We didnt expect many anglers in July with it being low season for tourists but we were pleasantly surprised . We were not surprised however by the number of fish which continue to get caught here at EFT..
I think the word is definitely getting out about the amazing fishing here at Exotic Fishing Thailand and what a beautiful place it is to relax and enjoy some of the best catch rates of any fishery in Thailand while waiting for a true monster . .. We are happy to have had 48 angler days fished this month with a staggering 457 fish caught keeping our catch rates very close to 10 fish per angler day ...
We had a promotion this month to celebrate the official opening of our Restaurant to the public . Quite a few locals, friends and visitors from nearby Phuket joined us for free coffee and Thai food specials ..Our chef celebrated the event with some creative food carving .. I want him to do an Arapaima next :)
Michelle was out and about as usual and happily directing visitors to the Fish Park :)....
Our stocking program continued with another huge stingray which our fish supplier adopted from another fishery in Bangkok. This fish had outgrown its surroundings so we were happy to find it a new home . We will not be stocking any more large stingrays as we don't want to promote them being taken from the wild ..Our concern is that if Thai fishermen think they can sell the rays for profit then they will often try to keep them but if there is no market then hopefully they will return them safely to their natural environment
Another fish I have been chasing for sometime is the African Arowana .I had tried to grow some from a small size a few times without much success so i took the plunge and purchased some larger fish which recently came available ..We will try to grow some more of this species as we like to have enough of each species to give the anglers a chance to catch each of the over 60 species .
Some fisheries are continually boasting to have a lot more than our 60+ species . Each to their own I say as frankly we don't see the point to have a few of each of some obscure fish that will probably never get caught just to boost our species numbers. I think we will eventually cap our fish list at 70 catchable exotic species ...
Our catch report for July including 32 different exotic species is as follows.;- 5 African Walking catfish to 20lbs .23 Alligator Gar to 75 lbs,.1 Albino Sawai Catfish to 15lbs..25 Albino Pacu to 15 lbs, ..53 Amazon Redtails to 55 lbs,..45 Arapaima to 320lbs,.. 4 Arawana to 8lbs,..38 Asian Redtails to 35lbs, 8 Barramundi to 16lbs . 4 Chao Phraya Catfish to 30lbs,..5 Chinese Black Carp to 18 lbs, 13 Giant Featherbacks to 12lbs, 6 Giant Gourami to 8 lbs, 3 Giant Stingrays to 90cm 3 Goonch to 20lbs, 6 Hovens Carp to 7lbs....5 Juliens to 17 lbs..2 Marble Catfish to 8lbs.. 2 Mekong Catfish to 135lbs., 27 Pacu to 28lbs ,..14 Piraiba Catfish to 16lbs,..36 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 17lbs,....15 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 15lbs, .3 Sawai Catfish to 10 lbs..48 Siamese Carp to 50lbs,.2 Soldier River Barb to 4lbs..4 Spotted Featherback to 8 lbs. 26 Tambaqui to 15lbs,..13 Tigershovelnose Catfish to 18lbs,.2 Vundu catfish to 10 lbs..3 Wallagoo Attu to 15 lbs,2 Wallagoo Leeri to 18lbs..2 White Gourami to 6lbs .9 Yellow Cheek Carp to 22 lbs
lots of species again this month with Big Barrumundi showing up more often every day ..
Speaking of stocking stingrays our good friend Andreas returned to EFT to catch one.
He also caught this good sized Giant Featherback on the float
This had only happened once before but Andreas and his friend managed to pull it off again catching an Arapaima double header.
For some reason Andreas always catches Alligator Gar and this visit was no different ..
Roland was a new customer to visit EFT but a happy one thats for sure catching some great fish . His list started off with a nice Tambaqui.
Next on the list was this huge Barramundi
Roland fished hard and it wasn't long before he also started to get action on the carp rod ..
Roland was complaining he was starting to tire a little when along came this nice Mekong to almost finish him off:)
He wasn't completely worn out as he did manage this nice Arapaima before he headed home already planning when he could come back ...
This fish was probably not at the top of this Aussie fisherman's wish list but it was still a good sized barra
This was a new species though as he hadn't fished for Amazon Retails before .
A nice finish to end any days fishing is always an EFT Arapaima .
July was a great month for Arapaima again with almost 1 fish per angler day . This has got to be one of the best averages for 50kg + Arapaima from any Thai fishery .
I am not sure how this fish got held up like this but he did survive and I will be having a word with my guides about this . Part of the problem is that everyone gets so excited about landing an Arapaima and forgets what the guides have told them . It may look easy in a photo to handle these fish but it really isn,t in real life ..
Another nice fish for this angler . While other fisheries are busy trying to label EFT as a day ticket only lake we often get anglers staying multiple days and using our partner hotel close to the lake .
Ian farr managed to persuade his fiancee to get married in Phuket coincidentally not too Farr from EFT . He also managed to get his family out to EFT for a fun day of fishing. The day started well wit this nice Arapaima.
Ian didn't want to be left out and followed up quickly with a nice fish of his own .
Ian's dad just loved catching this beautiful Chinese black carp .
He also managed a nice Giant featherback . He thought this was strange looking fish noting that .. " We dont have anything like this in Wales" :)
Speaking of strange looking ..Ian landed this nice ripsaw on a boilie he was testing .. Ian is actually sponsored by Urban baits and not Revlon as you might think from his lip balm :)..
This huge Pacu also fell victim to Ian's new boilies..
There were as usual a few Redtails filling up the catch report
It really was a Barramundi BONANZA of a month with our new customer Graham Howard catching yet another huge barra
Graham had just an awesome day with this stunning Arapaima in his mixed bag of fish..
James Williams visited us for his first time and had an amazing day with 20+ fish starting out with this Tambaqui
James had both Amazon and Asian Redtails in his huge haul ..
This white Pacu was yet another new species
James was impressed by the fighting capabilities of the Asian Redtails versus the Amazon species. personally I think they give a more head shaking type of fight than the Amazons
We were happy to see Toke Ghee Aw again this time visiting with Family and some friends.They caught some nice Siamese in their mixed bag of fish.
Amber is never afraid of the fish and happy to get in the water for photos with this Vundu Catfish
Everyone had a busy afternoon ..Here is a nice Exotic Double header with an Albino pacu for Amber and a nice Ripsaw Catfish for jack
How about this for a great Family Pic with a very colourful Arapaima
Jack also caught this not so common Marble Catfish .
Jack's fish wasn't the only Marble Cat out this month with another fish caught by this day ticket angler ..
Mick Clarke joined us for his first visit to EFT landing quite the list of fish .. He started off with this big Amazon Redtail
He was having good fortune also with the Siamese carp.
Mick decided catching fish 1 at a time was a little slow so he cranked things up a notch with this Siamese and Asian Redtail double header .
I am not sure who was posing with who's fish here but a fun photo nevertheless of Mick and new friend Sinane
Sinane is Back :).. What more can I say ??.. The young angling machine from France was here with his father Soufienne for an Amazing week of catching .. Soufienne wanted to set the tone for the trip and decided to show Sinane how to catch an Arapaima..
Sinane rose to the challenge with an Arapaima of his own ..
Once Sinane settled his nerves he started to catch a lot more fish with lots of Siamese in the mix
Siamese were just one of the many Carp species for Sinane as he also landed some Juliens Golden Price carp
Another carp species was this Hoven's Carp or mad barb as it is also known
With few Carp species under his belt Sinane switched his focus to some of our more Exotic predators landing this pristine Arawana
Another interesting looking fish which is native to Thailand is this Giant Featherback
Switching to Catfish Sinane decided to target a Ripsaw Catfish using Lum and poly ball.It didn't take long to land this great fish
I have probably said this 100 times but without a doubt the Tiger Shovelnose Cat is one of our most beautiful fish ..
Not as pretty but a strong fighter the Asian Redtail is always a fun fish to catch
Sinane started looking for some new species and came up with this nice Gourami
Sinane managed a few more Catfish with what we will tentatively call a Vundu Catfish.
We posted this photo recently on our Catfishing in Thailand Fbook page where a critic eagerly jumped all over the post saying it was not a Vundu and in fact an African walking catfish . For the sake of argument I agreed and changed the text. Frankly I was quite busy with more important things to do and didn't have time to check . I have since checked with the supplier who was the same person to sell my competitor their 1 Vundu and he says it is a Vundu but with a longer dorsal than the typical Vundu . Obviously the common Vundu has a shorter Dorsal and then a more distinct gap before the second fin .
I am still not sure about the true identity of this fish though and will seek some more scientific info soon . Maybe it is a cross between a Vundu and African walking cat for all I know ??..Lets leave it at that and give the EFT critics something else to talk about ...
We don't have a lot of Pacu at EFT as they are such a common fish but we do have a few big ones ..
A nice spotted featherback for this day ticket angler . One of the 3 types of Featherback here at EFT
One of the most beautiful Carps species is undoubtedly the Juliens Golden Price carp
This Ripsaw finished off this angler's day nicely as these fish always take a good photo
Jack Ecclestone was all smiles as the Featherback frenzie continues at EFT .. Both the Giant Featherbacks and the Spotted are smashing baitfish around the float and getting caught on a regular basis .
A very healthy first Arapaima for Jack and his girlfriend
One obviously wasn't enough for Jack pictured here with yet another nice fish ..
Jack also managed other species . A nice Pacu to help fill the catch report
Jack's Girlfriend also wanted to get in on the action and landed this fiesty Asian Redtail .
Before we finish our report for July I would like to say that we really don't take enough time to mention our excellent fishing guides. I would like to take a minute this month to mention one of our top guides Lek .. Lek has been with us for some time now and does a great job in all aspects of his work. He receives nothing but praise from our guests as he works extremely hard and nothing is too much to ask .
Like all our guides and also the management here ,Lek is happy when you the customer are catching fish :). When not catching fish for customers and he gets a few minutes for himself Lek like all of us just loves to catch fish as seen here with this nice Ripsaw
Lek tells me his favorite fish at EFT is the same as mine .. The beautiful Tiger Shovel nose
Catch reports are definitely a lot of work both to write and to choose and upload photos.. As a premium fishery we feel it is important to show our potential visitors ,photos of our happy customers and lots of CURRENT fish pics .
I don't understand why other than a few , that all fisheries and especially agents don't show more CURRENT photos of their monthly catches . We go out of our way to get lots of good photos and are never too busy to take a pic of a client's dream fish . You would think it would be in each company's best interest to do the same ??
To further improve our reporting we will be changing our customer catch report form soon to add more customer information and make it easier to record species names etc. Combined with our species poster in all our custom salas we think this will make things more easy and interesting for the anglers and their guests when identifying fish and filling out the report ..
Our guides will check and sign the reports at the end of the day and we are happy to provide a copy to our guests so they have an accurate record of their catch to take home.
As we bring to an end another busy and yes very late catch report , please remember ;- for some of the best catch rates , an amazing variety of exotic fish species and of course lots of big fish.. There is only ONE....... Exotic Fishing Thailand
To book direct please feel free to use our website booking form at www.exoticfishingthailand.com or email us directly at exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com .
Watch for our "Exotic Fishing in Thailand Fishing Packages" page coming soon to our website . This will be a FREE SERVICE to help clients book other awesome fishing experiences while on holiday here in Thailand..
