My 13 day Thai fishing adventure (day one)

[SIMPLE MAN]

After a 12 hour flight from London to Bangkok i was met at gate 3 by Jules of sft for the start of my 13 day Thai specimen hunt
Jules who has been guiding in Thailand for about 4 and a half years told me that we were going to head to Hua Hin (two hour drive) which would be my base for the first 7 days,after booking me in to my hotel which by the way was only a two minute walk to the main part of town he said he would be round at 7.15 next morning where we would be heading off to a fishing park called Greenfield which has only been open about 12 months
Jules arrived right on time and as we set off i was pleased to hear that it was only a 10-12 min drive,on arrival the first thing that surprised me was a lady came out of a nice little restaurant which is on the park and asked tea or coffee which was then brought over to us at our swim not 40 yards away (crikey i could get used to this)
On arrival at my swim i was met by a guy called David Wilson (John Wilsons brother) who runs the day to day running of the lake and at this point i would again like to say a BIG THANKYOU to Dave for being a fantastic guy,big help,and nothing was too much trouble (WHAT A NICE GUY)
Dave had got my tackle already set up and had caught me a few small tilapia and gave me a bag of chicken for bait
The lake itself is about 200 yards long about 35-40 yards wide and about a quarter of the way down there has been a 120 yard channel cut out which mushrooms out at the far end which i later nicknamed arapaima alley ,
It was quite a cloudy day and Dave said it was ideal conditions for arapaima so with no further ado Gin my guide placed a dead tilapia on the first rod and rowed out down the channel about 100 yards before dropping my bait in the middle of the channel amongst all these great swirls of fish that were rising down there,the second rod was baited with chicken as was cast out to within 18 inch's of the reeds right on the corner of the channel, after 20 Min's the baitrunner on the rod at the corner started to peel off line and strike after 5 min i had got my first fish a very pretty redtail catfish of about 8lbs over the next 45 Min's i had two more of these very pretty but extremely hard and dirty fighting cats of about 10lb each,I was starting to think what a thirty pounder would be like as these blighters will head straight for the nearest reed bed or snag that they can find,they kept Gin busy in the boat all day as he was having to row out and untangle these little blighters from snags all day,then about 9.00 the baitrunner started slowly peeling off line from no 1 rod down the channel i wound down and struck (this is different) certainly not a red tail i thought after 7-8 Min's a arapaima rose about 20ft out in front guesstimate 70-80lbs and after another short run dooooom it shook its head and was gone (GUTTED) it had shook the hook,that's fishing,not to worry Dave said the conditions were right and he was sure we would get another chance,shortly after a full English breakfast was brought out and for the next 15 Min's the fishing was not on the agenda,
About 11.00 again the rod down the channel came to life and sure enough another arapaima is on, this time i am even more wary of these cunning fish which seem to know every trick in the book at shedding the hook again after 10Min's we have a 70-80lb fish at the bank this time Gin nets the fish and as he heads for the holding net the fish shakes its head turns in the net sheds the hook and is gone (surely not) shortly after i get another red tail about 12lb then hooked up to a alligator gar of 8-10lb which bit straight through my trace,again the rod down the channel went off i wound down and struck and sure enough it was another arapaima surely this time i would get my prize,just as i was thinking that a quick head shake and it was gone poor Dave and Jules i think were getting more frustrated than me they had three times now put me in the right spot and each time through no fault of my own i had lost my trophy shot
As the evening started to draw in i managed five more red tails 8-10lb a pacu of 7lb and a couple more aborted runs from the channel but nothing else hooked up,So at the end of day one it was simple man 0 arapaima 3 and Jules took me back to my hotel where i could reflect on what could of been a fantastic start to my Thai adventure and i was still buzzing,but ended up with a if only day (still that's fishing lol) and tomorrow is another day
If any of you guys can help i would like to post some pictures but i haven't got a clue how to do so,as i am only a simple man step by step instructions would be much appreciated
day 2 to follow shortly

[scottish_and_mental]

for the pics go to 'photobucket' and set up a free account /.. it's a doddle to do and takes 2 minutes..
once you have uploaded pics to your album you will see a yellow box appear when you scroll over the pic in question..
right click the linkto copy it and then when you come back here , click on the add image box and paste that link into the pop up box ..
simples

[SIMPLE MAN]

Many thanks i will try to do it now