FEBRUARY CATCH REPORT

February was another beautiful and hot month here in Phang Nga with not one drop of rain. We are very fortunate to have our own on site water source to keep the lake topped up in this extremely dry season.

The fishing has also been hot here at EFT with 491 fish caught this month and 46 angler days fished .That's another amazing month with catch rates of over 10 fish per angler day. The lake is fishing very well with great catches coming from all swims on the lake , allowing all anglers to do well. There were also some lake records broken this month .The first was for the total number of fish per day by one angler which now stands at 35 and the second was for the most Arapaima on a fly rod in one day which is now 4.

Our catch report for February which includes 27 different exotic species is as follows.....;- 2 African Walking catfish to 12lb,...18 Alligator Gar to 50 lbs,..26 Albino Pacu to 13 lbs, ..92 Amazon Redtails to 58 lbs,..42 Arapaima to 360lbs,..13 Arawana to 8lbs,..16 Asian Redtails to 27lbs,,.4 Black Eared Catfish to 12lbs , .2 Chao Phraya Catfish to 30lbs,..18 Chinese Black Carp to 23 lbs,.8 Giant Gourami to 10lbs,.. 6 Goonch to 28lbs,..2 Hovens Carp to 5lbs,..6 Juliens Golden Price Carp to 18lbs,8 Mekong Catfish to 220lbs. .18 Pacu to 18lbs ,..39 Piraiba Catfish to 18lbs,..44 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 15lbs,..20 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 17lbs,..6 Rohu to 14lbs, ..45 Siamese Carp to 55lbs,..4 Spotted Featherbacks to 8 lbs,.. 18 Tambaqui to 15lbs,..3 Tigershovelnose Catfish to 16lbs,..2 Vundu Catfish to 15lbs,....7 Wallagoo Attu to 18 lbs,..22 Yellow Cheek Carp to 23 lbs

Our good friend Andreas visited us again in February with his girlfriend and caught quite the variety of species .

He seems to have a knack for catching some good looking Alligator Gar .

He was very happy with this stunning Chinese Black Carp which is one of the biggest I have heard of being caught in Thailand .

Andreas has caught many Arapaima at EFT and got yet another nice fish on this visit .

His girlfriend wasn't to be outdone and caught some very nice fish including this Spotted Featherback

She also had no problem handling some decent Redtails

Ross couldn't resist getting a pic with this very fat Redtail caught by a customer . Not all customers want to get into the water so quite often they ask our guides to hold the fish for a photo.

Gregg Smith also had a fat Redtail amongst the 21 fish he caught in just 2 days of fishing .

Gregg really enjoyed catching our Siamese Carp which are really starting to pack on the weight ..

Not all our Carp are big but like all Siamese Carp they definitely fight like they are :)

Gauthier De Broux returned for a second visit as part of his "Thai fishing safari" :). He brought a specific list of new species he wanted to catch. Gauthier is a savy individual and soon learned that he could save money by booking his own trips . Gauthier booked with us direct through our website http://www.exoticfishingthailand.com so he could get the best price and also deal with us directly rather than have the inconvenience of going through an agent. Gauthier's first target at EFT was the beautiful Arowana which he caught very soon after arriving.

Gauthier was also after a Yellow Cheeked Carp and knew his best chances were at EFT as we are now catching over 20 per month .I really cant imagine how crazy the fishing will be for these fish next year when we will add another 50 fish over 1 meter .I am also interested to see how big they get as I have seen photos of huge fish netted in China that were claimed to be over 50kg..

The big ticket item on his wish list was a 100kg Mekong Catfish . He had caught quite a few smaller fish in Bangkok and after almost living at BSR trying to catch a big one he finally decided his best chance would be here at EFT. I have always loved fishing for Mekong since my early days of catching them here in Thailand so was excited to share my personal experience and give advise to Gauthier

I explained my strategy to get a Mekong on the float and told Gauthier we would start to bait the area at 4pm but would keep fishing the other rods until 5pm to up his chances of even more exotic species . Then at 5pm we would switch to the float rod..

Gauthier made his first cast at a few minutes after 5 followed by another bombardment of lum balls and soon after at only 5;20 the float shot under, the line tore off and he was in for a real treat .. We have been catching lots of fish recently in the 60kg+ bracket but Gauthier hit the jackpot with a fish which we had recently weighed at 98 kg. He fought the fish like a pro and landed it in under 1 hour using 100lb braid .

We have chosen to specifically use 80 to 100lb braid so we can land the fish as quickly as possible without putting them through the stress of an overly long battle . EFT is a great venue for fighting big Mekongs as there are no sharp turns in the bank or large trees close to the water so anglers can follow their fish very easily if they need to without having to jump in the water losing their leverage on the fish ...

Gauthier wasn't the only one catching Mekong as you can see by the smile on this Danish angler's face

Another nice fish was landed by Ivor Fox who was visiting with his parents and brother ..Ivor is quite the young entrepreneur having already established a good following for his game shooting venue. If interested in pheasant shooting Ivor mentioned a very good website where he has listed his venue ;- http://www.gunsonpegs.com/shooting/buy/index.php

It wasn't just Mekong Cats coming out this month . There were also some nice Asian Redtails which were suckers for a piece of chicken ..

I like the Asian Redtails as they give a very different fight to the Amazon fish ...

This was one of our better Ripsaw Catfish for February caught on poly ball .These fish are total vacuum cleaners and suck up everything on the bottom hence getting caught on the lum and poly ball method regularly

A nice Yellow Cheeked carp for Sportfishing writer Emma Backer Hakonssen who was visiting from Norway with her husband Atle .

Emma also landed a PB Arapaima and Ripsaw Catfish which I failed to get a decent photo of :(.

Atle caught his share also with a very nice Arapaima.

An awesome fish for for Swiss fly angler Rico guided by Neil Robinson.

The Arapaima were really on the feed this month , especially when it came to fly fishing.

Tommy from Sweden deserves a special mention for landing an amazing 4 Arapaima on the fly in one day which is a new record here at EFT.

He almost tied our lake record for the most Arapaima in one day which stands at 5 but unfortunately lost one other fish. Tommy had such a good time that he came back 2 days later and caught yet another fish on the fly ..Great work with the 12 weight Tommy....!!!!

This gentleman was all smiles with his trophy catch ..

Another happy customer with a very nice fish

When you catch an Arapaima at EFT you will notice that we often have this little electronic gadget which we scan over an area of the fish near the tail. This may look strange to an onlooker but all our Arapaima have electronic chips in them so we can accurately identify them .

We are performing an ongoing study to see which fish get caught more often and more importantly to see what the cause may be in the rare case where we lose a fish. We are trying to determine if there are any changes we can make in our tackle and set up or in how our customers play the fish. We dont lose many fish but our goal is to reduce our fish loss to as close to zero as possible.

Sinane Belaidouni came to visit EFT for the first time this month and sure left his mark . He caught an amazing 90+ fish in 6 days of fishing and 35 fish in one day to set a new lake record . Amazing fishing from a very determined young angler..

Sinane also had a list of target fish . He Caught 3 of his target Arowana and had no problems catching a fiesty Yellow Cheeked Carp

We are always happy to help young anglers and can also offer personal guiding for capable young fishermen and women if their parents want some time to themselves. Personal guiding needs to be booked in advance and depends on the anglers ability and also guide availability . We will always do our best to cater to all young anglers..

We do offer a special package for families who want to fish together . You can read more about this great package on our webpage at http://www.exoticfishingthailand.com/rates.htm

A big smile for this Black Eared Catfish which was another new species for Sinane.

Another exotic species which is quite common at EFT is the Tambaqui.

Sinane is now the second angler to catch a Tiger Shovelnose Catfish on the fly here at EFT.,. Good work Sinane..

One of several Arapaima which Sinane landed during his trip.

Sinane is basically obsessed with Mekong Catfish :) No surprise to see them at the top of his target list . He handled this fish with no problems and says he wants a bigger one next trip .. I told him to bring water skis next time as I think he might need them if he hooks one of our bigger cats over 100kg..

So if you are a serious species hunter or looking for fishing fun for the whole family like this father and son , make sure to contact us directly for a very reasonably priced quote for your next Exotic Fishing in Thailand adventure.

EFT is your best option to catch large numbers of exotic species in a truly stunning environment. We are conveniently located here in the beautiful province of Phang Nga just a short distance from Phuket international airport.

We can be contacted conveniently through our website at http://www.exoticfishingthailand.com .

We promise NOT to take a bite out of your budget

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JANUARY CATCH REPORT . HERE COME THE MEKONG CATS !!!!

January was another great month for fishing here at Exotic Fishing Thailand with some exciting catches and lots of smiling faces from our customers. We had the most fish in a single month caught so far since opening for fishing.

Before we get into photos and figures I would like to thank our staff and customers for doing a great job of filling our our catch reports as it would be impossible to do this report without accurate numbers. Anyone visiting us who wants to be in our catch report please send us you photos by email . We try our best to show as many anglers and fish as possible but it is difficult to do without your pics. I unfortunately cant personalize the report as much as I would like as I am travelling frequently for work right now and dont get the opportunity to meet everyone.

A staggering total of 536 fish were caught in January ..The best part about this is that they were caught over only 62 angler days . That's an amazing average of 8.5 fish per angler per day ...The most fish caught by one angler in one day was 26 and the least was 4..

Our catch report for January which includes over 30 different exotic species is as follows.....;- 4 African Walking catfish to 20lb,...12 Alligator Gar to 75 lbs,..26 Albino Pacu to 12 lbs, ..103 Amazon Redtails to 50 lbs,..46 Arapaima to 380lbs,..10 Arawana to 9lbs,..15 Asian Redtails to 27lbs,,.3 Black Shark Minnow to 9lb,.3 Black Eared Catfish to 12lbs , 5 Blue Mahseer to 5lbs, 1 Giant Stingray to 12lbs,..6 Chao Phraya Catfish to 60lbs,..10 Chinese Black Carp to 18 lbs, 2 Golden bellied Barb to 2lbs,..16 Giant Gourami to 10lbs,.. 4 Goonch to 12lbs,..4 Hovens Carp to 5lbs,..15 Juliens Golden Price Carp to 20lbs,6 Mekong Catfish to 160lb. 2 Marble Catfish to 7lbs, .25 Pacu to 18lbs ,..39 Piraiba Catfish to 18lbs,..47 Redtail/Tiger Cross Catfish to 15lbs,..17 Ripsaw/Niger Catfish to 14lbs,..8 Rohu to 14lbs, ..51 Siamese Carp to 55lbs,..6 Spotted Featherbacks to 8 lbs,.. 19 Tambiqui to 13lbs,..4 Tigershovelnose Catfish to 15lbs,..2 Vundu Catfish to 17lbs,....10 Wallagoo Attu to 18 lbs,..12 Yellow Cheek Carp to 18lbs and . 1 Wallagoo Lieri of 28lbs.

We had heard some rumblings/concerns in the industry about our Mekong Catfish and where were they?? Why hadn't they been caught yet ?? etc etc . We decided to answer everyone's questions by breaking out the lum and float rods and seriously fishing for the first time for the Mekongs . We started prebaiting a swim with 2 bowls of lum around 4 pm each day and on the third day decided to throw a few casts . It didnt take long as we landed a 130 lb fish on the third cast.. After this first fish we found that we could catch Mekongs quite regularly by float fishing with lots of lum and focusing our efforts after 3pm each day ..

So there you have it. The reason nobody had caught Mekongs yet was simply that not many people had really fished for them . With so many other species to catch and customers being busy with averages of 8 to 10 fish per day there had been no real demand to catch them ..

Angler Jacob Livingston was all smiles with this nice Mekong he battled on the float rod.

The Chinese Black Carp are not shy and get caught quite regularly as Jut Cole found out on his recent visit to sample the fishing here at EFT.

We always encourage young anglers and have a "FAMILY PACKAGE" for parents to fish with their children [ for more info about the package check out our website at exoticfishingthailand.com ]

The smiling face of this young angler says it all ;).

I cant believe how quickly all our fish are growing . What a difference in 16 months for our Albino Pacu..

The Chao Phraya Catfish were hungry as usual with this very light coloured fish being caught on chicken ..

We are always happy to see the ever popular Juliens Golden Price Carp being caught

Belgian angler Gauthier de Broux was on a fishing tour of Thailand and came to fish EFT for the first time this month with great success .

Gauthier was lucky to even get to EFT as he was told by a particular fishing guide in Bangkok that there is in fact no fishing lake here in Phang Nga . The guide was apparently a real "BAD BOY" and kindly explained to Gauthier that on google maps there is no lake here at EFT :). What is even more amazing is that this particular guide has recently visited our lake with the owner of a particular agency and had taken photos of our imaginary lake and fictitious mountains and were actually supposed to be promoting EFT...

Gauthier and his friend Matthieu had a great time at EFT and caught a huge number of fish including 12 different species .

A double header for the fun Belgians..

Gauthier was all smiles when he caught his PB Arapaima. He had so much fun he came back again in February . Wait till you see the monster he pulled out on the float rod..

The Arapaima were on the feed as usual with some great catches

Some anglers caught up to 3 Arapiama in one day .

We don't guarantee Arapaima , BUT we do feel that you have one of the best chances of catching a good sized Arapaima here at EFT due to our high stocking rates of fish over 50kg.

A lot of our Arapaima come out after 4pm as the sun passes over the mountains and shades the whole lake .

Another huge Arapaima caught this month for these day ticket anglers.

The same pair were also busy with a double header of Siamese Carp and Albino Pacu.

Our Amazon Redtails really went on the feed in January with some fat chunks landed. When we stocked the lake I was very careful not to overstock redtails . I am so glad I hadnt put our whole inventory in the lake as over 100 fish were caught this month .

Lots of Ripsaw/Niger Catfish showed their prehistoric looking faces this month. They were coming out on almost everything, but especially pellet.

The Wallagoo Attu are still coming out regularly . They are not easy to hold for a photo but this happy angler did a great job of hanging on to this one....

This fisherman was fortunate to catch one of our many stunning Tiger Shovelnose Catfish.

The Tambaqui were on the feed again , with some nice fish coming out. They were caught on almost every bait used on the Carp rods , even pellet on the float .

Another father and son took advantage of the EFT "FAMILY PACKAGE" .They caught 10 different species including this good sized Asian Redtail.

Another species coming to the net was this sleek Yellow Cheeked carp. They are also very difficult to hold onto. . I have been slapped a few times from their strong tails so be careful when holding them for your photos.

The Blue Mahseer have started to show with 5 caught this month.

We recommend fishing for Arowana early in the day or after 4pm as they become very finicky during the heat of the day.

A nice Arowana for our good friend Koen from Belgium who was back for his second visit to EFT already .. He had another great trip catching new species and lots of them

No wonder Koen was catching so any fish he was pulling them in 2 at a time.. We always ask that the second rod is reeled in when a fish is hooked but Koen didnt get chance when both his rods screamed off at the same time ..

Another new species for Koen with this Black Eared Catfish . A very creatively named fish :) ..

A very respectable Siamese carp for Koen caught on poly ball. We are also getting some good Carp on the float which is great fun.

The carp numbers are up again this month with some decent fish coming out regularly.

The ladies were getting on the action as well with a nice Carp caught by this angler ..

There have been lots of Alligators caught again this month . They can be a pest when fishing with chicken but patience will pay off with nice fish like this one getting caught each month.

A huge Alligator for Dawn Packman who gave her husband Andrew a run for his money when it came to catching big fish . Andrew of course did well, landing his target species Arapaima and lots of different species.. Such a wonderful couple and so into their fishing ...

Nice to see the Vundu Cats coming out every month

Our first Giant Stingray was caught this month although it surely couldn't be called a giant yet :)

So thats all for the fun fishing in January here at EFT . There are some awesome catches coming in the February catch report which will be out very soon .. So remember for the Exotic Catching Thailand has to offer there is only one Exotic Fishing Thailand , where our catch rates are some of the highest around .