Newsletter November 2016

Catches, entertainment and news from Thailand’s only exclusive syndicated sport-fishing venue

Welcome once again to the Jurassic Mountain newsletter that gives you all the news, gossip, catch reports and light hearted anglers antics that relates to this Thailand fishing paradise for the month of November. A big thanks to all the new faces and returning guests who succumbed to the gravitational pull of our ‘extreme fishing gem.’ It was our pleasure indeed to welcome you all to Jurassic Mountain Resort and Fishing Park.

And so into November…… I particularly looked forward to November knowing that amongst the horde of anglers descending into Jurassic Mountain, it would include my son Jimmy on his annual excursion to check up on his dad’s well being. Jimmy, along with all other returning guests will not fail to be amazed at the continuous improvements and additions that have taken place since their last visit and all credit must go to the team here who are striving for nothing short of perfection on both inside and outside of the lake.

This month our fish stocking programme included another wallagoo catfish at sixty odd pounds and several arapaima One Hundred and Fifty plus which were only too pleased to be released from the confines of the stock ponds to be able to mingle with their bigger cousins. Also introduced were five cracking Pacu with the largest of the five tipping the scales at an incredible 39 pounds, just 5 pounds short of the current world record standing at 44 pounds. You never know, by the time he’s gorged himself on the never ending supply of food that goes into the lake, it could well be you who cradles this beautiful fish and whose weight may well have rocketed to well in excess of the current record.

November saw the supermoon, the biggest, brightest moon possible as planet earth’s orbit took it as close to the moon as it had been for 69 years. Unfortunately, I believe the view of this spectacular event was marred for most of you by a cloudy sky over the UK (nothing new there then) but not so here in Thailand I’m pleased to say. So for all of you who were sitting under that almost permanent cloud blanket wondering what you’d missed, I can describe it for you that in a cloudless clear midnight blue sky, the moon rose up like a large silver orb that illuminated the lake as bright as I’d ever seen it and it was a truly spectacular sight indeed. Well, that’s how I thought you’d like to hear it described but in reality, with the moon being some ten percent or so larger than normal but actually not a lot larger to the naked eye, it didn’t really seem too much difference to me from any other full moon. This, I’m afraid could well be attributed to the fact that by this time of night, I’m usually lucky to be seeing anything anyway or at the very best seeing double so, for all those eagle eyed aspiring astronomers who sat cursing under those clouds, my view was that you didn’t miss too much at all. In fact, I think the whole thing was well over hyped. Put it this way, would you call a 16 inch pizza a super pizza compared to a 15 inch? But hey, don’t just take my word for it. If you want to see for yourself, the next time this event takes place will be in 2034 so if you would like to ensure that you get a good view, get yourself over to Thailand. I don’t suppose for one minute that I’ll be here myself…….. but I’ll give it my best shot.

Regular readers of the Jurassic Mountain newsletter will recall the two guys who made boilies out of their late mate’s ashes, named them purple Ronnie’s and caught a monster carp here with them. Well, this story about Ronnie not only went viral worldwide, there’s also been a song written about it too. Go on You Tube and look for Purple Ronnie by Bryn Phillips. What a fabulous dedication to the memory of your best mate. Supermoon? If Ronnie was watching from afar, he would’ve surely been over it !

Before I go any further with this newsletter. I, along with all at Jurassic Mountain wish to express our sympathies to all the people of New Zealand’s south island and our thoughts are with you regarding the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that very unfortunately hit this month. These thoughts are especially directed to our friend and regular visitor to Jurassic Mountain, Mark Green from Kaikoura. Mark’s occupation and passion is centred around the New Zealand beaches and he is especially involved with the aquatic and marine life scene on the South Island and with Kaikoura being at the epicentre of the quake, we truly hope that whatever damage you’ve suffered is minimal and that you will recover from this disaster and restore Kaikoura back once again to one of the most beautiful places on Earth that it truly is. To give you some idea of the immense power of this quake, the seabed was actually lifted a full 2 metres and broke through the surface of the sea. Such is the power of mother nature.

To those of you who were familiar with Tiger, our resort cat, you may recall the story a couple of months back when she found her way home after taking an unscheduled ride on top of a taxi. Well, I’m sad to report that once again Tiger has gone for a free ride and as it’s been over four weeks since she went awol, it’s pretty safe to assume that this particular journey was way past her cat compass capabilities. However, as I was wandering around Cha-am’s famous weekly night market and with the missing Tiger still weighing heavily on my mind because I didn’t have the brains to put a name tag on her collar, I came across a stall that had a cage full of kittens, one of them being a white fluffy persian no bigger than my hand. I couldn’t resist him, meet Leo, the new resort cat……. Complete with name tag.

Right, let’s now take a light hearted look at some of the antics and a selection of some of the anglers who graced Jurassic Mountain for the month of November. My apologies are extended to those who visited us and who didn’t get a mention, it’s nothing personal, there’s just far too many of you for me to keep up with. Here goes ….

The main newsletter photo depicting our “Angler of the month’ is of George from Westgate-on-Sea in Kent. I have decided to nominate one angler every month for this prestigious title and this month’s lucky angler is George. How does one get to be nominated as angler of the month I hear you ask? Easy answer to that one readers…… there are two rules applicable, number one being the most important rule is dependant on the amount of drinks sent my way in The Anglers Rest and number two, although not quite as important but it does tend to help…….. You have to catch a bloody fish.

George has been in Thailand now for a few months and not only was it good to see George tick the arapaima off of his wishlist with a 200 pound plus beauty, George then ventured out onto the lake for a pre-booked night fishing session and was rewarded with a fabulous Siamese of over 100 pounds. He reckons he also lost one that was well over the 150 but I’ll reserve judgement on that one because as the old saying goes…. Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.

You can definitely tell when the weather in Europe takes a turn for the worse because not only do we get anglers booking in their droves, we get the actual owners of the fisheries jumping ship and turning up as well. For instance this month we welcomed Mike Kirsch of www.cherrylakes.co.uk Simon Littmoden of French venue www.facebook.com/Moulin-de-Passais and returning French fishery owner, Graham Wall www.facebook.com/Etand-des-deux-pierres-carp-fishing-holidays It was good to have them here and no doubt especially good for them to be here because they all enjoyed great sport as they landed some great catches between them. A special mention for Graham who obviously knows the ropes having fished here previously because on his first day he managed to land 16 fish consisting of Siamese carp, Amazon redtails and a fine Niger ripsaw thrown in for good measure too.

November the 1st saw Dutchman Willem beat his personal best Siamese carp being just over the 80 pound mark. A couple of days later Willem managed to bank an even larger fish of some 110 pounds out of swim 2 known as Jamboree and It provided Willem with a great fight that lasted around 45 minutes. Fantastic angling yeah? Hold onto your hats…… It got better! A couple of hours later and he was in again to another cracking carp that he eventually got to the net and at 120 odd pounds, not only ensured that he caught his lifetimes best fish but also ensured that a return visit for himself and his pal Reiner was nothing more than a foregone conclusion.

Steve from Cheshire had a three day stint culminating in landing almost forty fish. His best day was his second day where he landed 18 fish including a beauty of a Siamese that went just over 80 pounds.

My son Jimmy with pals Ben and Robin arrived for their annual pilgrimage to Jurassic Mountain. Well, Jimmy’s pilgrimage is annual, the other two are restricted by the wives to every other year…… but they’re working on it. During the time that they weren’t propping up the bar in the Anglers Rest,, I managed to get them into the fishing where,after their six day stint which included incessant ground baiting, a total of 73 fish were landed between them. All good things come to those who bait springs to mind. Included in their haul was a ninety pound Chao phraya and a 200 pound plus arapaima for Jimmy, a fully deserved 120 pound Chao phraya for Ben who spent the whole day on the waggler finally nailing the cracking catfish just before dusk and a beauty of a Siamese carp around 110 pounds that Jimmy hooked into but relinquished the rod to Ben due to a bout of sunstroke. Unfortunately for Robin, the biggest thing he caught that was worth mentioning in his first couple of days…… was a suntan. It was good to see my son Jimmy again and suffice to say, we had many a moment against the bar sharing stories and memories sometimes until the early hours. It was at the end of one particularly heavy session that I decided to take a shortcut across the four stepping stones that bridge the stock pond stream. Unfortunately, as I arrived at the said shortcut and being well oiled, the four stepping stones had now became eight……. and they were moving. I safely negotiated the first stone but then it all went pear shaped. The remaining stones were now moving from side to side at a rate of knots and I had to decide which one was the stone and which one was just a figment of my alcohol fueled imagination. I chose wrong. As I nose dived headfirst into the drink after attempting to walk on water, I smashed into the rockery and it was akin to being hit by a truck . I deeply regretted having those last few for the road and I spent the next day not only nursing a hangover but nursing major cuts and bruises too. This proves that getting smashed in the Anglers Rest and then getting smashed on the rocks after negotiating the stepping stones is not a good idea at all so one of them will have to be sacrificed. That is why I’ll be taking the conventional route home from the bar in future.

November the fifth arrived with not a firework in sight. Mind you, there were some fireworks going off around the lake with a good few crackers landed especially for Thailand based Steve who effectively lit the blue touchpaper when he casted out his double pellet and maybe he should have stood well clear too because a monster carp grabbed the pellet and proceeded to give Steve a right going over. The carp took off like that special rocket that we always saved until last on Guy Fawkes night and we were treated to a sparkling display of a different kind as Steve pitted his wits against the will of the carp until eventually overcoming the 180 pound beauty after a titanic 45 minute tussle.

The perfect spot to view the lake is from one of the sala’s known as ‘The twins’ especially on a calm misty morning just prior to the commencement of angling for the day. The sight of the predators chasing and feeding on a shoal of baitfish only adds fuel to the fire of expectations of those who are about to embark on their Jurassic journey.

Bill and Sue are new to the Thailand scene and they couldn’t wait to leave Melton Mowbray to begin their Jurassic Mountain experience. Arriving with pals Dave and Sharon, Bill and Sue managed to land a very satisfactory 25 fish between them during their 3 day stint with Siamese carp and Amazon redtails coming to the net up to 50 and 40 pounds respectively. It was on Bill’s final day that he hooked into his lifetime’s best carp when he fought and landed the much sought after triple figure Siamese which ensured that Bill and Sue’s trip will remain long in their memory for many years to come.

We take pride in providing anglers with comfortable salas complete with fans and power points. You can enjoy your angling experience in comfort while our ever willing staff will bring you food and beverages at your request. Situated on the far western corner of the lake out of sight of prying eyes is the very aptly named swim known as ‘Lover’s Retreat.’ The perfect spot for those with ‘do not disturb’ in mind.

Spare a thought for Harry (above), our Prince William lookalike who booked a five day stint and caught everything apart from the fish he really wanted…… the Arapaima. Nearing the end of his visit he drew peg one for his day’s sport but relinquished it in favour of swim 16 directly opposite. Enter first time visitor to Jurassic Mountain and in fact first time visitor to Thailand, Bas from Holland who jumped into swim one and made it a ‘first five timer’ because on his very first cast within the very first minute he hooked into and eventually landed his very first arapaima around the 260 pound mark after a gruelling one hour scrap. Poor Harry standing opposite was aghast and even though he managed to hook into an arapaima of his own before losing it to a hook pull, he was the first to congratulate Bas on catching his fish of a lifetime and that readers, for me, sums up fishing in a nutshell.

Finally, I’d like to give a mention to all the newlyweds who’ve chosen Jurassic Mountain as their honeymoon destination and we hope that we can provide you with some wonderful moments to add to the memories of your wedding day which is widely perceived to be the happiest day of our lives. On that note I’d like to share with you the happiest day of mine ……..

One final word regarding Ben who fished here with my son Jimmy this month. Ben was very fortunate to witness a confrontation between a monitor lizard and a snake just a few metres from where he was fishing in peg three known as Mountain View. The monitor lizard had been busy occupying himself by pilfering the pilchards from Ben’s bait bucket when the snake decided to get in on the action. What followed was a spectacle that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Discovery channel. A full blown scrap took place that sent Ben hurrying for his mobile phone where he stood and filmed the action for a full couple of minutes. “This’ll look great on You Tube” thought Ben as he filmed away trying hard to steady his shaking hand because the action was that intense. Finally the snake decided that the monitor was a wee bit too big for him to handle and slithered off into the undergrowth to find something more suitable to wrap himself around and Ben couldn’t wait to view the video that he’d just recorded. Unfortunately, in his excitement to film the best thing since Godzilla versus anaconda, Ben had pressed the start button twice which meant his video was a mere one second long and he’d been stood there for two minutes filming sod all. Nice one Ben !

So as November slipped away into Jurassic Mountain history, I looked forward to next month and all the new and old faces that it would inevitably bring. I hope this newsletter tempts you to sample the delights that Jurassic Mountain has to offer and hopefully we’ll have the pleasure of your company in the future where you will have the opportunity to realise your dreams and maybe just catch the fish of your lifetime. However, in the event that the fishing gods decree that the monster fish lurking in the murky depths eludes you on the day, at least you’ll return home safe in the knowledge that you’ve just fished at the closest place resembling paradise that you could ever imagine possible.

Tight lines all, see you on here next month.