February blessed us with more beautiful hot and sunny weather. This makes it a full time job to keep the gardens watered but at least we don't have to cut the grass as often :)
As usual we had some old friends join us as well as lots of new ones .
Good friends Colin and Georgina joined us again and to our surprise Georgina stated that she would have her photo taken with Colin when he caught his next Arapaima. This obviously inspired Colin and it wasn't long before Georgina had to get in the lake to have her photo with Colin and this monster fish .
Colin's Arapaima was one of 420 fish caught in February for 58 angler days fished .. Our catch rate for February was 7+ fish per angler day with 26 different species being caught.
Here is Colin with another Arapaima from the 3 fish he caught in one day
It wasn't just Arapaima which Colin was catching numbers of . He was also doing extremely well on the Chao Phraya Catifsh with a total of 4 fish for his 4 days of fishing .
Another nice Chao Phraya for Colin.. Three out of 4 of Colin's Chao Phraya were caught on large pieces of chicken
This was not one of our bigger Chao Phraya Catfish but definitely one of the most beautiful. We call this an albino or silver Chao Phraya Cat due to its lack of distinctive black markings on its fins and tail.
Colin was also all smiles when he landed his first Ripsaw catfish
Colin wasn't just catching predators and Catfish . He landed several Siamese Carp mostly coming out on Lum and poly ball.
Another Carp species and another new species for Colin was this one of 2 Rohu
The Goonch were on the bite for Joe and John from Stoke 2 young Englishmen travelling through Asia..
The boys caught their share of both Amazon and Asian Redtails.
After breaking their budget and deciding to stay a second day they continued to catch exotic species but their main goal was of course an Arapaima..
With not much time left on their second day we broke out the bubble float and a small dead bait and look what made their day :)..Needless to say smiles all round and a great memory to add to many more from their trip.
Our next travelers to arrive were 2 dutch anglers. They started their catch report with Asian and Amazon Redtail catfish
They were also busy catching Siamese Carp.
A nice photo of a Tambaqui for mike visiting with his wife ...
Ruth and Phil from Scotland visited us for the first time and were greeted by many exotic species .. Ruth got in on the action early with a nice Arapaima
Phil was thrilled to land the second albino Chao Phraya Catfish this month
The late day action continued with a Siamese Carp..
This acrobatic Alligator Gar wasn't easy for Phil to handle and we only managed to get this one photo before the fish jumped free..
Phil also caught what is without a doubt the fattest Black Eared Catfish I have ever seen :).
Phil was primarily after new exotic species .One of Phil's favorite was this powerful Piraiba which he tricked into taking a fish bait . I just love when customers catch what they came for and leave happy .
Yet another new species was this chunky Ripsaw catfish .. We caught lots of them again this month which were all very fat .I like to refer to them as prehistoric looking Hoovers and I don't think I am far off :).
Brian from South Africa lives locally in Rawai and was here for his second visit ..He started off his day with a Rohu which was a new species for him .
Brian has caught Arapaima before , but none this trip. He did however catch an Alligator gar the same size as a small Arapaima :).
This angler was excited to explain that his personal best fish was a 150lb Wels Catfish . I explained that he had a good chance of breaking that personal record here at EFT . I then stepped out for an hour to buy some bait and when I got back found that he had already landed a 100kilo+ Arapaima ..Happy days for a very nice gentleman and his lovely wife.:)
We are always happy to see our good friends Kevin and Teddy from Malta .Teddy loves his hobby of car racing but also loves to see an Arapaima racing across the lake on the end of his line ..
Kevin doesn't race cars but collects fish for a hobby . His knowledge of aquariums and his rare Discus fish collection is really unbelievable. I always ask him to take a walk through our fish park and see if he sees anything I might have missed in our 20+ aquariums . Kevin started off his catch report with an also rare Wallagoo Attu
Teddy was also quickly in on some Carp action with several Siamese .
Kevin seems to catch a Tambaqui every trip and commented that he swears they grow every time he catches one .
As with most guests the star of the show was the Arapaima.. Teddy had got the Ari ball rolling but Kevin followed up with this nice fish
Kevin also landed the biggest Arapaima of this trip with this stunning monster of a fish easily over 100kg.
Simon turner joined us for a one day visit. He had a great day landing several Amazon redtails.
Simon also landed a few Asian Redtails . These were all new species for him as it was his first time fishing in Thailand
Simon was also all smiles to land his first Siamese Carp ..
I never take the time to say enough about our guides . Simon credited his success due to his team work with his guide Poe.. great job Poe and of course Simon :)
Brett Warde was a new visitor to EFT and was busy catching new species under the guidance of my brother in law Ched who is one of our senior guides.. Saying that , I guess that makes me the other and most senior guide :( .
Brett was so busy in fact that he was catching them 2 at a time , with both an Amazon and Asian Redtail catfish in this double header action.
Brett stayed busy with the catfish , catching this Ripsaw Catfish next .
It wasn't all about the catfish with an Alligator gar also contributing to the catch report.
Brett commented that he was extremely happy with his guide Ched and all his hard work ..
Having fished many resorts in Thailand I must comment that our guides are some of the hardest working I have ever seen and nothing is too much to ask of them .. You would think there would be communication issues due to our customer's pour Thai :) ,but it hasn't been an issue so far and all joking aside I know our guides are always studying trying to learn a few more words of English ..
The Salmon fishing husband and wife team Sandip and Sam visited us for the first time from Scotland .. They are very dedicated Salmon anglers and conservationists..They have a very informative and creative website ;- http://www.scottishsalmonfishingsurgery.com/ which is a must read if you are interested in Salmon fishing in Scotland and more specifically in fishing some of the rivers they cover on their site .
Sandip Started off their EFT catch report with one of several mint condition Siamese Carp .
I definitely didn't have to worry about fish care with any of their fish as they were both extremely careful .. They are so careful with fish care when Salmon fishing at home that they told me of more than one occasion where they had put themselves in danger in fast moving water to take care of a fish that needed help..
Even though they had never caught some species before ,they decided that not stressing the fish by lifting them was more important than getting a photo and opted to just take a quick pic in the net .
Sam did however chose a very difficult fish to hold up for the camera with this slippery Vunda Catfish .This was after we explained that the Vundu are basically bullet proof and you would have difficulty to kill one if you tried.. Another great couple who we hope to see back here soon :).
A frequent customer Peter Garrett who lives in Phuket returned with his nephew Phil for a one day fishing session
Phil was off to a good start catching his first Amazon Redtail and was shocked with how strong they fight
Peter then hooked into his dream fish a large Arapama which he fought for over 30 minutes before it spit the hook with a vicious headshake on its final jump .. Phill recovered quickly though and came right back with this stunnning Giant Snakehead .. Our Giant Snakehead are all over 6kg with some topping the current world record of 12kg.
While Phil was busy catching , his wife was busy learning how to cook several Thai dishes accompanied by Georgina
Peter was also keeping busy catching , but he only wanted to get in the water for photos of new species and personal bests . This beautiful Tiger Shovelnose Catfish was yet another new species for Peter here at EFT .
Singapore angler Ming Yeo caught several fish with his prize catch being this huge Alligator gar
His children were impressed and even wanted to check the fish out more closely , while we held on to the business end of the fish for safety of course
This Malaysian angler was very happy with this immaculate Black Shark Minnow . I think one of the most beautiful Carp species available.
His friend landed an Arapaima which they both joined in on for the photos
Tomas from the Czech Republic was very happy when his grandfather brought him to EFT for the first time and especially when he caught this new species Albino pacu
Tomas was visiting on holiday and only came to us in the last week or so of his holiday .. Once he caught some of our weird and wonderful species like the awesome Ripsaw Catfish he was back as many days as he could fit in before he went home ..
Tomas was so excited with all the new species he caught but was most interested to catch an Arapaima . Unfortunately the Arapaima managed to elude him for the first 2 afternoons sessions.
Tomas was so excited and determined when he returned for his 3rd attempt that I could hardly calm him down enough to cast ;). Once he did calm down though it didn't take him long to get worked up again when he hooked his fish of a lifetime , this stunning Arapaima
He also landed several other fish including this Siamese carp
Tomas was so happy when he left and said he couldnt wait to come back next year .. He couldn't thank us enough as he got in the car to leave after his third day ..Needless to say I was totally surprised when his mother called the next morning and asked if Tomas could come back for just one more afternoon as he wouldn't stop talking about the prior day .
Well return he did and was off to a great start with an Alligator Gar which just happened to be the new fish at the top of his fish wish list .
Things just got better and better for Tomas with what could only be called a spectacular 3 hours of fishing .. His next fish was yet another beautiful Arapaima
He followed that right after with another good sized Siamese carp
The rods were going off so fast that the Siamese was accompanied by another nice Amazon redtail to make a very nice double header ..At this point Tomas was just over the moon and said he was so happy he didn't care if he ever caught another fish
Well things just got better with an after dark Arapaima to make it 2 for the day and 3 for the last 2 half day visits ..I think at this point we had spoiled Tomas for life as it would be a while before he had fishing action like this ..It wasn't all luck that's for sure as Tomas and our staff worked hard to get him his fish
As often happens hard work keeps paying off and Tomas caught yet another Arapaima literally hooking it 2 minutes before 7pm . This finally brought to a close a great few days of fishing and a dream holiday for Tomas who I am confident we will be seeing here for years to come :)
Tomas wasn't the only one catching Siamese Carp as some of our other day ticket visitors were also catching some nice fish
The bite continued with Carp coming out all over the lake
This angler did very well catching several good fish
He also caught a nice Rohu while on his Carp catching spree
Not all the Carp were big but they definitely put big smiles on all the anglers faces
Another European angler followed up in Tomas's footsteps and was also starting out with some nice Siamese Carp
He also finished in the same fashion with a beautiful Arapaima.
Chris Hopley was the next happy angler to visit us .. Chris started off his day with a big EFT Amazon Redtail ..
No messing about with Chris as he followed up with an Arapaima not long after
Chris's wife also got in on the fishing action handling this Amazon Redtail like a seasoned pro
She also made nice work of this big Pacu playing it soft enough so it didn't bite through the leader material as they can often do,
After some big fish landed Chris switched his plan to catch new species of varied sizes .. These Bony lipped Barbs are a relatively new species to Eft and are now coming out regularly , mostly on the Lum and feeder method
This one was not a huge Gator but a different species non the less
Our Ripsaw Catfish always need to be handled carefully and this one was no exception
Another species coming out regularly and also demanding some respect due to its teeth is the Goonch Catfish . You really need to keep your fingers away from the mouth of this fish as they have canine teeth which could give you a nasty scrape .. Our guides are always happy to help or hold fish for you if you have any concerns...
That's all for our "Fab Feb" catch report from here in Phang Nga. We hope you enjoyed it and again remind you to please send us your photos if you want to be in our catch report . We do our best to take and post as many pics as we can .
If you are interested to book the fishing trip of your lifetime and "Fish The Exotic" you can reach us several ways . Through our website at www.exoticfishingthailand.com where we have our online booking form or by email at exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com.. We can also be reached direct by phone at +66 883799377...This is a Thai number so please understand that we are GMT + 7hours :).
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