Fishing in Thailand – November 2019
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For a great overview of what Jurassic and the surrounding area has to offer watch this 5 minute video!
November on the Lake
Eddie had been hoping for a tambaqui on the pellet waggles, however he caught several pacu instead! Pacu have sharp molariform teeth and this enabled them to bite through his hooklength so with this in mind he switched back to the bottom and successfully landed this fine tambaqui no more than 15 yards from the bank on a single hookbait.
Big Chris got his first choice swim in the previous evening’s draw and was full of confidence as the sun broke through the clouds around mid morning. Although he hadn’t received a take by 11am he remained confident in his approach as he was fully aware that they normally came in the afternoon. Sure enough just after midday the takes started coming and by dusk he had landed 8 fish with these two being his favourites. Chris caught all the fish on balanced snowman bottom baits soaked in tuna extract.
Jason and his partner arrived at Jurassic and were soon relaxing with a nice cold beer. This happened to coincide with feeding time in the predator pool and watching the large arapaima being fed by hand made him long to start fishing and maybe, just maybe, catch one of them from the lake. Well, the following morning as he arrived in his swim he noticed a disturbance in the margins just as an arapaima surfaced to take a breath. He prepared the rods, flicked them into position and within a matter of minutes one of them ripped off! First take, first fish and an arapaima within minutes!
Dave and Chris spent 5 days with us; although selecting two swims in the draw they chose to fish from one and work the 4 rods between them. (It’s not possible to fish 4 rods from every swim round the lake but there are some that are big enough – it’s all down to the draw!)
Chris was delighted with his first ever tambaqui – another species off his list! As the sun was setting they would both target the predators and were both rewarded with arapaima! Great team fishing!
During their second day at Jurassic Ian and his friend John chose adjacent swims. Both of them were receiving liners when Ian’s rod screamed off and he lifted into it – seconds later John’s followed suit. John tamed his first – a good Siamese around 60lb, which was quickly released as he went to help his friend. Ian had found Scarface, a giant Siamese 3 times the size of John’s, and needed help not just with the photos but with lifting the beast as well!
A couple of days after their success with the carp Ian and John’s eyes turned towards the predators; John was after an alligator gar whilst Ian was keen on an arapaima. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be John’s day as a bad headache forced him off the lake and back to his room for some rest but he wished his friend every success in his absence.
Ian’s first foray into gar fishing resulted in a great specimen. The following day he finely chopped some mackerel and mixed it up with soaked pellet and Tuna Extract to produce a potent soup that no self-respecting predator could resist. On the top went two chicken hearts on the hook held in place by a bead and success for a second day and this time John was around to see it! Two days and two alligator gar – great fishing!
Rod was at Jurassic with his family for their annual visit. He packed ram/lum into a feeder suspended below a float with imitation bread hookbait and the result was a series of takes with this tambaqui being the pick of the bunch.
Tony and Graham arrived shortly after 7am and after selecting bait they headed off to their swim where they were fishing 3 rods between the 2 of them. Tony used a snowman rig coupled with a PVA bag and over the top fed a few freebies. At about 8am one of the rods sprung into life and an angry fish headed out into the main body of the lake. Now the first fish of the day is always welcome but when it’s one of the largest Siamese in the lake it can leave you speechless!! A great day’s fishing on a day ticket!
Chicken hearts and chicken carcass can be game changers when predator fishing especially when the nuisance fish or crabs are continually wearing away your fish hookbaits. The tougher texture means you can allow yourself more time between recasts and have piece of mind that you have retained the hookbait and are fishing effectively. There is nothing worse than seeing several shows over a spot only to retrieve an empty hook. Follow this link to see how to use chicken effectively to target the predators here at Jurassic.
It was Manfred’s final day and the lake said goodbye to him with one of the rarer species – a Sorubim catfish. They are very similar to the Amazon redtail but are more streamlined and possess a shovel like nose.
Rob David Eoghan Robert Ian Anthony
Rig focus…Balanced hook-baits and added attraction are key factors in generating more takes at Jurassic. Here we look at a few tweaks and changes that have been successful recently.
Having won Fish O Mania when he was just 21 Pete is not short on fish catching experience however he wasn’t prepared for the sheer power of the Siamese carp. He was very happy with his new PB – well done Pete!
Chris Frank
Testimonial
It’s always a privilege to receive testimonials from our guests, and even more so when those guests are well traveled and experienced and respected anglers, so we are immensely grateful to Julian Barnes for this article he wrote for us after his Jurassic Experience back in May this year.
THAILAND – JURASSIC AND GIANT CARP☺
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 another venue and Jurassic looked the place to do it with five over the 150lb mark living in the lake.
Jurassic is a fully operational resort with villas available 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 few 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 in May 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 the resort’s Thai Manager 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 300 pound plus Arapaima, it set the scene for a lovely holiday, they had thought of everything. Piak, a lovely 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 65 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, although the fishing team will respool for you if lose line during your trip. 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 villa 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 area 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 dusk 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 voucher basis. You are given a pack of vouchers 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 65 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 35mm Castaway pva and 20m of pva string.
The one edge I’m convinced made a huge difference to both rods was a flying back lead (which they sell in the tackle shop) 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 ever had and 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 fish 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 but caught four, 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
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.
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 a 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.
Julian Barnes – 2019
Jurassic – the new name in high end fashion!
Not only do we have great fishing, wonderful accommodation and food to keep an army going but we now have our own range of t-shirts. These are the colours we currently have available, sizes from small to XXL and all priced at 400 THB. So if you forget to pack your t-shirts no worries as we have you covered!!
Thanks to Oliver for being our very glamorous model!
Food, glorious food!
The food here at Jurassic is excellent – we have an extensive range of Thai, European and Indian dishes, as well as a ‘Chef’s Recommendations’ board that is regularly updated. If a dish proves exceptionally popular it will be added to the menu.
If you fancy a milkshake or smoothie just ask one of the staff – although they’re not on the menu we’d be more than happy to make one up for you. The same goes for cocktails…should you be thirsty whilst lying round the pool….
We’ll focus on a few dishes every month to show the extent of our menu and ask the staff for any recommendations they might have.
Another nice dish is the salmon, a nice light meal that can be eaten in warm weather comfortably’.
It’s now time to start preparing for the Christmas festivities so
until next month – tight lines!
Jurassic Mountain Resort & Fishing Park
43/6 Moo Baan Kokesehti Tambon Na Yang, Na Yang, Cha-am District
Phetchaburi 76120
Thailand
For all enquiries/bookings contact: enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com
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