Newsletter July 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 July. 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.

At very long last the Thailand rainy season was upon us and what a welcome relief it was to have the occasional cloudburst after enduring all those months of heat without so much as a cloud let alone a downpour. If you’re considering visiting Thailand between the months of June and September, past experience has shown these months to produce increased catch results and please don’t be put off by the term ‘rainy season’ either. For my money it’s a great time to visit Thailand and you can bet your last pound note that it will still be far far better than what any typical English summer has to offer. Take for example my trip to the UK last month which is often referred to as ‘flaming June.’ Well, as most of you’ll know, flaming June it wasn’t, It was flaming awful. It rained on a daily basis and for me, the whole place was best described as grim. It’s no wonder people were wearing expressions of impending doom as well as raincoats. Still, at least the sun came out for an hour or so for me to enjoy my yearly pilgrimage to Royal Ascot races and even though by all accounts July eventually showed a marked improvement in the UK’s weather, I must admit it was a welcome relief when I jumped off that plane back at The Land of Smiles into 30 odd degrees of heat and into that waiting taxi ready to take me back home to Jurassic Mountain again.

Since the last newsletter, we’ve had the result of the referendum and July also saw the conclusion of EURO 2016 which for me personally was a slight relief in as much that what with the 2am kick offs, there’s no more all nighters for me for the foreseeable future. At least we got to see the best that Wales have played in their lives compared to the worst that England have in theirs. Having Welsh pride and passion springs to mind, something that English pile of crap for some reason thought they didn’t need.
Nevertheless, whether you supported England or you went for Spain, whether you voted for Brexit or voted remain, are you, like me, just a little glad that both are now well and truly over so that we can now concentrate on the more serious matters in life? ………….Like FISHING!

You may well have noticed that what can only be described as a carp fest has been going on here at The Mountain with anglers regularly banking double figures of carp weighing anything between thirty pounds to over on hundred and eighty pounds. It more than made up for the period a few months back where the carp were playing their game of hide and seek and the anglers had to work their socks off to gain results. That being said it’s worth baring in mind that February and March are the WINTER, even here in Thailand, although not as pronounced as in the cooler climate of Europe, there is a definite slow down in carp feeding activity. From May onwards they have literally been queuing up to take the pellet which always brings a smile to the face of our Eddy Mounce who enjoys nothing more than seeing his customers getting results on the day. To give you some idea of just how well Jurassic Mountain has been fishing, at the last count, June and July saw well over a eight hundred Siamese carp alone come to the net. This prolific period was reminiscent of the very first time that I fished at Jurassic and landed nineteen carp in a single session. That was truly a great days fishing that will remain long in my memory, especially when I consider on my next visit, I never caught one! Which just goes to show Jurassic is neither a runs water, or a “hard water”. Instead a perfect balance often gets struck, whereby returning anglers simply don’t know what to expect.

One particular angler who benefited greatly from this carp feeding frenzy was Gareth from Scotland who fished here for a week with his wife Maureen. Every day was one that he’ll always remember especially his last day where he landed twenty specimen fish including the first three carp which he managed to bank before 8.30am and which weighed in at over 250 pounds between them. Try and beat that if you can. 250 pounds of stonking Siamese carp before he’d even had breakfast. That’s Gareth in the photo above….. looks pretty pleased with himself don’t you think?

Catlocarpio Siamensis or Siamese carp to you and I, ranks among the largest freshwater fish in the world. It’s been claimed that one specimen taken from the river reached a length of three metres and weighed in at 660 pounds although in more recent years fish to 1.8 metres and 330 pounds are said to have been tempted out of the river by netsman, and some of these bigger specimens rather than find there way onto a fishmongers filleting table have found their way into Thailand’s fishing parks. Some fisheries claim to have grown fish to these sizes, which might be possible (although unlikely) if the fishery has been around for 50 years plus. Rather than making up stories, we simply admit, that if we can afford them we will buy them! So that our guest’s have a chance to catch these wonderful specimens. And that is why ticket prices for fisheries vary throughout the country. It really depends on the stocking profile of the fishery and how much money has been invested into the stock of fish. Jurassic has now got at least 5 carp over 160lbs swimming around for the avid angler to target with the biggest at the time of stocking being close to 200lb.

That being said after nearly five years of high protein pellet going into Jurassic a lot of our “stockies” have gone from humble beginnings of 20 to 30lb to fish in the 70lb to 90lb bracket, some of the larger specimen fish stocked have seen a hook many times like our resident “Scarface” which has been weighed on numerous occasions with her weight fluctuating from between 159lbs all the way up to 185lbs, yet four other big carp including one fish that went in bigger than Scarface rarely if ever even grace the net. One fish stocked at 159lbs in February 2014, didn’t get caught for a whole year, then it got caught 6 times in quick succession from February 2015 until Mid March and has never been caught since. A fish of almost identical size and coloration was subsequently stock earlier this year. It got caught once in 5 days flat, and has never been caught since. So fish like people have both differing physical and mental characteristics.

For those who have a passion for it, this is the enigma that is carp fishing. You never really know, where, when and how big a fish that has been seen and weighed before will show up again. Some carp become extremely clever and literally just vanish for years on end. Others don’t seem to mind exchanging a little prick for an easy meal! Ultimately after a fish becomes acclimatized to its new home it really does not matter how big it was stocked at, as some go on to flourish, and some don’t….just like people I guess, some are fit and strong, some are not, some are greedy, some are not, some are bullies and some are not, and these traits often determine the size of their gut!

If you’re lucky enough to have one of these brutes take your bait, you’ll soon find out that even a fifty pound specimen will give you a scrap to remember whilst a two hundred pound monster will leave some anglers wishing they’d never bothered in the first place. I remember a German guy last year who could not believe just how hard it was when he was playing a carp of one hundred and eighty pounds and he actually threw the towel in half way through the fight. No wonder they lost the bloody …… ! Hmm. on second thoughts, as one or two of my previous literary offerings have sometimes been known to teeter on the brink of being politically incorrect, in order not to incur the wrath of the Jurassic censors, time to move on!

Quickly changing the subject, the Jurassic Mountain fish stocking program is in full flow and our array of stock ponds are just brimming with fish waiting to be let loose into the lake. We’ve also got a few other species that we’re bringing on as well and as soon as they’re introduced, you’ll be the first to know about it.

I watched our self appointed fisheries manager Wayne, carry out the difficult task of netting two arapaima from the pond and transferring them into the lake. Rather him than me. These babies were put into the stock ponds when they were just over a metre in length. Now they’re well over twice that size weighing the best part of two hundred pounds a piece and it’s a pretty dangerous operation in getting these into their new home as one or two of our gillies will testify having borne the brunt of an angry arapaima on more than one occasion. Well, I’m pleased to say that the whole operation was carried out without any mishaps apart from one lost scale and the two arapaima are now swimming happily around with their bigger brothers just waiting to provide the next lucky angler with his or her fish of a lifetime.

A few more of the new designer salas arrived this month bringing the total installed to eleven. Very soon you’ll be seeing luxury salas complete with power point and fans on almost every swim. Talk about pampered anglers! Very soon you’ll also be seeing menus displayed in each sala too. No, not menus for the culinary delights that are on offer here at Jurassic but menus for our selection of different baits that we now have in stock. Trying something different that eventually tempts a wary carp or predator to take the bait would be a big plus and could see a marked improvement in your results even though they’ve been way above average lately anyway.

July also saw the excavation team move in and carry out further preparation works to the newly acquired land to the east and we’ll keep you posted as work progresses in due course. Certainly everybody that I’ve spoken to are getting really excited about extending the lake and having seen Jule’s vision for myself his plans for this project, I can tell you are definitely something worth getting excited about.

Right, let’s now take a light hearted and a very tongue in cheek look at a selection of some of the anglers who graced Jurassic Mountain for the month of July. As per normal my apologies are extended to those who wanted a mention but didn’t get one and to those who got a mention and wished they hadn’t. Here goes ….

July saw the departure of Joe from Manchester who whist traveling around Thailand arrived at Jurassic Mountain to fish for a day ……. and stayed for almost a month. Joe was obviously taken with the place and whilst here he enjoyed a handful of sessions where he caught specimen carp and redtails for fun. How fitting was it that it was on his very last day at the resort that he decided to try one last spot of fishing and managed to land the fish that he craved for the most, the arapaima.
So, after a month, Joe decided to get back to reality which in his case is rainy old Manchester and I should imagine that it came as a bit of a shock for Joe after the glorious weather that he’d enjoyed here. It was a pleasure to meet Joe and Alex and something tells me we haven’t seen the last of these guys.

It was our pleasure to welcome here once again, our old friend Martin originating out of Coventry in the UK. Martin was one of the very first customers to cast a line into the Jurassic Mountain lake and he’s been coming back every year since. Having declared that he intends to return every year in the future too, we all at Jurassic Mountain wish 73 year old Martin many many more years of good health in order to enable him to do just that.

True to form, Martin cracked into the carp once again and he managed to bank certainly more than his fair share with his best trio in at between 70 and over a 100 pounds a piece. Throw in the Chao Phraya catfish at over 100 pounds that he caught during his stay at Jurassic Mountain and it’s a cast iron certainty that, God willing, he’ll be back again next year for another crack.

Another mention for Birthday boy Nick from Dorking who got himself a very special birthday present and into the Jurassic Mountain record books at the same time when he landed a beauty of a striped catfish. This is a pretty amazing feat really as there was only the one stripped catfish ever introduced into the lake and the fact that it has managed to evade capture for 4 years is pretty incredible and so makes it a very special catch indeed.

Patrick, a professional boxer from Bexleyheath in South east London arrived from Hua Hin for a one day stint and got himself involved in quite a few fights of a different kind when he landed around 8 Siamese carp and redtails. Talking of boxing, did you know that I was an amateur boxer in my younger days? My fight record makes good reading, 27 fights, 26 knockouts ………….. I won the other one! I got carried out of the ring that often, I had my sponsors name put on the soles of my boots!

Martin, on an 11 day fishing holiday from the UK caught almost every species out of the lake and thoroughly enjoyed his extended stay at Jurassic. Martin has a very strange hobby in as much that he breeds snakes. So how fitting was it that whilst he was sitting in his sala in the swim known as ‘The Point’, a major commotion went on in the eaves above his head and to Martins sheer delight, a copperhead rat snake of around 5 feet in length had grabbed a rat of some considerable size and proceeded to strangle it whilst hanging from his tail from the roof. After a bit of cajoling and coaxing, the snake dived off the back of the sala into the undergrowth to enjoy his well earned meal and if Martin was happy the way that his fishing holiday was going, this little episode left him absolutely ecstatic.

We welcomed back Christophe, our Jurassic Mountain resident who flew in from Cambodia for a few days, reluctantly for personal reasons Christophe has had to put his villa up for sale so therefore there is a rare opportunity on Jurassic to own a luxury 2 bedroom, poolside villa complete with lifetime fishing rights. If a second home in paradise takes your fancy, please contact the team on enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com for further information.

And last but by no means least, Jurassic Mountain were proud to raise the flag for returning resident Neil ‘Ninja’ Bartholomew from London. You may well remember that Neil became the youngest person in the world outside of Japan to be awarded the 6th Dan in judo (well, at least somebody is flying the flag for Great Britain) and we were particularly pleased to welcome Neil ‘home’ again where he arrived with his son Cole for six weeks of father and son bonding involving sunshine, relaxation, a few nights on the town and, most of all, the fishing itself. So having sorted themselves out with a rented motorbike to get them to and from the local watering holes in Cha-am, they got themselves down to what they especially came here for in the first place and that was to see if they could beat Neil’s previous personal best carp being a monster that we’ve nicknamed Scarface weighing in around 170 odd pounds.

So it was sod’s law that young Cole would outdo his father because first of all they had a double hook up which resulted in a 100 pound plus carp and another one around the ninety and then Cole really rubbed Neil’s nose in it when he hooked and landed the very same fish that Neil had caught almost two years ago and which this time weighed in more at over one hundred and eighty pounds. It was good to see Scarface again as he’d been very conspicuous by his absence lately and a big congratulations to Cole who not only showed his ol’ man just how it’s done but also risked getting karate chopped and drop kicked into the lake for his trouble. Unbelievably, they then went on to land another couple of carp at over 100 pounds a piece and with the whole of August yet to come, you can be sure that somewhere along the line they’ll be hooking into one or two more of our heavyweights…… I’ll keep you informed.

So as July slipped away into Jurassic Mountain history, I look forward to next month and all the new arrivals and old faces that it will inevitably bring. I will also be looking forward to moving into my new house perched lakeside that is just having the finishing touches put to it. Can’t wait!

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.