simple man and sons 13day Thai fishing adventure day 5

[SIMPLE MAN]

Well after a virtually alcohol free and early night we are woken by a knock on the door at 0700 and breakfast is brought into our room as strange as it may seem the hotel doesn't have a dining area or bar,Thailand never ceases to amaze me so after breakfast and around 0740 we head of the 5 Min's down the road to palmtree lagoon and for you guys who read my posts last year may remember i was meant to come here then but the owner had put the lake up for sale and wouldn't let us fish it so we had to make some quick changes to my itinerary and i ended up fishing I T Monsters instead so i really don't have much of a clue about this place apart from a old DVD that i have when John Wilson came here a few years ago and as things can change very quickly in Thailand i am going here relatively blind so only time will tell.
The lake is now owned by a Aussie guy but run by his Thai wife Benni a very nice if not slightly crazy girl but good fun to be around,and as we walk through the entrance it takes me a while to get my head around the place as my first impressions are i cant believe how small the lake is and with a few home made wooden and narrow walkways to negotiate to get to one side of the lake and me a twinkled toed 22 stone plus fuller figured chap any H&S guy would have kittens and to be honest i am wondering what the hell i have let myself in for,the only way i can describe the place at best is quirky with as usual no thought in to it as a fishing park but just a hole in the ground with some interesting little gangplanks and walkways but in fairness it does have a fishy feel to it so only time will tell
Our day ticket here is for one carp and one predator rod each and as it very quickly becomes apparent they have some big arapaima here too so as you tend to keep on the move predator fishing i say to Benni is it OK if one of us has two carp and the other has two predator rods and we can change over after two days and she says no problem so i ask Brian what he wants to do and after seeing the arapaima rolling in the lake he has the predator rods which suits me fine as i can get on with trying to get my prize Gahore (well we all can dream) my next surprise is Benni says if you are going to fish for carp the best place to do it is here pointing to a platform attached to the bank made with inch wide sticks lashed together with twine and three plywood sheets just thrown on top so when they get wet which is basically as soon as you stand on them they turn into a ice rink oh joy and if you don't stay roughly in the middle it slowly sinks into the lake so know you get the picture of why its taking me a little time to get my head around this place and here's a photo of my platform it might not look that bad in the photo but it certainly keeps you on your toes and to be honest i am wondering what the hell will happen if i do actually hook into something over 5lb,still we are here now so lets get fishing


I am fishing with a method feeder and fishing 20yards straight out and Brian is in the corner using dead bait and chicken as normal fishing the margins first thing and within 5 min Brian is in and this things not hanging around but after a 60 yard burst just stops and Bear Brian's guide says stingray at which point i just burst out laughing and remember saying OK mate see you in a couple of hours and ten mins later its shed the hook and although i know he would like to have caught it and early morning is certainly the best time as the heat would make it twice as hard i think we all breathed a sigh of relief as i don't think Brian realises what a battle he would of had and about 08.45 Brian has another stonking run and this thing has shot of right down the left hand side of the lake and is now holed up in a large 20yard by 15 clump of floating water hyacinth and after a 15 min tug of war gets it out and ten min later he has his prize a cracking redtail of 44lb sorry guys i am not sure this is the right photo but you get the idea

I now decide its time for a can of pop and as we all know the minute you go to turn your back yep you guessed it my no 2 rod springs into life and as i strike what the **** this things flying and there ain't no stopping it i shout to Jules get my other bloody rod in mate i have got something here and now the fun's began two of us on the raft and we are starting to sink into the lake hhhhmmmm wtf i now also have a guide on too so with them at the back and me in the middle we have some sort of stability and what ever is on the end of my line is still flying 80-90yards out and then Benni shouts out it must be a Gahore i really wish that sometimes people would keep quiet because as soon as i hear those magical words my legs start turning to jelly it has been a dream for many many years to hook and land a big Gahore and whilst its out there although you hope you can never be sure and as they always stay deep right up to the end they always keep you guessing so now i know i have a big fish on i now know its a Gahore and i am on a bloody rickety raft trying to stay afloat and if i am honest just trying to stay upright this brings it all back to me and my head is spinning come on John just bloody concentrate and now there is just a eerie silence as Brian and Jules know what a fish like this means to me and although i am a easy going guy i think they know that one stupid comment and i will bite there heads off and for the next twenty minutes i find myself talking to myself at 100mph trying to keep the fish in open water and slowly but surely gaining line staying afloat and controlling my legs from going to jelly and then all in a flash its up Bear the guide has it in the net and yyyyeeessss i reckon everyone within a 10 mile radius heard my shout and all of a sudden every one is laughing and joking and i am now a very happy bunny and this fantastic fish hits the scales at 76lb dead so we get a hatful of trophy shots and then release this cracker of a fish back into the murky depths to fight another day and although i have a unwritten rule about never drinking in the daytime its beers all round and why not

And to be honest from this point on i don't care if i don't catch another fish for the rest of my holiday boy was i buzzing and just when you think that you have got you specimen fish of a lifetime 30 mins later my rod goes off again and although not a big fish or so i thought after a short 8-10 min battle i have this corker in the net and couldnt understand why all the Thais were getting so excited until they said it was a mrigral some sort of carp and the world record was just over the 10lb mark and this little beauty hit the scales at 9lb15oz


Bloody hell its not even 11.00 yet and i have not one but two fish of a life time in the bag.The lake then went quiet for a while before Brian added to his species hunt with this strange looking fish which turned out to be a featherback which weighed 2lbs or so

And over the next couple of hours i had a rohu of 4lb followed by another of 6lb before i again had another stonking run and although i knew it wasn't as big as my earlier conquest still took me 15 mins before i had this cracker a 31lb catala carp in the net wow what a day and its still only 3.00

and 2 min later i hooked another fish which slipped the hook after 10 mins and at around 3.30 Brian's now into a nice fish and after a 20 min battle he banks this corking arapaima which just tips the 73lb mark

and just as i am thinking back to this morning and wondering what the hell i had let myself in for my line is screaming again and after a dogged little 15min battle i find myself landing another Gahore which weighs in at just over 21lb

And still the fish keep coming Brian then had a redtail of 22lb and at 5.00 i had a 5lb rohu Brian then had another featherback of3lb followed by a redtail of 16lb and just to finish the day off i had a sawai catfish of about 4lb and as the evening drew to a close Benni bless her says tonight she knows a club a couple of miles out of town which is really good fun and wont run out of beer and stays open very late now that's what i call a host so after a quick shower we all 8 of us head to the golden something or other and oh dear this is a family forum and i am not quite sure if my sons eyeballs have yet to settle back into their sockets yet all i can really say is there was a band there was some poles and they weren't eastern European ones but metal it was very dark hhhhmmm the beer was extortionately expensive by Thai standards and our group of eight seemed to be somewhat overdressed (get the picture) but we all forced ourselves to stay until about 0200am as it would have been rude to offend our host well come on chaps after all it is a holiday and this was definitely the other side to Thailand
Thanks for reading,i hope you guys are enjoying these posts and will try to get the next instalment done asap
tight lines John

[tjnorton]

What a superb fish bet it was interesting on the little raft lol

tj

[pingu]

cracking day there,love the in water shots
see sons doing well with busted hand stil

dave

[chesty]

fantastic fish john :)

[Banana Steve]

Wow, im jealous, Cracking Fish