supplier to drop off some freezers and product.. Magnum GOLD oh yeah . Alloy mak mak ..:):):) ....
These will surely be responsible for some future weight gains here at EFT although not necessarily for the fish :)
Its not just about the awesome fishing and stunning scenery at EFT . We also pride ourselves on our customer service and try to make every persons experience here a fun one..
As we kiss September goodbye I will continue to try to get caught up on our catch reports :). It's not easy as we are always busy working around the fishery doing whatever is necessary in order to keep Exotic Fishing Thailand where it belongs as one of the top few premium fisheries in Thailand.
As always we would like to thank everyone who visited and enjoyed Exotic Fishing Thailand and hope to see you all again soon . Everyone is made to feel welcome here at EFT so don't delay for booking in 2015 as we are getting more busy each month ..
You can easily book online through our website at www.exoticfishingthailand.com or simply email us at exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com . We will always get back to you within 72 hours but usually same day ...
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