May was a very special month for Boom ,Michelle and I as my family came to visit from Canada . It was great to see everyone and to spend some quality family time together .I actually took some rare days off from EFT and spent time with everyone in Kata Beach .
My dad had passed away during the resort build so it was very special for me for everyone to come to EFT and see what we have created here . There were a few tears as I had chosen to put my dad's ashes in the lake as he would have loved to have spent time here .
My nieces are no strangers to fishing as I have been fishing with them since they were very young .
They once finished first second and third at a children's fishing competition and all the parents were up in arms.
It did help that Uncle mike fixed them up with light line and very small hooks which really help them catch perch and small panfish..
Another time we went fishing from shore at a lake close to their house . We arrived and kindly asked a man fishing if he had caught anything, to which he mumbled "no nothing all day" . It was mid afternoon already ...
I had the girls set up again with light line, small floats and worms .. They all cast out and within minutes were reeling in perch ,panfish and even small bass..
I guess this was just too much for the man to take seeing 3 young girls catch where he hadn't had a bite all day .. He folded up his fishing chair ,threw it in the back of his truck , said a few unsavory words and screeched out of the parking lot in his pick up truck .. The girls and I looked at each other and all burst out laughing ,,,
I hope they remember catching their first Arapaima as much as upsetting the grumpy old man that day .. This was a joint effort but with only an hour to fish a great way to get everyone to experience the biggest fish of their lives.
May was also a great month to again welcome some return customers and also new ones . We really appreciate our customer,s support with some customer returning 4 times already in the 18 months we have been open..
The combined catches of old and new customers totaled 371 from 74 angler days fished .The average catch was 4.5 + fish per angler day .We felt that the fish were just a little off this month due to the extreme heat and we even had to run our oxygen machines 24 hours a day at times to keep our oxygen levels up..
When we take a close look at our catch reports the detailed list of exotic species caught in May is as follows;- .There were a grand total of 27 different species caught this month . Our catch report is as follows;- 8 African Walking Catfish to 25lbs,.. 29 Alligator Gar to 75 lbs,..15 Albino Pacu to 18 lbs.. 92 Amazon Redtails to 60lbs...63 Arapaima to 340lbs ,. 38 Asian Redtails to 40lbs,. 4 Bony Lipped barbs to 8lbs, ..6 Chao Phraya Catfish to 70lbs,.. . 2 Giant Featherbacks to 10lbs,.. 8 Giant Gourami to 10 lbs,.
2 Giant Snakehead to 15lbs... 1 Giant Stingray to 1m ... 8 Goonch to 20lbs , ...1 Hovens Carp to 6lbs..3 Juliens carp to 25lbs. 2 Mekong Catfish to 210lbs.. 8 Pacu to 25lbs ,
4 Piraiba Catfish to 20lbs,. 6 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 22lbs,. 10 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 20lbs, 3 Rohu to 16lbs. 34 Siamese Carp to 121lbs. 2 Soldier River Barb to 8lbs..8 Tambaqui to 20lbs,. 4 Vundu Catfish to 18 lbs,..6 Wallagoo Attu to 22 lbs, 2 Wallagoo Leeri to 20lbs .
Adam Garre visited us for the first time on a recommendation of friends Marie and Paul who are already back for their second visit . Adam started off his catch report with a nice Siamese Carp
Adam was all smiles when he landed his first "Not so Giant" Giant Stingray.
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He was also smiling for this Alligator Gar photo..
Adam was travelling with his good friend Anthony Brown who also caught a very a similar Alligator Gar
As this was his first time fishing in Thailand he also landed his first Amazon Redtail Catfish
Anthony also netted a stunning but small Goonch on a small fish bait .
He switched to fishing with chicken later in the day which paid off with a nice Arapaima
Stephen from the Philippines visited with his son and was very eager to catch an Arapaima .. It didn't take long for him to get a photo with his trophy sized fish
Stephen wasn't the only one catching big fish as his son also caught this monster Alligator gar
Dale leach visited us also for the first time with a group of friends from Singapore . They had a good trip with lots of exotic species including this chunky Piraiba.
Dales favorite predator was of course his first Arapaima.
He also caught several Amazon Redtails but considered this beautiful Juliens Carp as his fish of the trip.
Peter Sheridan was the second member of the Singapore group . Peter started his trip off with a very nice Siamese carp which wasn't the easiest fish to handle .
Peter had no problem though posing with this Amazon Redtail.
Just like Dale, Peter also added an Arapaima to his catch report.
The third member of the group Neil , was the Exotic species specialist catching one of our more strange looking fish the Ripsaw catfish
Neil also managed a beautiful and rare Wallagoo Attu .
Last but not least in the group was Kris who had almost all of his success with our predator species . His first fish was yet another Alligator Gar
Kris landed an Amazon Redtail catfish next ..
Then it was back to the Alligators with a similar fish to his last one
Kris like 2 others in the group finished his trip with another nice Arapaima
Hiroyuki from Japan also managed an Arapaima to start off him and his friend's big fish day
The prize for the biggest fish caught by these 2 friends undoubtedly goes to Wataru also of Japan who landed this 200+lb monster mekong Catfish
Mikko from Finland had visited us once before to try our restaurant but was so impressed he came back to fish . Mikko started his day like many people with an Amazon Redtail Catfish.
The highlight of Mikko's day was when him and his girlfriend landed 2 Arapaima at the same time.
Gunther Higler from Germany visited us from a day ticket and landed 2 Amazon Redtails, 1 Arapaima and 1 Siamese carp
Some anglers were not catching a lot of fish but still managed an Arapaima
The same situation occurred for this angler but I guess that is a credit to how many Arapaima are available here at EFT
A memorable family photo with Mathew , Matt and Ben Dawson from Australia all getting in the lake after some Arapaima action.
Ben and Matt getting an Amazon Redtail photo opportunity from the 4 they caught along with 2 Ripsaw catfish 1 Alligator Gar , 1 Asian Redtail and of course 1 Arapaima
While the men were having fun catching ,the rest of the Dawson family was busy in the kitchen taking part in one of our Thai cooking classes.
As each participant gets to cook 2 dishes each it ends up being quite a feast and a very reasonably priced lunch .
Of course everyone received their EFT participation certificates.
Garry Mackinder visited us from Australia and had a great day guided by our good friend Neil Robinson . Garry was more than happy with 13 fish for the day but this Arapaima wasn't the highlight
Garry thought that his first Siamese Carp was a big fish but he was in for a big surprise
The Highlight or Barry's day was being the first angler to land one of our 55kg+ Siamese Carp . There will be many more big Carp come out of EFT but this will always be the first 100lb+ fish ... If you are a regular to this blog stay tuned in November for the stocking of our first 150lb fish :)
Ian and Kevin White from the UK visited us for an eventful day . Their first fish was an awesome 100kg Arapaima landed by Ian
They both caught Amazon Redtails but I think this is Ian in the photo. We pride ourselves on accurate reporting and lots of photos to back up our catches here at EFT but when you throw twins into the mix the who's who can get a little complicated :).
This is definitely Ian with his second 100kg+ Arapaima of the day . For accurate record keeping we electronically tag all our big fish. That way we know the accurate weight when the fish was stocked and can track its growth from there .This fish weighs easily 120kg.
While on the topic of accurate record keeping , here at EFT we make every effort to get as many fish photos and show as many in our catch reports as we can.. It takes a lot of effort to keep accurate reports and to then present them in an accurate catch report. We feel it is well worth it to keep our reputation as a credible fishery .
We often see other fisheries embellishing their catch reports to mislead clients .Some simply don't show many photos while claiming to have caught 100's of fish each month .. This seems to be a habit of smaller fisheries ,some of which even show multiple photos of the same fish from 2 sides ,claiming to have more monster fish that they actually do to intentionally mislead potential customers ..
Another trick often used to trick clients is where stocking photos of fish are taken with captions saying they were actually caught by guests or more commonly the venue owners .
To make sure you don't fall into this trap we think it's best to check catch reports carefully and stay with the larger more reputable venues which have been around for some time and have accurate reporting . Resorts who have invested serious money into both their properties , facilities and fish stocks are in this business for long term and are less likely to risk their reputations with exaggeration and fantasy.
Ian also caught other exotic species , finishing up his day with a great looking Tambaqui
The last fish of the day was another Amazon Redtail again caught by one of the twins.
Giles Barlow and his wife Nicola returned to EFT guided again by Neil .They netted 11 fish for the day with a favorite being the Goonch as it was top on their target list . Giles is very knowledgeable when it comes to his fish and it was a pleasure to chat about the different species available for the aquarium trade in the UK and also here in Thailand. Even though I pride myself on my growing fish knowledge it cant touch that of Giles who can list just about every fish we have by scientific name ..
Nicola is no slouch when it comes to fishing and gave Giles a good run for his money on over all fish numbers for the day ..
Here is Gary from the US with a last minute Arapaima showing again that patience and fishing until the last possible minute really pays off.It looks like our guide Lek has had a long day as he actually looks asleep holding this fish .. This wouldn't surprise me as all our guides work extremely hard to help our customers catch .
Gilles Sauvinet from France travelling with fishing friends Kevin Gignoud and Guy Coudrette started off a busy visit with a nice Asian Redtail ...................
Gille's favorite catfish of the visit was this awesome looking Goonch caught on a fish dead bait
He wasn't just catching an Indian river fish as his next species was from the Amazon with this beautiful Tambaqui
Kevin's wife Steph has been here before and was happy to show the other ladies around the fish park and introduce them to "Harry the Ari"
Gilles was also the first of the group to land an Arapaima and a solid fish at that
Guy was next up with another stunning fish
Kevin landed the most Arapaima with 3 fish for the trip . He only manged 2 photos but fortunately this was one of his better fish.
Here's Kevin with another of his trophy fish ..
Paul Shemmings and Marie Channer returned in May on a mission to catch every species in the lake. When not fishing Marie and Paul enjoyed helping other anglers both catching and landing their fish .Being an avid carp fishrman at home Paul was more than happy to battle with our Siamese carp
Marie is fairly new to angling but you wouldn't know it by the way she fishes and the number of fish she caught . Like Paul, Siamese carp were high on Marie's list
It didn't take long for Marie to get the hang of catching our Siamese when taking our advise and using the Lum and poly ball method.
Paul was having more success on the catfish and predators . Here he is with a Redtail Tiger Cross . They are not as easy to catch as when we first stocked them and you could almost feed them by hand .
The Chao Phraya Catfish was another species Paul was happy to cross off his wish list.
This was definitely not one of Paul's biggest Arapaimas but they are all worth a photo .
Here is a good after dark shot of a very nice sized Alligator Gar
Paul again with a big Asian Redtail. This was probably one of his biggest so far.
A very nice Tambaqui for a rather serious looking Paul :)
Marie also got her fare share of good sized Asian Redtails
She was busy catching them, both day and night
As Paul struggled to catch a Ripsaw Catfish and Marie couldn't keep them off here line I sensed a small rivalry brewing . To stir things up a bit I quickly named Marie the "Ripsaw Queen".
She definitely stood behind her nickname with yet another awesome looking fish .
Mare wasn't just excelling catching Ripsaws . She also caught her fair share of Arapaimas
Here she is with yet another beautiful Arapaima.
The competitive edge between these 2 anglers definitely made them focus on their fishing which really paid off as they started catching 2 at a time.
They were even catching Giant Gourami in pairs not just the Siamese Carp .They fished with us for just a week but vowed to be back in June for 2 weeks of fishing as they continued their Asian tour
Another angler from the UK was Steven a native of Hyde. A quiet chap who kept to himself while busy landing some of our predators on his short visit.
Steven had no problem with this tricky Alligator Gar . He seemed very at home in handling the fish for photos . Luckily the Gar kept his mouth shut as they have a nasty set of teeth ...
A stunning EFT Arapaima for Steven to finishh his trip ..
David and Kelly Williams from the USA joined us while in Thailand for their honey moon . They did well and are the second honeymoon couple to fish with us and to also land a honeymoon Arapaima
Mohammed from Qatar wasn't here to celebrate getting married but he was equally as happy when he landed this stunning Arapaima
He was just as happy with one of our smaller Chao Phraya catfish
David from Australia visited us with good friends Jack and Flecki after seeing our add in Khao Lak Magazine. It didn't take long for them to understand what EFT is all about with them all getting in on this colourful Arapaima pic.
Flecki enjoyed getting his photo taken so much he decided to catch an Arapaima of his own :).
Next up for Flecki was a double header photo with an Asian Redtail taken alongside Jack with a good looking Wallagoo Attu.
The Aussie group also checked out out Mountain View fish park and met "harry" the "ari"-paima.
We were very happy to welcome this fun group from Malaysia . Here is Cheow Hock Sim with a stunning Juliens carp
It didn't take long for the group to catch some of our bigger fish . Pictured here is Wu Zhi Yu and his daughter with one of the bigger Arapaima from their trip.
Even though the men outnumbered the one lady ,she definitely caught her fair share of fish as seen here with an Amazon Redtail.
Another Arapaima and another proud group photo .
Wu Zhi with another nice Amazon Redtail
Wang Kwai Sum was very happy with this Asian Redtail Catfish
He had an even bigger smile when he landed this monster Alligator Gar ..
When I say monster Gar I have mentioned before that these fish in no way mirror the huge fish caught in the USA .If you are looking to catch a Gar over 50 lbs in Thailand then EFT is definitely the place as we have fish this size coming out regularly . We have some of the biggest Gar available in Thailand with at least one fish over 110lbs.
That wasn't the only Alligator caught as Azha also got a respectable fish ..
The same angler landed one of our difficult to handle African Walking Catfish
There were a good number of group photos for the trip but this determined lady wanted one of her own with an Arapaima so she did the logical thing and on the advise of her guide cast out a big piece of chicken . It didn't take long before she landed landed her own Arapaima and got her own photo. :).
Many years ago I had promised myself to fish on every birthday .Life gets busy and I unfortunately couldn't keep that promise to myself . Now with having my own lake there really is no excuse .. I was quite surprised when Guests Paul and Marie along with Boom and Michelle had decorated my sala for my bday fishing. There was also a delicious bday cake which our talented Chef Tuk had made and served after dinner :)
The decorations and cake were great and very much appreciated ,but it was sitting relaxing with my rods out which really started my birthday off well.
I was also smiling when my new fishing buddy decided to join dad for a fish .The poor child has been subject to continued female propaganda that shopping is more fun than fishing but it seems she is slowly figuring out the truth for herself.:):)
I couldn't have asked for a better way to start my catch report than with this perfectly marked little Goonch Catfish landed on the poly rig.
I was specifically fishing for one of our 55kg+ Siamese Carp and got the right species but not the right size .
By birthday good fortune continued with a second fish which I hooked at 6;55pm .. I tell all my guests "Please fish until the very last minute" as we catch so many fish with literally minutes to go.Those that do are often rewarded .
That brings to an end another busy month of family visits , birthdays, Michelle starting school and of course lots of happy customers enjoying some of the best fishing available in Thailand .
If you are looking for more information on our resort and what exotic species are available, please take a look at our website at www.exoticfishingthailand.com where we have lots of info. We even have an "ask mike" section which I hope is helpful to answer many of your questions..
You can book your Exotic fishing experience through the website booking form , or email us direct at exoticfishingthailand@gmail.com . We can be reached by phone at +[66] 883799377 from overseas or from a Thai number 0883799377 ..We look forward to welcoming you here soon
