Newsletter March 2019

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

Welcome to Jurassic Mountain Resort. Fishing Thailand

We’re a quarter of the way through 2019 already and what a start to the year it’s been and with a change from our normal ‘front page’ we wanted to highlight the success of our stocking programme here at Jurassic and celebrate recent visitor Jiri’s awesome capture.

The Rita Salween catfish is rarely seen in central Thailand as it is a natural inhabitant of the Salween river basin north of Chiang Mai and Myanmar where is is a highly prized food fish. Because of this it is a species that is hard to obtain for sport fishing but here at Jurassic, having decided to focus our efforts on some new species, it’s part of our ongoing stocking programme. To date we have stocked a number of fish including several large specimens and their growth has, to say the least, been very impressive. They are quite elusive fish to catch and on his visit this month Jiri caught a very special one!

Jiri’s trip was coming to an end when he hooked into what he initially thought was a large Siamese carp; the reason for this was that the fish had remained deep since the start of the dogged fight and quite simply refused to come to heel despite constant pressure. However when his fish surfaced and was slipped into the net everyone realised what a special catch it was and all the fishery staff looked on in awe. This Rita Salween catfish was initially stocked at exactly 100lb and had evaded capture for over a year – it had since piled on the pounds and was in pristine condition. We relayed to Jiri the significance of his capture – this was the largest Rita Salween landed to date at 115lb, was possibly the largest in a fishery and was almost double the current declared world record. Amazing fishing Jiri – well done! More news on our stocking programme later on…

Quick update on the lake.

As the wind has calmed down this month and changed direction (sometimes it has felt like it’s done this on an hourly basis) the water temperature has risen and the lake has slowed down on the bottom. This has led to improved catch rates up in the water with the pellet waggler producing takes very quickly, sometimes in just a few seconds. PVA bags using tuna glug and sugar cane extract have improved catch rates significantly when things have slowed slightly and anglers that have used them have reported a noticeable effect.

Jurassic Monster Bait

Like most of our Jurassic Monster Bait products the liquid attractor additives are incredibly versatile and easy to use. Our Asian Additive Matrix is currently in development with new ingredients and flavours being added every month. Whether you’re glugging boilies, tweaking groundbait or boosting spod and pellet mixes these products will give you an edge, whether you’re here at Jurassic or even fishing waters back home.

Claudia Darga’s Hosted Trip

Well-known German angler Claudia hosted a 10 day trip for anglers from around Europe to allow them to experience Thai fishing at its best here at Jurassic. Whilst the majority of the trip was centred on the fishing some down-time was incorporated into the itinerary so, amongst other activities, a visit to the beach could take place. Claudia also arranged a live band to visit the resort and meals out in the local town.

After a very busy but memorable time fishing the group spent their last day relaxing in and around the pool before it was time to pack their bags and head home.

A look back at who’s visited in March

Lots of fish, lots of guests – here’s a look back over the month.

Jakob had a great visit, catching a number of superb specimens and he’s pictured here with his largest Amazon Redtail catfish at just under 70lb. It stripped line from the spool as it surged along the left margin deep into the water hyacinth and certainly gave Jakob a fight to remember.

Although most anglers book well in advance to ensure they can get a slot the lake it is sometimes possible to get a short notice booking so if you’re in Thailand and fancy a day’s fishing it’s always a good idea to give us a call as we might just have a space! This is what Bass did and a few days after that initial contact he was in his swim playing the first fish of the morning and it certainly put his previous carp angling experience to the test. He also left an awesome comment on our facebook page: ‘Just a day indeed, but more than enough to experience the beautiful lake, the amazing fish, the best crew and fantastic hospitality.’ Thanks Bass – hope to see you on the lake again in the future.

Regular Jurassic visitor Chris finally caught a well-behaved alligator gar – he’s had them on previous visits but they’ve never before posed happily for the camera. This one was tempted on half a dead bait in the margin. Although he was pleased with the gar he was really after an arapaima so he worked the left hand margin of his swim with a steady trickle of mashed fish and pellet; he also set up the right rod to target the Siamese during the heat of the day as it doesn’t hurt to keep your options open. With the sun at its highest the right hand rod suddenly went off, only moments after a recast, and to Chris’ surprise and delight an arapaima surfaced on the pellet!

Kai successfully landed a variety of different species and during his stay maintained a prolific catch rate, however there was one species that continually eluded him – the mighty arapaima. During his trip he hooked no less than 10 of the beasts with 2 of them actually making the net before bolting and shedding the hook. With only 3 minutes of his trip remaining he finally claimed his prize, tempting it with half a mackerel dead bait over a bed of pellet. There was a palpable sigh on relief from Kai as the photos were taken – he certainly ended his trip on a high!

Robert’s trip was a serious contrast to his carp angling at home where he fishes on the pole. For the first few days he listened to the advice and guidance from our fishery team, eager to learn and keen to refine his technique and hone his skills. Putting his newly acquired knowledge into practise he trimmed down a Jurassic Classic boilie to balance a pop up snowman style and hooked into this absolute powerhouse of a Siamese carp weighing in excess of 100lb. Carp fishing at home will never seem quite the same again.

Josh’s two day trip was nearly over but the lake still had one last present for him. With his last cast he produced this colourful tambaqui on a balanced boilie approach smothered in tuna extract placed on the bottom out in open water.

Since the start of the day Michael had been baiting the left hand margin of his swim with chopped fish, chicken hearts and pellets and despite only a dropped take to show for his hard work he remained patient and stuck to his plan. Early in the afternoon the rod tip started to bounce so he felt the line by hand and picked his moment to set the hook. The reason behind such a strange bite? All became clear as an alligator gar came to the surface after falling for half a fresh fish. Another day, another swim and another take. Unsure again as to what species he had, it wasn’t apparent until a well positioned net brought her to the surface. It was one of the larger Rita Salween catfish which had been tempted on 4 drilled pellet. The specimen was weighed and tipped the scales at 75.5lb making Michael one very happy angler.

Below are pictures of our other guests with their captures…

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

Tarpon at Jurassic!

We’ve had tarpon in our stock ponds for the last few years and when we recently drained them to assess the species’ progress we were very pleasantly surprised! They are coming along nicely! More good news is that the juvenile arapaima are still thriving and some have already reached 3kg in weight! Also included in our current stocking programme are pacu, Amazon redtails, Siamese carp, more arapaima and sorubim catfish – the future’s certainly looking good for Jurassic and its anglers.

We were at The Big One in Farnborough
Were you? If so hopefully you visited Martin Bowler and learnt more about a trip to Jurassic and the fishing that’s on offer. You might also have been one of the many people who booked a trip and took advantage of the amazing 10% discount that was on offer. To those of you that did book, whether you’re a new visitor to our lake or a returning one, we look forward to seeing you in the near future.

Martin Bowler fishes with Dave Wilson

This is a reproduction of an article that was first published in Angling Times and recounts Martin’s recent day spent fishing with Dave at Jurassic.

It was always going to be emotional fishing with Dave Wilson for the first time since his brother John had passed away. The lump in my throat only grew bigger knowing that here at Jurassic in Thailand was the last place John and I had shared an angling adventure. A warm hug was enough for now because words would have been too painful a way for Dave and I to start the day.

The Wilson brothers share an incredible passion for angling and it could be argued that Dave is the more excitable. The dawn of every new fishing trip in Thailand sees his 70 years disappear and he becomes a kid again and today was no different. With the voice and many of the same mannerisms I felt very quickly that John had joined us, reinforced further by both of us using his tackle in celebration of the great man’s life. Dave was keen to make a cast with it and with a lake full of huge fish just waiting to entertain us so why wouldn’t he be?

A beautiful bright tambaqui was first to test John’s rod as I tried to subdue its strong runs and vicious headshakes. Shaped like a piranha but with very human like teeth it had crushed a boilies and sucked it in. Sharing a swim Dave was on hand to celebrate with me as now the strong Thai sun illuminated the wonderful vivid flank of a lovely fish. We were underway before breakfast had arrived and there was a much more special moment to come before I tucked into bacon and eggs. Rooting through his bag Dave handed over a small black case and said John would have wanted me to have it. I could guess by the Abu logo what it was but as I pulled the zip round I still became emotional looking at John’s favourite reel; an Ambassador multiplier that had served him so well from mahseer to stingrays. I touched the braid on the spool and was taken back to the previous year when he pulled my leg about using a fixed spool for tropical species. ‘Only a real angler used a multiplier,’ I could hear him saying accompanied by a roar of laughter. One of my final memories and now I was the guardian of the very same reel. How couldn’t I have a lump in my throat whilst eating breakfast? I thanked Dave for the lovely gesture and listened to more tales of when the Ambassador had been tested.

To be honest if my day had ended there it would have been special but Dave was desperate to get his rod bent and was grinning like a Cheshire cat as a red tailed catfish stripped braid off his spool. His excitement wasn’t through a new experience as in fact there are few UK anglers who have caught more Thai fish than Dave, being a long term resident and fishery manager at Greenfield valley in Hua Hin. Instead like I mentioned earlier it was simply a huge passion for angling! No sooner had the catfish been photographed than Dave was mixing up a bowl of rice bran at a rate of knots splashing the groundbait, but what was he up to now?

As UK anglers it’s easy to believe that there’s little we can learn from the rest of the world. This attitude however is both arrogant and foolish in equal measure, as a Thai angler would, in most cases, thrash a foreign fisherman on home soil. They have learnt that many of their species, especially carp, are filter feeders, and while they will, if hungry, pick up a boilies or pellet they’re far more included to feed mid water sucking in particles. Dave’s rice bran/lum groundbait was the perfect Thai tactic for this. A slim inline pike float and stop knot would mean all the water column could be investigated by setting various depths while an unweighted cage feeder would carry the powdery mix with its semi dry consistency key to success. A fish would quite literally hit the ball releasing particles, which would be gleefully hoovered up.

To catch, Dave constructed a hooklength no longer than a lighter with a size 2 hook tied on the end. To critically balance the metal work a single piece of fake corn was nicked on which in turn would, hopefully, be sucked up in the melee. The trick then would be to recast every minute or so which Dave duly did until the frenzy built and the orange tip of the float plunged under. Being an expert it didn’t; take long before he was doing battle with a string of big Indian carp. I was more than happy to watch but every half hour I would creep off around the corner and bait the margin with chicken carcass in the hope of a repeat of 6 months ago. It was in this bay that I had watched John land an arapaima and I hoped this feat could be repeated by either my son Ryan or Dave.

When the bewitching hour at last came I was confident with at least 3 arapaima rolling Loch Ness monster style only feet from the bank. I watched carefully as the water then become displaced by the giant tails as the chicken was devoured. Each angler crept into opposite corners and lowered in a chunk of meat. I sat with Ryan, who had never caught one before, and watched as quickly the braid ticked off the spool. At the moment he struck I saw Dave do the same and amazingly 2 huge vortexes appeared as a brace of arapaima were hooked. Alas Ryan only found an anchor in the bony mouth for 10 seconds before the beast was lost but at least we had the joy of watching Dave’s battle. Being a veteran he was wise to this incredible fish’s guile preventing it from going airborne. Despite this the fight was far from easy and like on so many occasions with John I enjoyed winding Dave up while he was being tested. ‘It’s only small,’ I kept repeating prompting Dave to take the bait and declare it was at least 200lbs – which to be fair it was!

In the exact same spot and the same species my final angling moments with John were copied to a ‘T’ and when we finally laughed and lifted the arapaima for the camera I was certain John was chuckling alongside us. He would have loved every moment and it was great to have spent a day with him through his tackle.

John Wilson Memorial Service

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For those of you who live in the UK and would like to pay their respects – John’s memorial service will take place at 2pm on Friday 24th May inside Norwich Cathedral.

This invitation is open to everyone in the angling community who wishes to celebrate his life.

March Videos

Mark – Chao Phraya https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/350579632221972

David’s first tambaqui https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/2051113171856119

Phil – Siamese carp https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/2476458715709263

Richard – arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/308568133193678

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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