Fish East Asia Managing Director, Stephen Scrutton enjoyed a real red letter day during his latest visit to Thailand. Taking some time off from visiting new venue’s and meetings, he decided to have a couple of days relaxing at his favourite fishery, and fishing spot. Now, anyone who has fished lake one at Cha Am knows that sport is very prolific for Striped Catfish, Catla Carp and Rohu, in fact it’s arm aching stuff. Our Stephen puts all that aside and always seeks the quietest spot, and sets about preparing his margin swims with his secret cocktail of bread and ground bait, plus a few flavourings that our team of guides shake their heads at.
Anyway heading off to just past the last angler, about half way along the boards, Stephen laced his inside swim with bait, and waited. It was not long before his float started to bob and weave in the swirls, and the Catla carp started to put in an appearance. Stephen then was puzzled as everything went quiet. The bobs and weaves were replaced by huge tail swirls, in six feet of water. Stephen then placed a huge flake of bread on his size 2 Korda hook, and waited……….not for long, as a huge bow wave headed to the middle of the lake, and the clutch on the baitrunner started to scream. Moving along the bank, and after 40 minutes an enormous head surfaced, and a huge Siamese carp took a breadth.
The huge carp hit the net, and both Stephen and Wuttichai knew that it was a very special fish, so both got into the water. Fish East Asia are making groundbreaking moves with fish care in Thailand with unhooking mats, but both knew that this fish was far too big to lift out of the water. The lads could not put an exact weight on the fish, but both agreed it was over the ‘ton’.
Dripping wet, and moving back to the swim, Stephen caught sight of another huge tail pattern. His float rod being tangled after the first fish, he picked up his method rod, loaded with a cut down pop up, he baited the feeder and gently underarmed the ball into the edge. Constant moves, and tail patterns continued, before another screaming run almost pulled the rod from his hand. Now this rod incorporated a new sinking braid that we are field testing, and the shock of the direct contact with the fish almost took Stephen by total surprise, the sheer force of the run was unbelievable. Another huge bow wave towards the middle of the lake, before the fish kited left, and a 50 minute battle was under way. Again the fish rose some 20 yards out, and took a huge breadth, before heading straight back down the lake again. Shorter runs signalled the fish was tiring so Wuttichai entered the water, and after plenty of splashing and near misses, cradled another huge Siamese carp in his net and arms. Read more on the giant carp…..
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