Mr Ellis and Keith fishing at Phuket Game Park

On the last occasion Keith, Mr Steve (soon to be given an award for being a pillar of local Society??) Ellis and his mad keen fishing wife, Alison went fishing at the lake without me. No doubt I was doing something fascinating...but I forget what!

Keith was on the camera...so hence no photographs of him....it's all about Mr Ellis. Well, that's OK as Mr Ellis is a story in himself with what can only be described as a unique approach to lake fishing.

It's not good to lose your fishing rod into the lake. As we are hiring rods, it's a 6,000 Baht 'fine' (£130) if you lose one. How can you lose one?? These fish are incredibly powerful. They will pull an unattended rod ....and metal rod rest...into the lake with ease. The lake is deep and murky...you ain't gonna jump in and find your rod...which will have been towed half way over the other side of the lake anyway. Here's Steve tho' with a nice catfish...just to show he can catch them....eventually.

Mr Ellis lost 2 rods and a big rodrack!! Luckily one of my trained professional rods was also being used. For those of you who do not understand, a professionally trained rod is one we skippers use. It knows what lunatics it will be surrounded by and is always ready to leap to the rescue...apart from catching the most fish. So, Mr Ellis' first rod had gone and then my 'professional' rod buckled over which Mr Ellis managed to grab....and on winding in discovered the hook on the 'Prof' rod had skilfully hooked the balearm on his reel......how about that then?? The missing rod was carefully brought in and then Mr Ellis was able to resume playing his fish.

Later in the day, Mr Ellis caught someone else's rod...this rod had also been dragged in by a fish. He retrieved this other rod and there was still a fish on it....I dunno; I wouldn't want to own a fishing lake. These lake anglers are clearly bonkers.

Another technique employed by intrepid lake anglers is to cast as high as possible and get your terminal geat to hang off the electric cable that runs high over the lake. This is a pretty impressive achievement as the casting angle must be about 10 degrees to achieve the required height. However, many appear to possess this gift as a number of sets of gear (including 3 sets of Mr Ellis') were suspended by the end of the session.

Having lost tackle at an alarming rate....Mr Ellis found a bit of old rope and tide rod, rack, and right foot together to a nearby tree stump. Good idea.....

And here he is again with another catfish.....Keith was also catching but Mr Ellis doesn't know how to use a camera or take photographs....so nothing of Keith, I'm afraid.

And here's a Siamese Carp for Steve....this carp was attached to another lost rod which Steve managed to pick up on his gear.

I could say these fish were the result of incredible angling skill....but then again?????