Exotic Fishing Thailand

 Thaidate: Thursday 11th December. Location...Mike Bailey's Exotic Fishing Thailand in the Phang Gnaa district to the north of the fair island of Phuket. Away party of four...(L to R) Richard Heaseman from Devizes, Mark Butland from Porchester and Jeffrey Whittard from Bristol. Person in far right...unidentified Thai gal trying to infiltrate photo call as only Thai gals can. Fourth member....Whittall of Weymouth taking the photographs and making the tea.

 Scenery....stunning. The remanants of the largest coral reef ever known on the planet stretching over 3,000 miles in a Nor-easterly direction through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China act as a panoramic backdrop to the lake.

 Mike has been very busy. The lake and its surroundings have seen many changes since our last visit in March. Set lower, on a walkway behind the main lake, are a number of aquariums with exotic fish from around the world and which have been introduced to the lake. Names of the fish, record size of the species in question, size of the biggest to be caught in the lake and other details add to the visitors increasing knowledge of these global species.

 And here we go....just starting off...with Mike's Number One man, Ross from Canada in the foreground. Ross co-ordinates everything and makes sure all the anglers around the lake are well cared for by the Thai staff. Apart from making sure the fishing goes smoothly and any monsters are carefully unhooked and presented for photographing, the staff at EFT are always on hand to take refreshment and food orders....we were totally spoilt all day.

 A normal drive from the Phuket house to EFT takes us about 2 hours. With the lunatic Whittard at the wheel we were there in under 90 minutes. I was still in the recently finished and splendid resturant having a 'stiff one' to regale my shattered wits when Whittard bent into the first fish of the day literally minutes after casting in. Serves him right that I wasnt there to take a photo.....lunatic! (Seriously thought we were going to be shot on the way home thanks to his road rage scenario!!)

The first fish!! A splendid 50kg arapaima caught by Mark with supprt from Ross and (right) Thai guide Lek. This is what we'd come for!

A useful guide in the fishing shelters showing the 66 species available in the lake.

Insane driver Jeff Whittard with his second fish, an Amazon Red Tail Catfish. Jeff caught 10 fish and four species.

Mr Richard Heaseman(can tell he's just arrived!) with an Asian Redtail cat.

Mark with a very slippery vundu catfish.

Jeff with an asian redtail.

Mark with an alligator gar.

Richard Heaseman with the day's biggest fish...a monsterous arapaima estimated by the lake team at 110kg!!

And then he goes and catches another one of 60kg!! What a star!!

Demon Driver Whittard already has a couple of arapaima to his name when we fished at Gillhams earlier in the year. Jeff was hoping for an alligator gar so was delighted when this beast came along to take his species tally to four in the day.

Take a look at the alligator gar's teeth....you wouldn't want one of these sweeties nudging yer vitals.

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Knowing how I miss my boat, Offshore Rebel, EFT owner Mike Bailey had thoughtfully provided us with these special Offshore Angler gloves to help us hold on to to the slippery rascals for their photo call.

The three anglerds totalled 19 fish and 7 species between them with 3 fish over the magic 100lb mark and one well over the 200lb mark!!  This is all amazing....we are very fortunate to be experiencing this incredible fishing during our time over here. Our next trip, a two day extravaganza, will take place between Boxing Day and the New Year. We shall be joined by Steve and Janey Thorne plus Gary and Mandy Chard. Mark will still be with us as he is on a nice short holiday of six weeks....well, why wouldn't you??

Thanks to everyone involved at EFT for giving us such a great day and wonderful memories. See you again soon!