simple man and sons 13 day Thai fishing adventure day 4

[SIMPLE MAN]

Well no hangover this morning but i know i had a few changs last night night,so after breakfast and bags packed we are heading back to Cha-Am for our last days fishing here before driving a hour or so tonight to Ratchaburi province where we will fishing at palmtree lagoon,and i say to Jules that i might leave Brian with him today and have one more go for a big Gahore on the carp lake but Jules says its sunday mate and there will be a good head on the lake today and when we arrive the lake has a dozen guys on it already so i decide to stay on the predator lake for one last bash at a big arapaima,
Just to make a change there is not a cloud in the sky but for some reason it doesnt seen that hot,and as we start fishing we are getting nothing but freshwater shrimp knocks unlike yesterday when we had 4 fish in the first thirty mins,around 09.00 i had a stonking run which had to be a redtail and after ten mins it run into a snag and that was the end of that and a short while later i have another take and 10 min later i have my first fish of the day with this arapaima at 23lbs

sorry its on its side but it was a feisty little git and even at this size gan give you a nasty smack on the chin for your troubles so we just got it back asap,and about twenty mins later Brian had a arapaima of about 8lb which was quickly released back into the lake.The lake then went dead for a good 2-1/2 hours and although the fish were showing everywhere they just didnt want to play ball so Churn and Brian upped sticks to try back at the swim that they were in yesterday afternoon and almost straight away Brian was in to a feisty redtail which although managed to find a snag some how Brian managed to get out and a further 10 mins had his prize safely on the bank and a nice redtail of 18lb

and it wasnt too long after that he had another stonking run and this time managed to keep the fish out of the snags and landed another redtail around the 28lb mark

and the cheeky git commented that its stomach reminded him of some one he knew,not to be out done i then landed this monster gar which must have tipped the scales at 4lbs and notice how i expertly keep my hands well away from the toothy critters mouth and for those who follow my posts this isnt always going to be the case lol these fish are just a nightmare to handle they are stroppy,very slimey and there scales are so hard that the American indians used to use there scales for arrow heads
About three in the afternoon Brian had a nice slow run and about 15 mins later had a medium arapaima that hit the scales at 38lb and although a nice fish i think he was a little gutted that it wasnt a tad bigger but hey thats fishing boy just because you can see the monsters loloping out in the middle they didnt get that size by being stupid mate

And time was quickly catching us up now and although we didnt know what palmtree lagoon was up for fishing wise we knew it would be hard to try and get a decent arapaima at I T Monsters lake and we certainly wouldnt be forking out £400 at bungsanran for a days arapaima fishing and yes folks thats per person and as soon as you have caught one thats it even if you want to fish for carp and mekongs you still have to pay again but they do tell me that if you fail to catch one they give you half your money back in my opinion they just dont want you fishing for them anyway about 5.00 poor Brian has now hit into a big fish which he played with great concentration for 25 min only for it to slip the hook and we all see this fish 4-5 times and all agreed it was about 140lb or so but as i keep on saying thats fishing folks,i then had a arapaima about 8lb and then just as we were getting ready to pack up Brian had a chao phraya catfish of just over a pound,this is the smallest chao phraya i have ever seen and i am lead to believe that the current world record is about 118lb but we heard that a chap had just caught one in Krabi that was 121lb now without giving too much away watch these reports for further news hhhmmm oh sorry here is a picture of Brians 1lb chao phraya

And sadly that was to be the last fish of the day so we say our goodbyes to Churn our guide and head a hour or so to Ratchaburi where after checking in to our hotel Jules tells us that as this is not a tourist area we are very limited on dining out and then drops the biggest bomb shell yet that all bars and so on shut at 10.00 around here and not only that but the only place where we can get half decent food is a cowboy bar WTF and i dont bloody believe it i order 3 changs and when i order 3 more they have run out so i order 3 leos and they run out and 3 other beers which they assure me they have loads of and 9 bottles later guess bloody what they run out,what sort of bar are we in Jules,any way he has a word with the manager and he promises us there will be plenty the next night so i go back to the hotel muttering and then muttering some more
Well thats it for now folks i will try to post one a day tight lines and thanks for your kind words

[MRG2000]

Another cracking read ... Is that an Aligator Gar in the 4th pic ,it looks a bit mean

[SIMPLE MAN]

Yes Mike it is and yes they are not the friendliest of fish