Normal Service Resumes!

Apologies for the radio silence throughout most of January. Judith and I decided to escape the heavy programme of upgrades and maintenance across Cherry Lakes to take an extended holiday.

As many regular followers of this website know, I always try to ‘squeeze in’ a few days fishing into these trips. This year’s visit to Thailand has been no exception.

The net result of my ‘extensive negotiations’ was three single day trips to Top Cats, a fabulous fishery on the island of Koi Samui. Top Cats was one of the first commercial fisheries to be set up in Thailand and is run by Shaun Hodges. In my view he has done an excellent job and has produced a cracking fishery. If you like this sort of fishing, (and I clearly do!), then I would highly recommend Top Cats. Top Cats offers a range of 7 Lodges style buildings which you can rent for longer stays at the fishery as well as catering for day visitors.

I already appreciate that these personal updates are very indulgent, so i will not give you a blow by blow account. In short I had three great days catching 9 fish on each of the first two days and an amazing 16 on the final one.

My main target was Siamese Carp. Over the three days I landed around 20 of these including 3 around 70lb. I am still waiting to beat my target of 100lb for this species……which is of course why I will need to try again in the future! As you can see below Judith also had a go on the last day and caught this 45lb Siamese Carp below. She did really well given the Carp almost pulled her in and she complained about a sore arm for days.

On day 2, unusually I decided I would fish for the predator fish using dead baits (rather than my normal two rods for the Carp) and I am glad I did. As you can see below I managed to catch a new PB Arapaima of 200lb+. This fish is both odd and beautiful to look at and from the picture it is hard to guage its real size. It was nearly a foot wide at it’s shoulders. I did not ask the guides to wear their scarves across their faces (they look more like ‘bandits’). They evidently do this to keep the sun off their faces!!

I also managed to catch two Amazon Red Tail Catfish of around 70lb, also PB’s for this species. I have included the pick of the photos below.

We have returned to some cold weather. Whilst this will inevitably slow the fishing down for a week or so, It is really noticeable to us how much more daylight there is now. As soon a s the weather improves, with the increasing light intensity, the Carp will start to feed and get caught. I look forward to reporting on some great catches ahead.

We are taking a steady stream of bookings for the warmer months, so if you are planning a trip please book as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. We have plenty of spare Lodge dates available over the next couple of months. So if you fancy a late break please give us a call on 01285 869887