THE OCTOBER "FISH THE EXOTIC" CATCH REPORT

October was a special month for us here at EFT as we celebrated 1 year of being open for fishing . It has been a great year with lots of great fish caught and with new and old friends joining us to enjoy our resort. We also celebrated the opening of our restaurant and our fish park .

It was also a busy month personally celebrating Michelle's second birthday already and of course her first real halloween :)

The weather has been wet but with some sunny days mixed in ..The fishing was great with slightly less fishing pressure as the list of customers was a little shorter than prior months

The catch report is again filled with huge Giant Snakehead along with a great selection of other exotic monsters . I am going to try keep this report relatively short so we can try to get the reports up to date .. Our catch rates were over 11 fish per angler day while over all numbers were down a little with 28 different species caught

I am very happy to see our Goonch catfish now coming out regularly . It seemed like they had disappeared for the first 6 months after stocking ,with only a few fish coming out which actually looked like they had lost weight .

In my opinion the Goonch were initially adjusting to their new environment and basically didn't feed for a few months . Now they seem at home at EFT and feeding regularly and getting caught more each week.. One of our very first customers in 2013 Gunther Fertig was back again and happy to catch one of our stunning Goonch .

Gunther returned with his good friend Tommy and they were both off to a great start with this nice double header

The EFT giant Snakehead were again falling victim to the Mekong rig and getting caught on the float with Lum .

This beautiful Tiger Shovelnose catfish also came out on the float ..

This spotted featherback was caught on a small piece of fish fished on the bottom .

The Siamese were also on the feed but on the bottom using lum and poly ball rig

The Amazon redtails seem to be always on the feed coming out on chicken, fish and pellets.

Guntehr didnt want to miss out on the Tiger Shovelnose action and had to land one of his own also coming out on the float .

Our Arawana have got a lot smarter since their introduction but as Tommy found out can still be caught with some patience and a bubble float

Yet another stunning Giant Snakehead for Tommy .

Here is Gunther with his first Arapaima of the trip .

Tommy landed the second Ari which was a lot larger fish .

Team Fertig landed 5 Arapaima in total over their short visit .. Some awesome angling for these experienced anglers...

We will call this a Fingapaima for obvious reasons :)

The 5th and last Arapaima was this great fish landed by Tommy .. See you next year guys ..

Neil spring and his partner Jenny joined us for a single days fishing . What a great day they had landing many different species and 18 fish total .

I am not sure of the highlight for them as there seemed to be many ..It was probably in tying the Arapaima record for the highest number of fish caught in one day . They managed 5 Arapaima landing the last fish right at the 7 pm buzzer. This just happened again yesterday with a 3rd person tying the record who also hooked the last fish at 6;55pm ..

We strongly suggest that you fish right up until 7pm as you could catch the fish on your dreams literally on your last cast or the last second. We often catch fish steadily throughout the day but the final 2 hours is usually the best fishing ..

There were some nice Arapaima in the mix of 5 fish with the best being around 70 kilo.

Neil landed lots of other species and was very impressed by the beauty of this and other Giant Snakehead which he caught throughout the day on the float rig.

Not all the Snakehead were in the mood for photos . They can be quite acrobatic when they feel like it ..

Another cool fish to fall victim to the float lum rig was this beautiful Spotted Featherback

This Black eared Catfish was caught on the lum poly ball bottom rig.

Our Asian Redtail catfish always put up a good fight..

Another Float /lum victim was this Wallagoo Attu. They are not a common fish to catch at other venues but with the bait fish being drawn to the float/lum rig they are being tricked quite easily into getting caught here at EFT when they attack the bait fish ..

As i mentioned earlier our Goonch Catfish are now coming out regularly and can be now be targeted by visiting anglers

This fish came late in the day and was another surprise of the day as it also came on the Float rig ... It was a different type of fight and I couldn't begin to guess what Neil had caught, but was very happy to see one of our Jau Catfish in the net :). Jau are very rare in Thailand and I only know of one other lake which has a few fish ..

I definitely remember the 5th and final Ari as I had just cast the rod out only 10 meters from the swim when the line tore off before I even had chance to put the rod on the rod pod. I handed the rod to Neil who was to say the least quite surprised , but immediately set the hook ..It initially looked like a Redtail run so I left Neil to it and headed in to the restaurant for my dinner . What a great surprise when they came in the restaurant shortly after and told us it was an Arapaima... A simply fantastic way to end a great day ..

The biggest surprise of Neil and Jenny's day was however not a fish . Neil has asked if we could find a birthday desert or small cake to put a candle or 2 in for Jenny's birthday ..I mentioned this to Kuhn Tuk our head chef and she totally blew us away making this yummy chocolate cake from scratch in just 90 mins .

Anyone wanting to celebrate a birthday while fishing with us , simply let us know by email ahead of time and we can surprise your loved one :)...

This day ticket angler was also having a red letter day with lots of new species highlighted by his target species this beautiful Goonch .

This was the first of 2 Arapaima landed in just one day .

Both of these nice Arapaima came on chicken rigged on the bottom ..One important detail when fishing these chicken pieces is to make sure the hook is well exposed and to check this when recasting . Occasionally the chicken will turn on the hook and the point may get buried in the meat or skin ..

The last fish of the day was this evening Siamese carp .. A great way to end any fishing day ..

Neil Robinson from Fishng Khao lak was back again with another eager fisherman . His customer landed 4 Arapaima but unfortunatley we only have this one pic as Neil is not the best when it comes to sending me pics of his clients catches :(..

We did manage to get a photo of this good sized Giant Feather back though.

Next up this month was Vam and his 2 friends .. Here is Vam and Andre with their first Ripsaw Catfish .

Andre and his friend were happy to display this nice Goonch Catfish .

Yet another giant Snakehead for October :).

Vam and Andre both got in on the photo opportunity with this nice Siamese carp

The Vam team were with us for 2 days and landed 6 beautiful Snakehead in total .

Vam was very happy with this chunky Asian Redtail catfish

Vam's number one target like many people was an Arapaima and EFT once again didn't disappoint .

Andre somehow banged his nose while setting the hook on this nice Alligator Gar . I am not sure if it was the excitement or maybe the beers :)..

Andre wasn't the only one getting in on the alligator action

Andre added to their huge species list with this Black eared Catfish

Vam caught this unusual Pink Gourami which come out occasionally on the float and lum rig.

Andre caught this amazing Chinese Black Carp but had to resort to a bear hug to get a photo. These fish are very strong and difficult to hold onto

This day ticket angler was very happy with his first Arapaima.

French angler Jean Michelle visited us for the first time and was greeted by Siamese carp and some Redtail Catfish . He had a great time , so much so that he will be back in January

What a pleasure to greet 3 generations of Danish anglers. Here is grandfather and grandson with an Asian Redtail

Young Casper was eager to help his Dad reel in a big one :).

What a surprise it was when the big one turned out to be a big Arapaima

Casper was having a great time getting in on every photo ..

Here is Grandpa with a Pacu .

Casper was surprised to find that this Gourami had very rough scales ..

Yet another huge EFT Giant Snakehead for dad.

Another Arapaima for Grandpa and one more photo op for smiling Casper .

After lots of practice with his father's fish Casper reeled in his first Amazon Redtail..[ with a little help from yours truly but not much :)]

Our good friend and local angler Peter Lyons dropped in for a fish with his first catch of the day being an awesome Giant Snakehead,

Peter followed up with a monster Ripsaw Catfish .

Peter was ecstatic to land this rainy weather Goonch Catfish.

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Once he started there was no stopping Peter who went on to catch a lake record 3 Goonch in one day . I think Peter still holds the record for the most Piraiba Catfish in one day which was a crazy 7 fish in one day ...

To Peter's surprise the second Goonch turned out to be quite acrobatic

The final Goonch of the day was peter's biggest of this visit. Great job as always Peter we look forward to seeing you again soon ..

This group of 3 day ticket anglers kept the trend going catching lots of species and some excellent fish ..The first pic is a nice Redtail . Not big but colourful and a favorite among new anglers to EFT

Always a stunning fish is the Tiger Shovelnose Catfish

The Redtails got larger as the day progressed

This angler was very happy with one of our smaller Siamese Carp

The happy angler followed up with this Asian redtail catfish

His friend landed a Giant Gourami which was a new species for him.

Like the Redtails the Siamese carp also got bigger as the day progressed

The photo s not the best quality but this Wallagoo Attu sure was .. Another fish falling victim to the float/lum rig.

The day finished on a high note with this fantastic Chao Phraya Catfish.. A big fish and a big fight ...These fish take off like rocket when hooked ..

This day ticket first time EFT angler was all smiles with another beautiful Wallagoo Attu .

He followed up with his first Alligator Gar

Our Ripsaw Catfish are all just so fat .They are like vacuum cleaners eating everything they can find on the lake bottom ..

Here is one of our first Russian guests this season with a great looking Goonch .

We are excited to have started to do business with a high end Russian tour company . Despite negative comments from other fishing resorts about Russian guests we are happy to welcome them here and have already met some really nice people . There are no preferred nationalities here at EFT . We welcome everyone and try our best to make everyone welcome and comfortable here. :).

After his morning tour group left this angler decided to stay for the afternoon and it paid off with this mighty Mekong Catfish .. This was one happy angler . I am sure he let all his friends who didn't stay know what a great afternoon he had

It is often a struggle for me to do the catch reports as quickly as I would like . It is difficult to keep track of who caught what specific species and collect photos from all guests . We have made things more simple by creating our new improved catch reports . These reports contain all the relative information including the angler's name , the date and any email addresses if we need to request photos from customers .. Knowing what specific fish was caught on what day makes it so much easier to match the photo .. There is even an area to write the bait used and any special notes including the scanned tracking chip number from our Arapaima ...

The guides and guests sign the report at the end of the day to validate it ' and some customers even take a photo so they have a record of what they caught that day ..

We have also finished our species posters which show a photo of all 66 species which are present in our main lake . We feel this creates some more interest in the many different fish species and are getting very positive feedback from our customers. We will also have a smaller version of the posters available as a souvenir very soon ..

The informative posters are in all fishing salas along with our recently installed fans which are a welcome site to most customers .

Another favorite especially with the ladies has been the addition of our lounge chairs which we now have next to most salas .. This way fishermen's wives or partners can relax and get a tan while their better half chases the big ones .. ..

Our November report will be out soon with more fun catches and the results of our first annual Charity Tournament .. This will include winners and losers and more importantly the grand total donation we raised for our chosen charity , Make A Wish Foundation ....

Well that's all for our short October catch report from Exotic Fishing Thailand . We hope you enjoyed all our exotic fish pics .

If you are interested to book the fishing trip of your life and "Fish The Exotic" you can reach us through our website at www.exoticfishingthailand.com or by email at exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com.. We can also be reached by phone at +66 883799377...This is a Thai number so please understand that we are GMT + 7hours :).