My 13 day Thai fishing adventure (day two)

[SIMPLE MAN]

Jules again arrived promptly at 7.15,today its not so overcast but still quite pleasant,Again on arrival Dave has been beavering away to get me some tilapia and as we get to my swim Dave has a tilapia on the hook and Gin is starting to row my bait out down the channel,coffee has been ordered and i realise the ashtray has gone (sorry guys i forgot to mention Greenfield is a small lake with 12 swims but only allows 5 anglers on it at any one time as not to kill the fishery,it is also very clean so i felt obliged to try and keep it that way) i must have walked 20yrds Gin had thrown the bait over the side and crash a arapaima of 70-80lbs had nailed my bait less than 5 seconds of it being in the water, this time i think to my self i am not going to let this cunning blighter get the better of me so after its come out of the channel i gently play it in mid water lowering the rod every time it rises and then tightening back up as it goes on its next run,Gin was still in his boat as the take was so quick he could not get past the fish in the channel so Dave grabs the net to land it for me,the fish is tired now and only 20ft out as it surrenders on its side and i gently bring it towards the net then crash one last roll and its gone AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH i thought i had it beat and wasn't ready (my fault)embarrassed at this point i honestly don't know who felt worse Jules who had done his home work on trying to get me my prize,Dave who had worked his socks off,always there a hour before me catching and supplying my bait,or me who obviously learnt diddly squat after the previous days fishing lol
At this point i should explain Jules has put me in Greenfield first so i could catch my arapaima and then concentrate on the much more wily adversary the Siamese carp a notoriously difficult fish to catch,and here i am blowing chance after chance
After our now cool coffees i managed a couple of those snag loving red tails in the 8-10lb range and the sun had come out and the arapaima seemed to of gone to ground so we ordered and had breakfast with not much more going on,i had one more red tail 12lb about mid day when Gin said he wanted me to move to the bottom end of the lake as he had taken a walk down there and seen some arapaima rolling there,so off we went and although they were quite clearly there,and we were dropping baits on there noses they were just not playing ball so after three hours and three more 10-12lb red tails we returned to our normal swim,not long after Gin pointed at a arapaima swimming along the bank not 5ft in front of me i quickly wound my rod which was in the margins on the corner of the channel right in front of it and whooooosh in a split second it had took my bait and was steaming off towards the end of the lake 20 seconds later it was gone at this point i was beginning to think of this guy that Jules had told me about who had been fishing with them for two or three holidays and although had hooked many many arapaima had still not managed to land one(i was starting to think that maybe i was going to suffer the same)
As the evening drew in i had seven more red tails 8-14lb and saw a huge arapaima rise not 10ft in front of me but alas no more takes and me wondering if i really did have the arapaima curse, so back to the hotel for a few beers and shower,arapaima 5 simple man 0
p.s my son is popping round after work to help me put some pictures on the posts
Day 3 to follow