Newsletter March 2014
Catches and news from Thailand’s only exclusive syndicated sport-fishing venue.
“Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.” –Ernest Hemingway
With summer fast approaching in the UK and Europe, anglers minds will be turning to where they may take a summer fishing vacation. Many diehard carp anglers will be turning towards their usual haunts in France, or possibly Spain for some cats, whilst the more adventurous amongst you might be looking at something a bit more exotic, and be looking towards Thailand. OK so Thailand is a bit more of a trek than France, but like so many things in life…”you only get out what you put in!” As well as being home to the world’s biggest carp and freshwater predator species, Thailand offers the visiting angler a fishing and holiday experience that Europe cannot come close to rivaling.
In the case of Jurassic, we are perfectly situated for our guests to explore the best of Thailand without the need for expensive additional internal flights, or even checking in and out of different accommodations. 10 days at Jurassic can and does work out better value than a lot of European road trips, where quite often anglers overlook the hundreds of pounds they spend on boilies and wear and tear and fuel for their car when calculating the real cost of their summer fishing holiday, not to mention the fact that staying in a bivvie, although fun cannot be compared to staying on a 4 star resort sipping a chilled beer looking out across the lake to stunning mountain views after a day catching the worlds biggest carp.
Whats more a Thai fishing holiday doesn’t have to just take in fishing, so it can be a perfect compromise for the keen angler with a family or partner. “He” can wile away the hours behind his rods chasing his first 150lb+ Carp (yes you read it right 150lbs!), while “She” can be down the beach sun bathing, shopping, site seeing, taking the kids to the water park, or on an elephant trek…the options are truly endless here, Jurassic is just 10 minutes from the nearest beach, and there are countless tourist attractions, site seeing and other activities worth persuing. In fact everything listed below is within 20 to 30 minutes of Jurassic, and is just a small sample of whats available.
Top Ten things to do in Hua Hin and Cha Am (after fishing a Jurassic of course!) :
1)Relax by the beach
Within 10 minutes of Jurassic are some fabulous long sandy beaches. Some are completely non-commercial others have miles of parasols, beach-side restaurants and bars to enjoy. Further afield within 40 minutes of Jurassic there are even more secluded and scenic beaches, such as those found in Kho Tao or Pranburi. From Dolphin Bay you can take a wonderful scenic boat tour around the the Sam Roi Yot National Park, which is a lot like Phuket and Krabi were 10 years ago, undeveloped, unspoilt and “off the beaten track”.
2)Take in the sights
If you get tired of catching enormous carp and Arapaima, why not head to the spectacular Mrigadayavan Palace? Being sure to take some time to stroll around the well-manicured gardens and lakes stocked with enormous fish and absorb the peaceful atmosphere.
3)Visit Buddhist Temples
Wat NeranChararam is just one of the many beautiful Buddhist temples dotted around the area and it contains a glorious statue of the six-armed Phra Pit-thawan.
4)Dine on incredible, but inexpensive, seafood
Thai cuisine is simply divine and Cha-Am and Hua-Hin have some of the best restaurants in the country. The mix of aromatic spices and flavours will tantalise the taste buds and, best of all, there is no nasty surprise when the bill comes. One of the great joys of life in Cha-Am is eating freshly caught seafood on a budget.
5)Immerse yourself in Thai culture
Although Cha-Am can seem like a home away from home with many expats, there are also the fascinating fishing villages. Traditions have hardly changed here over the centuries and it is a wonderful insight into local life to visit the fresh produce markets, or the ports where the daily harvests of fruit and vegetables or catches come in. Or perhaps a trip to the salt flats, to see how the salt is harvested from the sea, as well as the opportunity to spot some of the worlds rarest bird life.
6)Take a day trip to Bangkok
One of the great advantages Jurassic Mountain Resort & Fishing Park has over other fisheries in Thailand is Cha-Am’s superlative location. If you have flown half way across the world you hardly want a long road trip or another flight at the end of this. Instead you can be fishing or on the beach in no time at all, with the ability to head back into Thailand’s bustling capital at your leisure. Indeed most anglers visiting Jurassic will take a night or two in Asia’s most exciting capital city before taking the easy journey down to Jurassic, or bolt on a night or two in Bangkok before their departure back to Europe.
7) Visit Kaeng Krachan national park
Head here for a real feel of the Thai countryside. This is the largest national park in Thailand, and it has over 57 species of mammals and 400 species of birds, many of them brightly coloured. Jurassic has a number of eco-resorts it partners with to offer jungle stays for our guests, as well as taking in a bit of Snakehead fishing if it takes your fancy! At these resorts you can see Elephants in the wild, Hornbills in the tree tops and a multitude of other wildlife.
8) Cha-am Forest Park
If you’re not feeling so adventurous, but just want to relax amongst the shade of some large trees Cha-am Forest Park is a great introduction to Thailand’s nature, but also a fabulous family destination where you can go walking, cycling, or stop for a picnic.
9) Golf
The Hua Hin and Cha Am areas are Asia’s epicentre for golf, with some of the regions most well noted courses, designed by some of the world’s most well known golfers. With over 15 courses within a 40 minute drive from Jurassic, if you play golf you are truly spoiled for choice here.
10) Get out and about
Although Cha-am is not near to Thailand’s well known islands, its not so far from some less well known very unspoilt ones. You can get out and about with a combination of road and speed boat. Head to Koh Talu, which is just under three hours away from Hua Hin. This secluded island is a snorkeller’s paradise, you can take in secluded non commercial beaches too, such as Bang Saphan, you can even head down to the home of John Wilson M B E, Chumpon, and perhaps after a spot of fishing there take a ferry onwards to Koh Tao or Koh Samui. All in all a holiday in Cha Am means a holiday with great access to the rest of Thailand with no other flights required and no obligatory grueling road trips. So this year before you once again book up your favorite French lake, give Thailand some thought for a fishing holiday, you’ll be amazed at what it has to offer.
March Catches
March was a hectic month again here at Jurassic, and what with this being our first full season, at times we have been short staffed which has meant getting photos of our guests catches has often been sacrificed for the sake of cooking them the best Full English or Sunday Roast on the Gulf of Thailand. This was one of the reasons we introduced the idea of Photo of Month, to try and encourage all our guests to send us in copies of the very best pictures they took during their stay. In return we offer the prize of a free days fishing if we can use the photo, but last month we only had a single offer of a picture, and that was not even of a picture of a fish caught in Thailand let alone Jurassic! So once again, please send in your best pics from your stay with us, to win a free trip next time your out in Thailand or to pass onto a friend who plans to visit us.
March has been one of our busiest months since the resort was opened. Dozens of anglers have seen hundreds of fish caught. However the fish we all desperately would like to see captured again, our 150lb+ Siamese carp which we are now all ready to weigh for a potential world record remained elusive in March, although it is often seen porpoising early morning right in front of “Jamboree”. So our monster carp has settled down nicely in its new home and is simply waiting for an angler to present his bait correctly, lets see what next month brings.
Some of you that visited in March will know that Jurassic was offered another monster carp bigger by far than anything else any other fishery has to offer. Topping the scales at 130kgs+, sadly though the fish wasn’t handled so well by village nets-man upon its capture, and died shortly afterwards no doubt ending up on a fish market slab at a few hundred baht a kilo, which is a sad thought for any angler. Had it survived, we would have had the biggest carp available to catch anywhere in the world today. Without dwelling on it too much here are some of the captures enjoyed by our guests in March.
March Catch Report
When we have 7 or more anglers on the lake it is always a nerve racking time, as we know not everyone is going to get the same result. I was particularly nervous for Kallum and his friend James, as they had embarked on an impromtu road trip round from Pattaya for a single days fishing and 6 anglers where already booked in on the lake to fish on the 5th. A single day to catch your fish of lifetime could be considered a little impatient. Nonetheless Kallum jumped into Lazyman’s swim closest to the clubhouse and was rewarded early on with a 200lb Arapaima.
His friend James got the consulation prize a 50lb Siamese, so their day trip was a worthwhile exercise before lunch. These fish could of easily fallen to other anglers on the lake. One thing that is certain in fishing, you have to be “in it to win it”. So if your patience runs out easily or you get bored quickly perhaps fishing is not the past-time to be involved in. A curious fact about fishing is that 2 anglers could have exactly the same result, be it over 1 day, 1 week, or a lifetime, yet one of them would be over the moon, the other dissatisfied whether that result is 1 fish in a week, or 20 in a day. Ultimately you have to ask yourself which would you rather be?
Loz came back to Jurassic for a week and solely chased the carp. On his return he bought with him a JRC cradle and a decent weigh sling and scales. We felt Loz was doing us favour here wanting to weigh our carp, as most are not currently going to break any records, although that being said catching 5 or 6 carp in a day over 40lbs could be a lot of individual anglers records and besides we was curious to see if there had been weight gains across the board. This fish weighed in at 46lbs, and during his stay Loz caught a lot of carp of this stamp. Most fish where introduced as 30lbers, and they are all now 40lb + fish.
On average we get 60 to 70 anglers a month come fishing at Jurassic. Most of them have fished here before, and most return for good reason. For example Ian Watson, last time he visited positively bagged up on carp in the 3 days he fished landing more than he even cared to remember. This time Ian didn’t arrive at the fishery early, after all he is used to the fish coming fairly easily. He sat and drank Tea and chatted, by the time he got going it was mid morning. That didn’t stop Ian from landing 9 Siamese Carp over 40lbs the biggest being the fish above at about 60lbs, and he lost others too. Sometimes people are not lucky, sometimes there slow sessions are of their own making sometimes they are not, but even so Jurassic is quite capable of turning in double figures of carp in a day session.
Andrew Fell has fished in Thailand many times, both with Siam Fishing Tours and now later here at Jurassic. Once again Andrew was one of our earliest visitors catching loads of fish the first time he came to us. All fisheries have this honeymoon period when extraordinary results can be obtained. If a fishery goes beyond the first year or so and anglers are still catching 20 plus fish a day, it’s simply because the lake is overstocked and the fish are likely starving, which ultimately results in poor quality fish and a lack of growth. Here at Jurassic we have stocked the lake very gradually, and the moment we see any signs of a slow down in growth of our stock, we are as likely to be taking fish out as opposed to putting them in. To us there is nothing more unappealing than the prospect of catching a fish that is smaller than when it was stocked.
As March went on the Arapaima seemed to really come on the feed, with some truly enormous specimens coming out in excess of 300lbs.
Because we are short on time, our last mention has to go to Phil Brown, who commented on our Facebook page :- “Never mind the fishing just being there with Charles Bronson must’ve been cool ??” In response to the pic we posted above of Spencer being guided by who we thought was our resident Johnny Depp, but it seems in fact Lat is capable of a whole range of movie star impersonations. Look out next month for the blonde wig, white dress, and bright red lipstick!
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