March has continued where February left off with hot weather and super hot fishing here at Exotic Fishing Thailand. Everyone has been working hard as usual with the main focus being on final touches to our "Mountain View Restaurant" and EFT Mountain Fish Park.. The restaurant is serving a full menu already and we are just finishing some landscaping before sharing some photos. Restaurant photos will be in our April catch report and Fish Park photos in May.
What a great month with lots of new customers, lots of great catches and best of all lots of smiling faces here at EFT.
The fishing has continued to be very productive at EFT with 415 fish caught this month and 38 angler days fished .That's yet another amazing month with average catch rates of almost 11 fish per angler day.
As the lake continues to fish better than many lakes in Thailand there are obviously some critics. Last month it was guiding services telling our clients that our resort doesn't exist and this month its another resort making negative comments about clients catching too many fish :) .We are obviously doing something right if others are so concerned ...
One venue close to Cha-Am wrote in a recent catch report that resorts having catches of 20 fish or more in a day [ which occurs almost every week here at EFT ]are obviously overstocked and the fish must be starving and of poor quality ..I found this especially interesting as one of the same resort's regular clients fished EFT for 3 days in a row this month and happily landed over 60 healthy fish :).Ironically the same resort only managed 9 fish photos in total for their whole March report with excuses that they were too busy cooking big breakfasts and roast dinners to take photos lol.. .
Here at Exotic Fishing Thailand we leave the cooking to our chef while we take lots of fish photos and we will definitely be continuing to stock our lake with more new species, bigger fish and of course feed them a healthy diet :).
Our catch report for March including 26 different exotic species is as follows.;- .15 Alligator Gar to 50 lbs,..29 Albino Pacu to 14 lbs, ..66 Amazon Redtails to 52 lbs,..48 Arapaima to 370lbs,..9 Arawana to 8lbs,..11 Asian Redtails to 28lbs,,.2 Black Eared Catfish to 12lbs , .3 Chao Phraya Catfish to 40lbs,..12 Chinese Black Carp to 23 lbs,.4 Giant Gourami to 10lbs, 2 Pink Gourami to 6lbs. 2 Goonch to 18lbs,....2 Juliens Golden Price Carp to 18lbs,4 Mekong Catfish to 180lbs. 12 Pacu to 18lbs ,..43 Piraiba Catfish to 16lbs,..36 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 15lbs,....21 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 17lbs,..4 Rohu to 14lbs, ..38 Siamese Carp to 58lbs,..2 Spotted Featherbacks to 6 lbs,.. 22 Tambaqui to 15lbs,..6 Tigershovelnose Catfish to 16lbs,..2 Vundu Catfish to 12lbs,....2 Wallagoo Attu to 14 lbs,..18 Yellow Cheek Carp to 24 lbs
A very healthy Alligator Gar for this lady angler . These fish just love chicken .
The Arapaimas seem to be on a continuous feeding frenzy with an average of more than one Arapaima per angler day for this month .
Most anglers are catching Arapaima on Batu fish baits , but they are also getting caught on chicken and on believe it or not ,lum under a float . The predators are basically attacking the small bait schools which are attracted to the ball of lum under the float and getting caught on the same set up we use for carp and Mekong catfish..
We get quite a few fly anglers each month and more often than not they are successful in landing at least one Arapaima on the fly along with many other species.
Kevin from Malta was very happy with his first Ari from EFT .
These customers couldn't be happier than when they landed this simply huge Arapaima .
This day ticket angler was so thrilled to catch 2 Arapaimas in less than an hour that he left soon after . He simply said "I am happy , I am tired and my mission is accomplished " .
I had this happen once more in march where a Russian family showed up on a Sunday afternoon and asked to fish . They explained that they had no experience and asked if I could guide them . I fished with lum ball on the float and landed them 2 Arapaima and one Yellow Cheek in 2 hours . They didn't even want to reel the fish in as they said it was too big ?? . They just enjoyed a nice lunch , watched me catch fish for them to photo and left after 2 hours ..I wish they would come back every Sunday:)
Andrew Fell visited EFT for the first time . It was obvious right away that Andrew is a very focused angler . His hard work ethic paid off with an awesome 20+ fish per day for each of the 3 days he fished, including 5 Arapaima.
Andrew did get a little help from his girlfriend Lindsey but only when he had to handle 2 fish at a time .
A nice sized Amazon Redtail. One of many for the hard working Mr Fell
Andrew's 62 fish haul is a new record for 3 consecutive days fished at EFT. I am sure Stretton will take a shot at that when he visits in May :)and Sinane will chasing it too when he returns in July ..
This Yellow Cheeked carp was one of several new species for Andrew. He learned quickly that these fish are super strong and hard to hold on too. I can only describe it as trying to hold onto the tail of a fresh salmon as it runs a river. Not so easy...
Another new species was this Pink Gourami.
Another big smile for this chunky Siamese Carp
Another first time angler to EFT was Kevin D'Agostino . Kevin is true gentlemen and pleasure to guide and fish with .
Kevin caught lots of new species including this nice Ripsaw catfish
Kevin caught a lot of fish by baiting up just a few rod lengths out with lots of lum to attract the bait fish and in turn the predators like this nice Yellow Cheek.
This Piraiba was one of many also attracted to Kevin's fish bait by using the lum to attract the smaller fish.
This Tambaqui was caught like many at EFT on the float with a hair rigged pellet.
Another new species for Kevin was this Vundu Catfish.
This couple guided by Neil Robinson had a fantastic days fishing with multiple Arapaima and lots of different species.
The ladies have really been getting in on the Arapaima action this month .
Along with some exotic Catfish species like this Tiger Shovelnose :).
The Tambaqui are often a new species for first time anglers to EFT as they are only available at several of Thailand's top resorts
Another one of Neil Robinson's guests was cleaning up on some different Carp species with his most prized catch being this beautiful Chinese Black Carp
He also caught his fair share of Siamese Carp.
Swedish Angler Martin Huuhka visited EFT for the first time while on a tour of some of Thailand's top venues. Martin was fishing with his brother Markus and good friend Mikael. They caught many new species including this Pink Gourami.
They also had some nice Siamese Carp
The Albino Pacu were on the feed as usual and an easy catch for these experienced fishermen
I am not sure who caught the biggest Arapaima of the group but they all caught at least one fish in their short stay..
Martin was all smiles with this Beautiful Ari. We hope to see these 3 amigos back again in the near future ..
We weren't just busy fishing and working on the restaurant in March but also busy stocking more big fish . This huge Mekong was one of several we added .
We were also fortunate to find some nice sized Siamese at the same location we netted the big Mekongs
Carp over 50 kg sell for an absolute fortune in Thailand so we are happy to buy some smaller fish in the 30 to 35 kg range and grow them on while spending our fish budgets on many different species rather than just on Siamese Carp. We believe some of our Piraiba, Yellow Cheeks and Chinese Black Carp will become some of the most sought after fish in Thailand in the coming years as they continue to pack on the kilos..
It is not just about the fish at EFT and you dont have to look far for beautiful birds and amazingly coloured butterflies here as they often visit your swim while you fish ..
That's all for our March report with more great fish photos coming in our April report which I will try to get out very soon. Watch for information about our holiday specials available right now on our facebook page . We guarantee some of the best catch rates , while fishing in one of the most stunning environments you will fish in all of Thailand.
Always remember to book direct for the best price and exceptional service.
For online bookings we can be reached through our website at http://www.exoticfishingthailand.com/booking.htm or simply email us at exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com for a custom quotation or package price ..
