The Sessions - May 2019

Thailand and giant Carp😊

I signed off last month having had a reasonable months Spring Carping with some success in the limited time available. My plans for May were Thailand……

Julie and I had been planning this trip for 7-8 months and were really looking forward to it. Following our trip in Jan / Feb 2018 I planned to return to try to break the 100 pound barrier for Siamese Carp after failing to catch one at Palm Tree Lagoon and Jurassic looked the place to do it with five over the 160 mark living in the lake.

Jurassic has a number of bungalows that are used for accommodation for anglers staying on the resort, some of these are owned by people not associated with the complex itself, bookings are generally made with Jurassic, however one is owned by Martin Bowler and you can book his directly with him and he arranges the holiday for you.

After a series of emails our holiday was planned, airport transfers, 10 days fishing, tackle, bait, meals and 12 nights’ accommodation, I have to say it was first class and completed hassle free. We booked an additional night so that we could finish our holiday doing something different, the resort was not busy so we were able to have the additional night, perfect. The only thing left to arrange was our flights and we flew with Eva Air again, top class and highly recommended.

Early May was spent planning what I needed to take, contacting fishing friends that had been there and reading anything I could find online about the lake. I’m very experienced fishing in Thailand having fished all the other major lakes there but you can never be over prepared and it is time well spent. Martin gives you a call a week before you go to give you all the advice you could want and during my prep I’d planned what I wanted to ask, Martin was great and the advice invaluable and enabled me to take quite a bit of tackle out of my travel bag as I wouldn’t need it.

19 – 31 May – Jurassic Mountain Resort, Thailand.

We landed in Bangkok early evening and were met by our taxi driver for our transfer to the resort, this took about two and half hours. Bangkok is a huge city and is well worth a visit if you haven’t been, there is such a contrast with big modern buildings, traditional Thai houses some of which are just sheds and what sometimes looks like endless bars, shops and markets. Eventually we entered countryside and arrived at Jurassic at about 20:00 and were met by our host Piak and the staff. The resort is very secure and stunning to look at even arriving in the dark. The fauna and lighting was beautiful, a swimming pool built into the garden with a water fall and a pond that held huge 200 pound plus Arapaima, it set the scene for a lovely holiday, they had thought of everything. Piak, a lovely Southern Thai man who couldn’t do enough for us met us and took us to the restaurant / bar area to complete our reception and collect our room keys, again it was quite stunning and included the fishing shop and plenty of photos to get the pulse racing.

The formalities were completed and I was then asked to choose my two rods from the many held in racks in the shop. I’m not certain but the rods looked like Free Spirit Cat Tamers and the reels Shimano 8000 loaded with 85 pound braid all in top condition, I spent a bit of time looking for the reels that had the fullest spools as the last thing I wanted was to get spooled due to not enough braid, it is worth the time as this has happened to anglers I know. The rods were labelled up with my name so I knew I had them for the whole trip and could leave my end tackle attached each night.

We were then taken to our bungalow and again they were lovely with patio doors entering a lounge, into a bedroom and ensuite, all the floors were tiled, the room air conditioned and a patio area to relax in the evenings. Our bungalow opened out to the pond and it was great to watch the huge Arapaima coming up under our feet to breath. After unpacking and a meal tiredness took hold following all the travelling and we crashed out for the night at the same time buzzing for the morning and getting started on the lake.

The fishing starts at 07:00 until 18:30 so we were up early enough to have a walk round the lake before breakfast, the place was just stunning and with big fish rolling everywhere I couldn’t wait to get a bait out. Every swim had a purpose built shelter with seating to keep us out of the sun, they really had thought of everything. The draw for swims takes place every evening at 20:00 during dinner, I’d missed the draw due to travelling but fortunately the lake was not busy so I was able to choose peg 3 which from the information Martin had given me was my third choice. We had a cooked breakfast in the restaurant; this area overlooks the lake and really sets the scene and gives you the opportunity to meet the other anglers which fortunately for me there was only two for the first few days.

After breakfast I then picked up my bait, this was part of the package and run on a token basis. You are given a pack of tokens when you arrive and you buy your bait with the tokens, at first I was concerned I wouldn’t have enough but I gave half of them back at the end of the holiday, you get plenty. I took 1kg of Jurassic boilies, 2kg of pellet and a 2kg of fish to start with, I always bait up with caution as you can put it in but can’t take it out. We then went down to the swim and the guide was there waiting for us, I have found in previous trips to other lakes guides can be a pain, but at Jurassic they do as little or as much as you require, I politely made it clear I was fine and he made his way a couple of swims down and only came up when I hooked fish to assist with the landing and photographs. We found all the guides were very friendly and their fish care was first class. You can buy tackle and rigs and are given a tackle pouch that is included in your package which includes some rigs, leads, tubing, beads, baiting needle, etc, however I took my own end tackle and made my own rigs. Jurassic insist on tubing and 4oz inline leads and the predator hooklink must be 9 inches to prevent deep hooking, strong and abrasion resistant enough for the huge fish in the lake.

The first part of the day was spent getting the rigs right and after a bit of playing around I settled on the following:

• The predator rig was – 18 inches of tubing, a 4oz inline lead semi fixed to the hooklink swivel, 9 inches of Kryston Ton Up to a size 1 ESP Big T hook.

• The Carp rig was – 18 inches of tubing, a 4oz inline lead semi fixed to the hooklink swivel, 10 inches of the Jurassic braid which was 85 pound tc, soft and very good, to a size 4 Gardener Continental Mugger tied KD style. By the afternoon I settled on a snowman set up with a Jurassic 20mm bottom bait topped with a white 15mm Krill pop-up. I attached a pva bag of crushed boilies every cast. Over the holiday I used 50m of Castawaypva 35mm pva and 20m of pva string.

• The one edge I’m convinced made a huge difference to both rods was a flying back lead set so that the 10 feet of braid behind the lead was flat on the bottom.

• The predators responded to baiting up and I found breaking the fish up into pieces was best and fishing the hook bait kebab style on a hair. It took a couple of days for me to try but I tried chicken heart, fishing 4 on the hair and baiting up with pieces of fish, this proved to be a good tactic, the hearts are surprisingly tough, a brilliant bait and something to think about using at home for Cats and Sturgeon.

• For the Carp I only used 1kg of boilies a day broken up in pva bags and a few catapulted out and approx. 2-3kg of 10mm pellets catapulted out over the spot. I soon realised mussels were a problem so the rig was cast just short of the pellets so that no braid was exposed to the shells as I did suffer a couple of cut-offs and the hook point was not being masked by a small mussel.

The fish did not just give themselves up and I had to work at it every day with accurate baiting and casting once I’d found a spot they would feed on, the trick was to find the hard patches amongst the silt. I fished four different swims during the holiday and each time I went in a new one I spent time leading looking for firm spots, it was time well spent and definitely helped me catch more fish.

The fishing was amazing and this was right up there with some of my best fishing holidays, we had a fantastic time. All my little tweaks worked apart from fruit pop-ups on the snowman, for some reason they just didn’t work very well. The krill was so good I had the guide swimming out for them when they came off during a fight, I ended the trip with just three left in my pot. All these little things made the difference and I top rodded every day even when I fished two half days so it definitely pays to think about what you’re doing. Don’t get me wrong a day ticket holiday angler will catch but if you want a big hit then put the effort in.

It would take pages of text and probably be a little boring for you the reader to blog in my normal fashion of writing about each day so I will give an over view of what I caught:

• I wanted a 100 pound plus Siamese Carp, I finished up with 84 Carp catching 15 on my first day alone, it was amazing!! I caught the mighty Scar on the first day, she is the crown jewel of the lake and estimated at 185-190 and I caught her again on day five. I asked Jules the lake owner when she was last weighed and he told me it was 10 months ago, having picked up a lot of 200 pound plus fish I would suggest she is over that weight but does it really matter, what a stunning fish. I also had another two over the 160 mark which gave me three of the big five 

• I wanted a 200 pound plus Arapaima and finished with six over that weight and two smaller ones with lots lost to hook pull. They are a stunning fish to look at but so so delicate and have to be treated with so much care. Many are lost after capture, fortunately none of mine were but I doubt I will fish for them again, the only time being a true wild one from the Amazon.

• The Red Tails are a fantastic sporting fish and I caught 28 to over 65 pound, they are probably the hardest fighting fish I’ve come across and at one point I gave a rod to Julie and it nearly had her in, she is normally quite game but made me take the rod back.

• Between relaxing and visiting the pool Julie caught a few and I had double takes a few times where Julie stepped in to take Siamese up to 45 pound, she plays them like a natural and really enjoys it.

In eight full days and two half days I had 125 fish a truly brilliant holiday. The place and facilities are fantastic and I highly recommend it, they have thought of everything and the food was delicious, without doubt the best all round holiday fishery in Thailand.

On our last day we visited the Wildlife Friends Foundation, it’s a rescue centre for Elephants and said to be the only genuine rescue centre in Thailand. It’s growing year on year and they have rescued so many animals of many species. We spent the whole day there and were able to get up close and personal with some of the Elephants, it was a fantastic moving experience, they display so much emotion through their eyes and are just lovely creatures, certainly a day to remember and well worth a visit.

We arrived back in England on 2 June and I was already planning my first Barbel trip.

Until next month tight lines and be lucky😊 

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