My 13 day Thai fishing adventure (day six)

[SIMPLE MAN]

As usual Jules is dead on time,The clouds are non existent so another hot one is on the cards,When we arrive at Cha Am there was no other anglers there yet so as i had put quite a lot of bait out the day before fishing the same swim was a no brain-er really
For the first hour Jules suggested that i didn't put any ground bait out but just my hook bait to see if there were any big fish in the swim,This would also stop the schools of tilapia moving in and hopefully not plaguing me today,Once again the lake seemed to be boiling due to the vast amount of sawai catfish around but as yesterday after 90-120min they seemed to move out in to the middle of the lake
After an hour with just a couple of barbs 1-2oz due to the hook size it was quite remarkable that these things got hooked at all i again started to throw a hand full of bait a cast to try and tempt one of these huge carp (some of which are 100lb plus in this lake) on to my hook ,about 10.30 the float disappeared and after 3-4 min i had a 3lb sawai catfish which was nice to catch but Jules words that you can get plagued by these things was a bit of a concern,Yesterday it was tilapia surely it wasn't going to be sawais today There was a few people fishing today but most were down the far end of the lake,About 12.00 five Thais arrived and decided that the best place to fish was 10-12ft from me,there is no etiquette in Thailand as i had been told by Jules and another couple of guys including Dave Wilson at Greenfield.They all said the same thing,you can be the only one on a lake fishing and some guy will set up not 6ft away from you smile and start fishing and after 5min blow me one of these guys hooked a sawai of 5-6lb and had no idea at all how to play it next thing i have to bring my float out as this fish ploughs up and down my swim (bl***y hell) i think that's my second day wasted.To be fair he did apologise but if i am going to get this every 5min i am not going to have a cat in hells chance of hooking let alone landing my prize Strange as it was the only other interference i got that day was a Brit who had hooked into a 40lb mekong which was leading him a right merry dance up and then back down the lake
About 2.30 the float went and this thing went screaming off but about half way out it turned right and hugged the bank 80yrds to my right Jules said it was most likely to be a small mekong ok it wasn't what i was fishing for but it was nice to have a bigger fish on the line.I have seen these things caught on the tv and people say they are the hardest fighting freshwater fish there is so i made up my mind to really give it some teddy as they say these things never seem to tire but as much as i tried this fish was having none of it ,I would gain 5yrds it took 10 i would gain 10 and it took 5 and please don't forget its 2.30 and really hot and what ever i tried i just didn't seem to make on this thing,After 25 hot and painful min it surfaced for a split second 15yrds out was that a black tail Jules asked ? with the sweat running in my eyes i didn't have a clue but this was certainly the hardest fight i had experienced so far,A couple of min later it surfaced again ITS A GAHORE well i almost went to pieces my left leg starting shaking uncontrollably i started sweating like never before and was thinking about all those arapaima that i had got to the net and lost not this time(simple) please not this time,i have never ever seen a carp that size Jules tried to net this thing 5-6 times but each time it found energy from some where to try one last run i was also now worried about how hard i had fought this fish in the early stages thinking it was a mekong my left leg shaking so much now that the concrete boards that i am standing on are rattling like hell it comes to the net one more time and this time Jules has it in the net YYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS man what a fight 35min of hell but i have my prize what a feeling,Let me tell you folks i am flying what a buzz a cracking Siamese carp of 55lb



beers all round just look at my t-shirt guys i am near soaked to the skin,Half hour later i bag my self another sawai of 5lb and about 5.00 i hook another one of those crazy aesop carp 8lb which again nearly makes me jump out of my seat and as it is starting to get dark 6.15 the float goes and this thing isn't hanging around a Gahore says Jules this thing screams across the lake,turns and runs straight back at me with such speed that i have trouble reeling in quick enough,when it gets back to me at the near bank it turns and rolls and without seeing it is off the hook and gone still not to worry i had my prize and to be honest i was still buzzing any way
After all the trouble i had getting my arapaima and knowing how hard it was going to be to catch my carp it seemed quite strange for Jules to ask me where i would like to fish tomorrow before we move on as i now had a day to spare,As i had got on so well with Dave Wilson at Greenfield i asked if we could go back there as he really is a great guy and tonight i just may have a couple of chang beers