Newsletter June 2018

Welcome to our latest newsletter where you’ll find what’s been happening at Jurassic in June!

“Waking up to this certainly beats going to work” Fishing Thailand.

What a view to wake up to here at Jurassic Mountain Fishing Resort – this photo was taken by a recent guest as he stood on the veranda overlooking the lake. His comment above sums up the reaction of the majority of our visitors as they prepare to fish the lake each morning.

We’ve had some varied weather this month – it’s been hot from early, 8am, and the mercury has gradually risen until, in the afternoon, the clouds start to build culminating in some heavy showers or spectacular thunderstorms. Average temperatures have been mid 30s during the day and late 20s in the evening – but don’t worry all our rooms have air conditioning so you get a good night’s sleep, fresh for the next day fishing.

The Jurassic Dream Team

Keeping Jurassic Resort running smoothly and seamlessly for all our guests takes a dedicated team of professionals all of whom are managed by our resort manager Piak .

Our exceptional team consists of back row (l-r) Oi – bar staff – , Gift – cook, Bird –head chef, Piak – general manager;
front row (l-r) Su – Senior Customer Service Representative, May & Som, O – receptionists and waitresses, Yai – cleaner and Meaun our maintenance chief.

This team is ably backed up by a team of gardeners, security, pump attendants all striving to make Jurassic into the fishing paradise it is today.

This is in addition to Tom Broomhead, fishery manager, and his team of gillies working around the lake, assisting our guests with their fishing.

Should you have any questions/queries during your stay please ask our staff who will be more than happy to help you.

Third Time Lucky for Sam!

Sam, from Singapore, has visited Jurassic twice before and despite several setbacks was determined to catch an arapaima on this his third visit to Jurassic. His first trip saw him lose an arapaima, estimated at around 350lb, less than a metre from the cage after a hard fought battle. His second visit saw him fighting another arapaima, estimated around 200lb, for over an hour from swim 16 before it gave him the slip – that day saw him lose 4 others so the lake certainly owed him!

It was third time lucky for Sam as he finally landed that elusive arapaima and to say it meant a lot to him would be a major understatement.

Well done Sam – just goes to prove that you should never give up!

An Interesting Question…

We recently had an email and query about the arapaima photos we put on our Facebook page. The question was why we had Tom, our fishery manager, in every photo with an arapaima and why was he always at the head end making it look like he was catching them all the time. The email went on the say that we should consider why we do this as we have guests who catch their fish of a lifetime only to have a photo on their wall at home with Tom looking like he’d caught it!!

The safety of our guests is our number one priority and there is a very serious reason for handling the arapaima as we do:
Arapaima are a very dangerous fish to handle, and without prior training and education on how to handle them they will almost certainly injure the majority of anglers who hold the head end for photos. Some serious injuries can result such as concussion, broken nose or broken teeth. We have to think about the safety of fish too as this is very important to us as well – arapaima can very easily injure themselves and even possibly die if they are mishandled.

We have thought a lot about how to assist with better photos and thought that we could perhaps have our staff member, who is assisting at the head end, wear a peaked cap and look down, rather than at the camera, thus meaning that you couldn’t see his face. The focus then would be on the angler who did catch the fish and not our gillie, whilst doing our best for the safety of both our guest and the fish. Below are examples of photos of both poses – would be great to know what our readers think.

If you have any questions at all about how we fish or the resort itself please contact enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com

June on the Lake
This month has again seen a combination of returning guests and first timers to Jurassic and Thailand. Here are a few of our guests stories:

Arran and his dad Bob from Burton on Trent were first timers not only to Jurassic but also the Land of Smiles. Each year they try to spend a week or two at fisheries around the Norfolk area but this year, as it was Arran’s 21^st, they decided to venture somewhere completely new! They booked for 4 days fishing and were very keen to observe the fish throughout the day and study their behavior. This allowed them to formulate a plan for each swim they chose and resulted in a lot of takes for them. Arran landed an arapaima early on in their trip which was a great 21^st birthday present for him and proved that their approach worked.
Having both had some good fish during their first 3 days they decided to fish together on their last, trying a heavy baiting approach whilst taking care to ensure it was accurate. With time running out a steady take resulted in a slow moving fish that headed out into the open water and after a cracking fight a specimen Siamese graced the net. A 21st birthday to remember!

Hooking an arapaima is one thing but getting one to the net is not a done deal as they have a habit of dislodging it, this is due to their bony mouth and violent headshake. Wietse had been watching them roll and breathe air in the open water but bided his time perfecting a bucket of chopped fish and pellet which was left to sit in the sun for a few hours. He put the smelly mixture along the left margin with a fresh rig and half a dead bait, sunk the mainline and fished it semi slack to avoid arousing the fish’s suspicions. Almost immediately the water boiled as an arapaima caught the scent – the line twitched and it was game on!

Another newcomer to the Thai fishing scene was Greg from Kent, spending 3 days fishing whilst enjoying the resort with close friends and family. Having netted a number of fish during his time with us and with only a few hours left the fishing gods favoured him with a substantial 100lb+ carp.

Gary had never landed a catfish in the UK before and had set his sights upon an Amazon redtail immediately setting to work with a pellet rod at 15-20 metres and dead bait in the margin. A few pouches of pellet and fresh hookbaits and the left rod sprung into life – not the redtail he was after but a jet black Siamese carp! You’ll be pleased to know that Gary did get his redtail and was surprised how hard they fight given their size. Well Gary was on a roll ticking off a number of species within a short space of time – next one off the list was a beautiful coloured arapaima. Having worked on the pellet for most of the day whilst trickling a few fish along the left margin only metres from the bank he’d stood watching the water when he noticed a trail of bubbles as an arapaima exhaled, making his presence known. Wasting no time at all he positioned a predator rig and sat back waiting for the trap to spring.

Andrew from Milton Keynes is an all round angler and has competed in a lot of matches in his local area whilst also finding time to fish for salmon with his father on various UK rivers. Cutting down on the number of matches he got involved in he started to target tench and carp from larger gravel pits and the search continued with Andrew and his friend Paul’s second trip to Thailand. They were fishing opposite each other when they simultaneously both hooked into arapaima. With the two fish taking line it was a tense time as they both tried to guide their fish away from the other – alas to no avail as they both ended up snagged in the same place. A few minutes passed with two nervous anglers whilst the gillies worked their magic and then battle recommenced. Andrew’s fish was slipped into the cage and he looked across at Paul who was within touching distance of his arapaima. Then disaster struck – the hooked pulled and all that Paul had was his frustration that the arapaima had given him the slip! Despite this Paul was very pleased for his friend and was the first to congratulate him.

Good friends Matt and Bill were on a return trip to Jurassic. Working in environmental waste meant that he wasn’t offended by the smell of a few chopped fish baking in the sun as he pre-baited along the margins hoping an arapaima would pick up the scent trail. The pellet rod started twitching and Matt was happy to be photographed with his first tambaqui. The trip was full of banter between the two friends and on their final day Matt collected his rods from the rack and made his way down to the lake hooking and landing an arapaima on his first cast. With the fish safely photographed and returned he turned his attention to the pellet and further success ensued leading to a great finale to his trip.

After a successful day trip a while ago Dan and his dad Anthony decided to return to Jurassic for a 10 day stay with the aim of relaxing and unwinding from the rat race and hopefully catching some special fish. Working together as a team they landed something truly special, a stunning arapaima, and most importantly made some great memories.

Spending 5 days in Swim 1 allowed Kevin to fully learn about the depths, contours and the different areas that the fish liked to frequent. Targeting different species throughout the day and using his newly acquired knowledge saw him net 2 arapaimas (sadly losing more than he landed which seemed to be a theme this month), 100lb+ Siamese carp and some fair sized Amazon redtails.

Australian visitors Mr Maddams and his wife came to Jurassic for a day trip whilst touring around Thailand. After a relatively quiet morning the tilapia moved in along the edges and the dead baits were stripped so he pushed the rods into deeper water and in 2 casts landed 2 tambaqui.

Darren and his son came from Kent to enjoy 5 days at the resort before exploring other parts of Thailand. There was definitely some friendly rivalry between father and son but each was pleased for the other when they caught! Working as a team both were happy when Darren hooked a very impressive Siamese.

Anthony is a regular visitor to Jurassic and is always keen to try different methods to lure the fish in. This time he devoted some time to the pellet waggler and managed a good sized pacu but in the heat of the midday sun he switched back to the bottom and ended with a total of 5 fish for the day. The next few days saw him using the lum float feeder and landing over 30 fish.

A recommendation from close friend and previous Jurassic guest Chris Woodrow saw Tom booking a flight for an 8 day stay. Keen to land a bigger carp than his friend Tom kept things simple with an 8 inch standard hair rig and a single pellet; his accurate baiting approach kept the carp interested. After catching his first fish he was delighted with the sheer size of it and was quick to message Chris to let him know! Pressure off, time to relax…maybe.

John joined previous guests Stuart and his son Freddy for their second trip to Jurassic. Fishing regularly together the 3 of them along with Jon booked in for a week’s stay. Primarily a sea angler John enjoys fishing out of Dover on his boat hunting for new species and was slightly apprehensive when Stuart first floated the idea of the trip to Thailand. Needless to say with some great fish caught, including arapaima, he’s already contemplating a return trip.

First time visitor to Thailand Rog, who was accompanied by his wife Ange, joined us for a 10 day trip, fishing for 6 of them and spending the other days visiting the local attractions. Although Rog was an experienced angler, having started fishing at a very young age, the style of fishing at Jurassic and the size of the fish was a world away from what he was used to! Averaging 5+ fish every day he was delighted to catch some very good sized Siamese carp.

If we haven’t included you in our round-up and you would like to share your experience of fishing/staying at Jurassic please email enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com

Freddy Rules

A special mention has to made this month of young Freddy. June saw Freddy and dad Stuart’s second trip to Jurassic and this time they were accompanied by mum Sally and friends John and Jon. Last year Freddy surprised us all with his competence as an angler landing 80lb fish completely unaided. His dad Stuart has to take credit for his son’s prowess with a rod as he takes him fishing whenever possible and they can often be found boat fishing for bass or flying to exotic places in search of new species.

This year saw Freddy catch his biggest Amazon redtail, only receiving help for the photos, and his first ever arapaima! Great fishing Freddy – hope to see you again next year!

Stuart had booked a place in our carp competition so was staying on for an extra week and Freddy managed to persuade both him and Sally that it would be a good idea for him to stay as well. He wasn’t allowed to fish but encouraged his dad from the sidelines.

We have special deals for fathers who wish to bring their sons (14 years and under) on a fishing trip – email us on enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com for more details.

The Jurassic Mountain Tackle Shop

There are always new products in the Jurassic Mountain Tackle Shop. Whether you simply need a few fresh rigs or want to buy the components to tie your own we have just what you need. There is also a vast range of different flavourings to add to hookbaits and additives for your lum fishing – all designed to give you that extra edge. From paste to pellets, floats to feeder, PVA stockings to bags there is something to meet everyone’s angling needs and to help you in your quest for that monster fish.

The Amazon Redtail Catfish
Normally the three most wanted fish by our guests are the arapaima, the Siamese carp and the Amazon redtail catfish – the order varies but rarely does the list change.

Originating in the Amazon, hence the name, these fish can grow to 60 inches and over 100lbs with the current IGFA record standing at 113lbs 9ozs. They are extremely powerful fighters and known for their sustained, line-peeling initial run. Their unique markings, bright coloration and broad dome-shaped head makes them easily identifiable and their voracious appetites make them relatively easy for anglers to engage with.

Jurassic has a large number of redtails varying in size but all waiting to give you a fight to remember!

June’s Video Round-Up

Greg lands his first carp https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1690821801013827/

Gary’s arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1690829314346409/

Sam from Singapore https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1698190323610308/

Mr Maddams & 2 tambaqui https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1705613009534706/

Wietse lands his 1st arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1705784369517570/

If you would like to submit an article for inclusion in a future newsletter please send it to enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com

TIGHT LINES, SEE YOU ALL ON HERE NEXT MONTH.

Jurassic Mountain Fishing Resort
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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