The Sessions - January 2018

Frosty England and a trip to Thailand

05 Jan 2018 – Bridigo Lake

With the rivers being trashed from all the snow melt I went Perching searching for the ever elusive “four”. It was cloudy with a northerly wind making it feel much colder than 7 degrees.

I arrived mid-morning and dropped in to my little deep area, fishing both rods on float fished King Prawn and baited very lightly with broken Prawn and a few red maggots. I didn’t think I’d need much bait as it had been so cold recently.
The wind got stronger in the afternoon making presentation difficult but I had four bites to make it a good session, one missed, a very pretty Mirror Carp at low double, a Perch at low two and a 3-01 to finish the session right on dark.

06 Jan 2018 – Fenland Lake

I decided on a change of venue for my second day and drove out to the fens. The morning was very cold and frosty so again I left it until mid-morning for the frost to clear. I arrived to find the lake nice and full of water and the corner area full of fry so I felt really confident of a few Perch.
I fished the same approach but used more maggots as the silvers were active smashing the maggots as they hit the water. Again it was very cold in the north easterly wing but I managed six bites, two bumped two Carp and two Perch at 2-01 and 2-05.

12 Jan 2018 – Bridigo Lake

The rivers were still out of sorts so I went Perching again. It was cold and cloudy with a northerly wind making it feel freezing.

I arrived mid-morning and to satisfy myself I plumbed all the margin areas again to ensure I was fishing the right area, this took about an hour but was time well spent and I dropped in to my little deep area again knowing I was on the right spot.

Strangely I didn’t get a bite all day and it soon became evident why, there was a Mink doing laps of the lake looking for a meal. Without doubt he was looking for birds and small rodents and made a few attempts at the ducks and Moorhens but they were far too smart in the day light but come dusk the Moorhens were up in the trees. He certainly looked well fed so I’m sure there would be a victim as night approached.

Just on dark I had one bite, a Perch at 3-01, although pleasing there is a good chance it was the same fish as a week ago which leaves a lot of doubt as to how many are in the lake.

14 Jan 2018 – Free Spirit

The day had finally arrived; I’d been keeping this quiet for 6 months as I didn’t want to jinx it, but my rods from Free Spirit arrived and I could announce that I was now sponsored and part of the Free Spirit Team. I have to say it is one of the high lights of my angling so far and just reward for a lot of miles and enjoyable time spent on the bank.

I received two HS Flood Water 2.75tc rods for my Trent Barbel fishing and I can’t wait to use them, I just need the rivers to get back to a fishable state and some steady weather.
Big thanks to Simon Bond, Dave Harrell and Ray Best for making this happen.

Palm Tree Lagoon, Thailand

Julie and I flew to Thailand with seven friends for the CatMaster Tours trip away. We were on route for Palm Tree Lagoon in Ratchaburi which is approx. two hours outside Bangkok.

The out bound flight was ten and half hours, flying with Eva Air and I have to say they were excellent and I can’t recommend them enough, plenty of leg room, comfy seats, good food, good entertainment choices and friendly staff, all for £520.

We had a night in Ratchaburi and were due to be picked up for our first days fishing in the morning. There wasn’t too much open by the time we got in town but we found a small restaurant that was busy with the locals so went in there, the food was delicious and cheap and Julie and I became regulars during the next two weeks.

We were picked up in the morning and taken to the fishery for our first day, two of our party had been before but for me it was the first time there but I had an idea what to expect.

As you enter the fishery there is what can only be described as a pond outside the restaurant that doesn’t look much. But on walking into the seating area, standing by the pond and stamping your feet huge shapes appear in the murky water waiting to be fed. There are eleven Arapaima in there and two are absolutely huge and they love sausages, we had many an amusing morning bringing sausages from the hotel to feed the fish.

The lake itself is a reasonable size for a commercial fishery and is full of fish of many different species and goes down to approx. ten feet deep, it’s well worth a look on their website to see how many species are present.

The owners Tim and Benny, their families and guides all live on site and the housing, restaurant, staging and swims are what we would describe as very basic by British standards but to be fair they are normal in Thailand, but if you’re looking for luxury Palm Tree is not for you.

We chose our swims for the day and agreed to rotate clockwise round the lake every day so we all had equal chance at the better swims, each swim had a “guide” and rods, tackle and bait.

Julie and I went round to The Hut swim for our first day and were looking forward to getting started especially when we saw how many fish were rolling. Each angler had four rods each, two for predators and two for Mekong and Carp. Now all of us were very experienced fisherman so this is where the problems started as the rods were all set up and the rigs were not good, for some reason they think the line coming out of the back of the hook is not an issue and it was touch and go with how many were like this. It didn’t matter how many times we showed them the right way to tie them they simply changed them back when we weren’t looking, which obviously was very frustrating and without doubt cost us all fish with hook pulls. The mainline was 80 pound braid and again this wasn’t the best and a lot of good fish were lost through line breakage.

Most of us caught fish on the first day, I had a Striped Catfish, and two Mekong Catfish, the biggest being the one in the picture below. This was caught on a float with a feeder just below it with a ball of Lam moulded round it and bread on the hook, the float is set at about 3 feet deep. After the cast the Lam starts to break of the feeder and the Mekong literally come up and take the lot, if you haven’t had a bite in a few minutes the feeder is reloaded and it’s recast again, its exciting stuff and the fight is unbelievable, they are without doubt the hardest fighting fresh water fish out there.

The next two days were fairly uneventful for me other than losing a very big fish to line breakage, getting destroyed by Mossies and spending a frustrating day trying to show Cop how to tie rigs, he just didn’t get it…. But with the temp at 30 plus every day and great company with my gorgeous lady life was good.

Day 4 turned out to be a great day but had its moments. Unfortunately Dan was ill while Colin, his son Ash, Dave and Karen went to the Hua Hin for the day leaving just three of us fishing. We all caught good fish with my day starting with a small Sorubin (Leopard Catfish), they are lovely looking fish but have quite a boney pectoral fin that went straight into the meaty part of my thumb, I don’t like to make a fuss but it really hurt for some time and got nicely infected. Luckily I was taking anti-biotics for an infected wound on my face so they cleared up both injuries.

Next up for me was a Red Tail and one of my favourite species to catch abroad, they are like a bull dog and full of muscle and fight to the end, this one was taken on a chunk of chicken.

My next fish was in a different league, it was taken on the method float and as I soon as I picked up I knew it would be a long fight. It was one of the lakes biggies so everyone has to reel in until it’s landed as they go all over the lake and this one covered every inch. As soon as the guides saw it roll they all laughed, it was the big Mekong, No.1 as they kept calling it while I was playing it and they knew I would be a while so all sat in the chairs chilling while I was sweating buckets playing a monster.

The fight with a big Mekong can only be described as brutal, this wasn’t helped by large Red Ants that were half inch long dropping out of the tree or coming up from the grass and showing no mercy, they just attacked and bit me eight times, it was ridiculous and really hurt like a wasp sting!!
The fight lasted 1 hour and 40 mins and I finally got it in the margin and was thinking how do we get it into the net when Nat (one of the guides) dives under the water and in a bloom of bubbles comes up with his hand in the fishes mouth and guides it into the net, it was brilliant.

I was aching, sweating and my groin was really sore from the rod butt but it was so worth it, the fish was huge and by far the biggest I’ve ever landed, it is estimated at 380-400 pounds and after getting in the water with it and trying to lift it I couldn’t disagree. Julie came in for photos and was terrified but she still did it and five of us lifted it for the pics, what a moment….

We were all catching so agreed Julie would have the next fish, this would be her first attempt at playing a big fish, but she did great, never stopped giggling and loved it landing a Striped Catfish.

Later in the day I hit another big Mekong although not as big it still took an hour to land and finished a brilliant days fishing for all of us.

The day ended with another unfortunate incident for me, they have two dogs on site, an old Lab and a two year old Rottweiler, I love dogs and never have problems in fact they sat with us all day but when I went to use the loo in the evening the Rottie decided to attack me and bite my right arm. Quite obviously I was angry and chased him into the family living area and told Benny what had happened, over the week he had a go at five of the seven men on our party always in the evenings, that’s certainly something Tim and Benny will have to watch.

The next few days Dan’s bug swept through our party with seven of us being ill, although ill I was the only one not to give up any fishing days while others were laid up for a few days, poor Dan missed six days fishing.

Good fish were caught every day but it was never prolific and the issue became clear. The lake is oxygenated by three aerators and only one was working, this was clearly having an impact on the fishing and fish were just lying up. The guides kept working on one and got it going half way through our trip but the third was kaput…….

I had another Red Tail on my travel rod that put up a great fight, two Roho Carp and a few smaller fish to keep us interested.

I’ll end this months on another unfortunate but funny storey; I struck into another big Mekong, it rolled straight away and all the guides fell about laughing, I’d hooked No.2 and they all kicked back and relaxed. It was 34 degrees, everyone reeled in and came round to watch sitting in the shade shouting encouragement or just generally taking the piddle.

Wind the clock forward 2 hours and 6 minutes:
Julie – “come on babe you’re doing great”
Me – “I just can’t make an impression on it”
Rob (came round for his swim laughing) – “are you still pissing about with that fish?”
Line – snapped!!!
Rob – very quickly walked on
Me – stood there in disbelieve
Colin – “come on Jules say something” (laughing)
Me…….speechless

Looking back it was hilarious but at the time I didn’t know whether to be gutted or relieved it was over.

So how did the rest of the trip go? I’ll tell you next time, until next month tight lines and be lucky

Julian Barnes