GROWING THEM ON

In addition to our 8 stock ponds at EFT we also have 3 other stock ponds  where we are growing  Chao Phraya Catfish , Siamese Carp and  Mekong catfish along with various other fish . 

We have 10 Chao Phraya Catfish to date up to 26 Kg.

We have stocked Siamese Carp to 24Kg all of which , like our Mekongs will be fed intensively before we move them to our main lake next year.

So far we have Mekong catfish to 50kg and are currently  sourcing bigger fish.

We also have a large number of fish in the 30kg range which are our growing stock. 

We weigh all our Carp and Mekong so we have accurate not guessed weights. We will of course be purchasing IGFA approved scales in the future ..

All our Carp and Mekongs have a numbered microchip inserted for identification and monitoring.

MORE FISH [ 2 NEW SPECIES ]

We have purchased some Atlantic Tarpon which are already a good starting size . I have only heard positive things about how fast Tarpon are growing in Thailand . They are not easy to catch but it will be a great challenge once we get them bigger. Tarpon are a new species for us as is the Peacock Bass..

I understand that Pacu are a very common fish in Thailand and every resort has them . We are stocking them because at a good size Pacu are very strong and will give any angler a great fight especially when understand that you cant pressure them too much or their sharp teeth will bite through the leader. This fish was weighed at 15 kg and was part of a large order of fish ranging from 5kg to 15kg which we are now growing in our ponds.

I have always wanted to go to South America and fish for Peacock Bass but never had the time .I think the second best thing would be to catch them in my own lake . This fish is one of 30+ fish which we have already bought and are presently gorging themselves on the Tilapia we feed them. .

Another Goonch for our collection.

I have all my Goonch in one stock pond and am carefully watching for any unusual activity as they are supposed to be so aggressive. I have had a few small dead Bighead carp float up with their tails bitten off but I am not sure if that is the Goonch or the Jau Jau which are sharing the same pond. My Indian Goonch which I am growing at home are growing rapidly although they just sit on the bottom not bothering each other until feeding time when they go into a feeding frenzy

VEGGIE OIL and ARAPIAMAS

I know that sounds like a crazy title for a post but I am sure you will understand after I explain .

I arrived in Bangkok to watch the netting of 6 Arapaimas all around the 1.8 m mark. I got a Taxi at the airport and made my best effort in Thai to give the driver the name of the place where i was going to meet my fish supplier. Once we got close i had to call my supplier for him to explain to the Taxi exactly where to meet as my Thai really isn't as good as i thought:(. I met the supplier and climbed into his truck and off we went .

It is always an adventure and surprise when I go to buy fish as I really have no idea exactly where I am most of the time .I have recently been to peoples homes, a huge Aquarium in a sports facility, a golf course and now a vegetable oil factory.

The pond was quite large and had already been drained down significantly and netted into smaller areas before I arrived.

The smaller areas were then netted to try to catch the individual Arapaimas first as the other fish in the pond were less valuable and could be netted later. The quicker we could get the Arapaimas out of the water the better as it is very unhealthy for the fish once the water gets stirred up during the netting process.

The first step for the brave guys that net these fish was to get them into this fine meshed long white butterfly type net . There is a video on the blog's video bar showing how this is done.

After this fish was safely in the net the next step was to get a blanket around it and remove the first net. This is not always easy and the fish are never happy at that point..

Everyone lent a hand to get the fish out of the water safely and ready to be measured.

All the fish had great coloring and I was happy to buy them for the agreed price. They will look great when customers catch them and take their trophy photos. The 6 fish were measured between 175 and 185 cm. Our numbered microchips were also installed in each fish for identification and monitoring.

The fish were immediately shipped in individual aerated pick up trucks from the pond to the resort in Phang Nga. The fish were all released healthy and are currently feeding like mad on dead fish and pellets and piling on weight.

GAR GANTUOUS

I originally wasn't going to put Alligator gar in the lake BUT after seeing this beast i had to have some.

This fish is 1.6m long and weighed just over 40kg.

I also bought a few more around the 20kg mark and have some more on order.

Here is another nice Gar which I caught at Palm Tree lagoon last week on a half a chicken . I have to admit I didn't hold onto it for long after the pic was taken

FISH AND CHIPS ???

No you cant have salt , vinegar , ketchup, gravy or Mushie peas with that lol...

We are installing computer chips in some of our fish species to accurately monitor the growth rates and accurately identify them when caught and measured .

We are measuring and recording the initial length girth and weight of the fish .

I will expand on this topic later and we will have a video of the process on our new you tube video channel which will be up soon .

KWANG WITH NEW FISH

Kwang has been helping at the land and was eager to get his photo with some new fish.

This is a nice African Walking catfish which everyone in the pic seems a little wary of.

A Giant Gourami adds to the species count. We will have our website finished before the lake opens and all fish species will be documented in our Fish Species section .

A nice Juliens Golden Prize Carp but unfortunately the fish moved just as i snapped the photo and we got more tail than side view. Not to worry we have 100 fish coming soon all over 10kg already.

MOUNTAIN FISH PARK

Exotic Fishing Thailand will also be the home to our MOUNTAIN FISH PARK. This unique venue will be completely separate to the 25 rai fishing lake and open to all tourists . At MOUNTAIN FISH PARK you can enjoy the following;- See and feed MONSTER FISH in our exhibit ponds , view strange and exotic fish species in our outdoor aquariums , photo ops with Replicas of world record Monster fish, Amazing mountain views, First time fishing pond for kids and adults, sample delicious Thai fish dishes , stroll through tropical fruit gardens , enjoy mountain springs while sipping a refreshing cocktail at our "Mountain beach bar" and more . A full explanation coming soon ...

MOUNTAIN MONKEYS

I was working at the land yesterday and could hear some cracking sounds somewhere in the jungle close to the mountain face. I thought it may just be a local wandering around in the bush looking for something to eat as they often go into the jungle and come out with all types of goodies.. Bugs, snakes and scorpions etc ... The sounds repeated so I paid closer attention and realized that they were coming from further up the rock face of the mountain and that they were actually the sound of tree branches breaking. I could see the trees moving and finally spotted the culprits . There was a troop of 40 or so monkeys moving across the mountain face . Very cool to see them swinging from tree to tree and almost free falling at times. It was amazing how quickly they came down to within 50 or so meters of resort level from what i would guess was maybe 200 meters up when i first spotted them . I went back to the truck to get my camera but they were long gone by the time I got back.

I mentioned to Yam our night security man that i saw many LING [thai for monkeys ] and he explained that he has occasionally seen them come down to drink at our stock ponds. I will make sure there are binoculars on hand at the Mountain Beach Bar so that customers can spot the occasional monkey if they are lucky .

We also have an increasing number of water birds now that the stock ponds are finished . I saw a large fish hawk of some kind hovering above the resort the other day which didnt thrill me as i can imagine him scooping up a $200 fish from one of the ponds for lunch :)..

We have tried to keep as many trees as possible to attract as much of the local wild life as possible and are also researching which plants and foliage attract the most birds and butteflies.

BRIDGE IS DONE

EFT is made up of 2 large plots of land. There is a piece of crown land which joins them and adds a further 8 rai [4 acres] to our overall property size . There are fresh water springs on our property which form a river , which in turn runs through the middle of the crown land . The nice thing about this is that we control the water source and can guarantee no pollution to the river or our ponds and lake.

I was concerned about the original small bridge which joined the 2 properties as the water level was filling the one concrete pipe during the rainy season's torrential rains. We decided to increase the bridge size and allow for triple the run off .

The local government contractors did a great job of the new bridge and were very reasonable priced . This was a pleasant surprise after some of the horror stories I had heard . They used over 400 tonnes of stone in the construction.

I knew I had some pics of before the bridge was built. Here is the most memorable pic lol....

THE BEST CATCH OF ALL AND ONLY 2.8KG

We are happy to announce the birth of our daughter Michelle Bailey on Saturday morning at 4;15 am .Michelle weighed 2.8kg.

Like her father Michelle was in a hurry and was born only 40 minutes after we left the house at Bangkok Phuket hospital. Michelle was healthy from the first cry but boom had some complications . I am so happy to report she is on the mend now and will be fine..

Hey dad whats with the hat are we going ice fishing already ???

Boom and Michelle are happily home already :)

Hey Dad cant i ride up front with you ?? And again with the silly hat .Its hot already !!! We live in Thailand not Toronto ....

MOVING HOUSE

We have just finished a nice area for Boom's brother Ched and wife Pom"s house. They really love the mountains so we dug another pond close to the mountains and moved their house next to it.

The main problem was to have the excavators to drive at the same speed so they didnt rip the house in half.

Everyone seemed a little skeptical of my house moving ideas but everything worked out well and we had the house moved in 1 hour.

We were close to tipping it over at one point..

Almost in position...

Here are Boom, Ched and Pom enjoying the view from the new house location.

FISH BY THE TRUCK LOAD

The Rainy season has arrived in full force making the temporary road we have built quite slick .Lots of mud and spinning tires. It seems like EFT motor cross some days.

Even with unfavorable conditions we have managed to receive deliveries of 18 truck loads of fish .The first stock ponds are seriously starting to fill up.

Other deliveries are also on schedule :). Baby Michelle is now due in just 5 weeks. ..

Here is one of many Arapaima of around 70kg.

We received our first shipment of Siamese carp. We will be growing most of our carp and Mekong catfish stock offsite due to their special requirements ,BUT we have some fish we are growing under our Arapaima. Most of the fish are currently between 10 and 15kg.

Boom seems to have a nack for taking good BLOOPER shots . Here I am again trying to hold onto a lively Carp

This odd looking fish is Flathead Goonch [bagarius Suchus]..It was just such a cool looking fish i couldnt resist adding it to our stock.Not sure how big it will get or if it will end up in one of our MFP Aquariums.

Here is another Goonch species which is a Salween Goonch found in the Salween river in Myanmar. It wont grow as big as its Indian cousin but can still reach easily over 1 meter.

It looks like he wanted to take a chunk out of my arm but I was more worried about him biting other things once he jumped free. lol..

Here is another nice colourful Arapaima .

That will teach us for trying to pick one up for a picture. We should never have tried as it can harm the fish ..Last time we do that that..

I have a pond in Phuket and have also been growing some fish there . Now the EFT ponds are ready we netted the home pond and moved all the fish to EFT .I was amazed how many fish i had accumulated in such a short time..

Here is a nice Thai Mahseer from the home pond.. We also had 25 smaller Arapaimas, Peacock Bass, Red and Golden Mahseer, Albino Pacu, Golden dorado, Piraiba catfish Tarpon and several Arawana..It was defintely time to move them :)..

After the home pond it was time to net 2 stock ponds I had been renting. The overall experience is not one which I would repeat. Many dead fish and fish unaccounted for. The owner of the ponds was gracious enough to replace the 200 missing Redtail Cats of which none had survived, but my over all losses were well over 500,000 baht /$15,000 not including paid rent ...

Some Arapaimas which were supposed to be special stock were apparently switched for diseased fish in transit by a contracted fish delivery source.The diseased fish then contaminated the pond shared by many other fish. After speaking to the delivery source who of course denies he delivered diseased fish I dont know who or what to believe any more. I paid in advance for the Arapaimas .So where are the fish I paid for if the delivery source didnt deliver them ???

Some nice wallagoo were a good result of the stocking and pond rental.

There were some nice Tiger Shovelnose Catfish which were a bright point in the pond rental experience.

I was lucky to locate 20 Pla bambusas as the Thais call them . They are a cool fish in my opinion and quite rare. They are already a nice size so lets see how big we can get them before we open. I see them in the stock ponds every day as they swim around the pond edge attacking any prey they see.

I have had problems handling a lot of the fish you see in the photos and the reason is obvious once you think about it . All these fish have traveled some distance in the back of a pick up truck and are not happy on arrival to say the least . The last thing they want is someone trying to pick them up for a photo. They are also well rested and fresh and not tired like they would be after you would have caught them and landed them .

This Jau/Zungaroo did a quick flip and was out of my hands before I knew it. I was stupidly holding one of his pecs between my fingers .Lesson learned as he punctured my hand and made a bloody mess to the shock of Boom , Me and Mr Pong the delivery guy . I thought I would be heading for stitches but after wrapping my hand, applying pressure,and a kind an offer from Mr Pong to burn the wound with a cigarette Thai style the bleeding miraculously stopped .:)..

Some friends had commented that there were only pictures of me on the blog holding fish. I asked my step son Kwang to help out. He was eager to get a picture with this nice Arapaima. I am sure he had lots to tell his friends after his school holidays and the picture was all over his facebook page.

I am sure this picture didn't show up on his facebook though:). I guess Boom doesn't just take BLOOPER shots of me :)

Here is one of our many stocked Redtail Catfish . We have over 200 redtails already from this size up to 15kg. All of these fish will be a lot bigger before we open as they just dont stop eating. This is such a great background for fishing photos. I am sure there will be many EFT fish pics like this .

Stay tuned as many more fish to come...