Newsletter December 2015

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 December. A big thanks to all the new faces and returning guests who succumbed to the gravitational pull of our ‘extreme fishing gem’ as it was indeed our pleasure to welcome you all to Jurassic Mountain Resort and Fishing Park.

Before we get onto our anglers reports, I trust you all had a merry Christmas with some of you no doubt relieved that it’s all over for yet another year and who can now concentrate on the more important issues of planning your next holiday which, if you decide it to be in Thailand, you’ll find that our welcome mat is very welcoming indeed.

We had a wonderful Christmas at Jurassic Mountain which was helped tremendously by the finished article of ‘The Anglers Rest’ bar which was enjoyed by many extremely happy and very merry anglers.
The Anglers Rest has turned out to be a huge success and I could fill a book with the amount of compliments given about our latest addition to the Jurassic Mountain resort.
It wasn’t too long ago that Jules and I were sitting in this newly installed Thai construction that Jules had plans to install a couple of massage beds into. As we sat there putting the world to rights as we normally do, an idea suddenly formed within the deep dark depths of my brain.
‘You know what Jules ?’ I casually said to him, ‘ this would make a damn good bar you know. Why not get another Sala for the massages and turn this into something an extra bit special ?’
Now it’s not often Jules takes any notice of my bright ideas, in fact most are discarded to the bin within mid sentence of their presentation but Jule’s response of ‘Hmmm, that could work’ certainly seemed to arouse a decent flicker of interest. In fact, that flicker of interest soon transpired into a full blown mission on Jule’s part and after a few modifications and quite a substantially bit more than a few thousand quid, the casual idea of the Anglers Rest has become a beautifully completed reality where everybody descend upon to enjoy a few drinks, a few laughs, enjoy watching a bit of premiership football or just relaxing with a decent bit of conversation being invariably about Jurassic Mountain resort itself or a little bit of chat about ‘the one that got away’ and, more frequently discussed …. ‘ the one that didn’t.’
Throw in for good measure the beautifully newly completed massage Sala as well and Jules has turned my little casual idea into a wonderful completed article. Well done Jules, you’ve done a fabulous job and I’m sure that ‘The Anglers Rest’ will become ‘The Local ‘ for many anglers for many many years to come.

Talking of compliments, some of the compliments we receive apart from the normal keep net full that we regularly receive is the fact that we at Jurassic always make our customers feel exceptionally welcome and that we put the emphasis on expressing the positives of our resort instead of commenting on the negatives of elsewhere. Perhaps that’s why our business is growing faster than an arapaima on steroids.

Right, let’s now take a light hearted and a very tongue in cheek look at the anglers who graced Jurassic Mountain for the month of December. 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 ….

Our first up report is to a trio from East London. No, not the East London that you’re all familiar with but the East London that’s situated on the Eastern Cape coastline of South Africa. This is a fabulous part of the world that I once had the pleasure of visiting when I drove the 1500 or so miles from Cape Town to Durban but that’s enough about me, lets concentrate on Brandon, Christina and ‘Grannie’ as she liked to be called who came down from Bangkok to The Mountain for a one day session. Half a dozen or so quality fish including a nice Indian carp around 35 pounds for Grannie and a forty pound Siamese for Christina made their journey more than worthwhile.

Stretton arrived from Stratford in the UK to continue his Thailand fishing adventure. Stretton from Stratford-on-Avon? Shakespeare himself could well have written that title. A well seasoned angler is Stretton and he’s fished every fishery worthy of note in Thailand racking up an incredible 55 different freshwater species along the way. That alone deserves a bit of credit so very well done on that score my friend.
Stretton’s aim on this visit was to land a 100 pound carp and he wasn’t bothering getting his feet wet for any photos of anything else that he caught under it. So having completed his first of a four day session, his tally was 13 carp to 45 pounds plus he hooked a monster carp that saw the camera come out of the case in readiness but then saw it go back in again as he and the fish decided to go their separate ways when it shed the hook after a major tussle.
Day two was going the same way as the first with 5 carp to 40 pounds safely on the bank by 11 am…….and then pandemonium broke out. A giant specimen of a Siamese carp knocking on double the weight of the 100 pounder that he’d targeted grabbed his bait and took off for Bangkok. A 30 minute battle ensued which resulted in Stretton getting himself not only immersed in water for the photograph but also immersed in glory as he proudly declared that this was the biggest carp he’d ever landed in his long and well traveled angling life. So that too deserves a bit of credit and a very well done on that score as well my friend.

In from Holland came Danny for a two day session. Danny was given the choice of a swim that was known to produce carp or another swim that favoured the arapaima. Danny opted for the predator swim as an arapaima was on his wishlist and although he hooked but sadly lost one, he managed to pick up a few nice Siamese and Amazon redtail as a consolation prize.

In from Wales came Lee. Lee is from a lovely little town named Lloysthwycyrigridarbrewwthh….. sorry, I had a hair in my mouth, Lee’s from Cardiff.
Now I’m sure you all know that in the past the Welsh have had to endure numerous jokes regarding their rather dubious association with sheep which I not only believe to be totally unfounded and unwarranted, I also find it quite distasteful so you wont be getting any of them on this newsletter from me.
Lee, a self confessed novice angler had a great time here as he landed seven nice fish with a Siamese carp topping the list around the 40 pound mark. Well done indeed Lee.
By the way, did you know that the price of lamb has gone up in Wales? It’s now 4.95 ……..an hour.

Whilst touching on the subject of sheep, it was revealed today that hundreds of them are feared to have drowned in the recent floods in the UK. This figure however is expected to rise significantly when the man in charge of counting them eventually wakes up.

Daniel & Paul from Royston and their pal Gareth from Cambridgeshire booked a days session when they landed in Bangkok. Daniel and Paul were to fish and Gareth was coming for the ride. I don’t think they realised the difference in what Roystons nightlife is like compared to the slightly wilder goings on in Bangkok because, after 2 nights of non stop Bangkok shenanigans, at 6 am on the morning that they were due to arrive here, we received a phone call from someone saying that one was sick, one was too tired and one was lost. In other words, they’d been out all night again and were just looking for any excuse not to make the journey as I assume that a days angling was the last thing on their minds. Anyway, our Eddy weren’t having any of it so he phoned their hotel rooms, gave ’em a bit of the Eddy persuasive chat bordering on a bollocking and the result was that they got back out of bed, crawled into the transit that we’d sent up to Bangkok for them and they eventually turned up here at the Mountain looking like a sack of shite and like they needed a bloody holiday. That’ll teach you not to burn the candle at both ends in Bangkok boys but hey, let’s not be too harsh, we were all that young once.
Anyway, after making the journey and getting set up in some form of orderly fashion, I’m very sad to announce that we had one of those very rare days on the lake where almost every swim struggled to get any action including Daniel and Paul who very sadly endured the dreaded blank. On hindsight, a lie in in Bangkok certainly would have seemed to be the favoured option but the one thing I really must say to these lads credit is that they worked their socks off in an attempt to get themselves a result and I never heard one despondent or negative word between them. On the contrary in fact as they made a point that a return visit would definitely be on the cards and they turned up a few days later to begin a night fishing session followed by a daytime stint in the hope of a major improvement …… and I’m pleased to say that Daniel and Paul got it in the form of an arapaima around 100 pounds, 4 Siamese and 1 Indian to 35 and a cracker of a redtail that tipped the scales at 63 pounds. A great bunch of lads these were and we look forward to seeing them again when they next stagger into Jurassic Mountain.

The sun rose the next day as we welcomed a few anglers to the Mountain. We had Ming from Citibank in Singapore and Trev from Nova Scotia amongst others and between them all they managed to land a couple of Siamese around the 40 pound mark, 10 redtails up to 40 pounds with 6 of them falling to Trev and a beauty of a tambaqui that made an appearance for Ming.

So we then played host to two South London boys Mo and Elliot who arrived full of expectations as they got themselves set up on the lake with amongst others, Nicholas and Jan from Sweden. Although the fish were playing their game of hide and seek today, they still managed to land 4 Siamese to 40 pounds and an Indian carp to 30. Mo then decided to carry on his day into a night fishing session which further produced 2 Siamese to 55 pounds and an Indian at 32.

A Thai couple came for a few nights along with their son Gene who is 13 years old.
Was this kid keen or what? Gene was sat on the swim that he wanted at 6.15am and bearing in mind that fishing doesn’t kick off until 7.15, that surely answers the question. Gene fished on the other side of the lake to the anglers who were getting mixed results and what a choice of swim that turned out to be for this lad. 7 Siamese carp to 55 pounds and the first arapaima that we’d seen in 10 days at almost 200 pounds gave Gene a day to remember. It also gave the other anglers on the lake who could only watch through envious eyes the wish that they’d got up as early and bagged that swim for themselves.

Tesco’s troubleshooter Paul returned to Jurassic with his young son Sam. They didn’t do too badly at all as they bagged 5 Siamese and 1 Indian to 40 pounds which I believe was a slightly better result than when Paul fished here a couple of months back.

Speaking of Tesco’s, I can remember being in Tesco’s many years ago doing a bit of shopping with the wife. I noticed a blonde lady that kept staring at me very intently every time our paths crossed. So as I wandered off leaving the wife at the deli counter, there she was again coming towards me and as she got close she smiled so I just had to ask her.
‘Excuse me” I said, ‘Do I know you?’
‘Yes you do,’ she replied, ‘ I believe you’re the father of one of my children.’
Well I almost passed out. I just couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. I desperately tried to recollect the time that I had a liason with this woman but my mind went totally blank.
Then I realised just who she might be so I said, ‘Oh my god,, was you that blonde that took me back to your place where you stripped my clothes off, blindfolded me, handcuffed me to the bed for most of the night whilst you and your sister took turns to have your way with me?’
‘Not quite’ she replied, ‘I’m your sons maths teacher.’

Tom and Glenn, two more from the Tesco’s management team who are both self confessed shelf stackers ( I don’t think so ) showed up for a couple of days sport. The story goes that Tom was stacking shelves in drinks aisle when the top shelf began to collapse. Struggling under the weight of over thirty bottles of French plonk, he shouted to Glenn that he couldn’t keep it up. Glenn jumped in to help but couldn’t stop the shelf and all it’s contents crashing to the floor and turning the aisle into a disaster zone.
The trauma these two endured resulted in them suffering ‘a wrecked aisle dysfunction’ and two days on the lake was the prescribed cure……… and what a different couple of day’s they turned out to be.
Day 1 saw them catch 6 fish between them consisting of Siamese carp and redtail to 30 pounds and although this rather average haul of fish delighted these two Tesco lads, day 2 was about to send them into delirium. First an arapaima decided to go shopping at Tesco’s followed by redtails and Siamese carp. And just like that Tesco offer, ‘get 2 for 1’ Glenn hooked into an absolute monster of a “Catlocarpio siamensis”… That’s Siamese carp to you. It was just short of 200 pounds and it made these guys as happy as two lunatics on supermarket sweep. See you two again then no doubt?

Dean from Windsor and John from Chelmsford who used to be the skipper of a big game fishing boat working off the Kenyan coast were among the next days anglers dotted around the lake and the improvement continued as these 2 guys had 13 Siamese and 3 redtails between them. John’s biggest redtail was in excess of 50 pounds whilst Deans biggest carp surely would have been in 3 figures had he not lost 2 crackers during his session.
I was talking to John about his big game exploits and he seemed pretty impressed when I casually mentioned that I’d caught a marlin down in the Maldives.
‘Well done Steve’ he said, ‘how big was that then?’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘have you ever seen that film Jaws?’
‘Yes” he replied as his eyes opened wide in anticipation of what I was about to tell him,
‘Well it was about the same size as the box that the DVD comes in.’

Joel from Manchester but now living in Saudi Arabia working as an aircraft engineer flew into Jurassic Mountain (not literally) for his long awaited Jurassic experience. Not the best of days for Joel but even so, he still managed to grab a couple of Siamese at 30 pounds a piece to make his visit worthwhile.
Saudi Arabia? They’ve got some strange laws out there you know. For instance, you know women can’t drive?
Well, it’s illegal there too.

We had the pleasure of the company of James from Battersea in South West London. Definitely a man about town is James as his business includes organising the events in all of London’s top clubs so I’m sure that the tranquil surroundings of Jurassic Mountain came as a very welcoming contrast indeed. James decided on 4 daytime sessions with a couple of night stints thrown in too and Jame’s perseverance paid off as he landed 21 fish in total with the pick of his catch being a cracking Tambaqui that set a new lake record at 35 pounds and a fine Siamese weighing in at just over the 60.
James departed from Jurassic looking forward to meeting up with the Guvnor, i.e. The wife in Phuket with a vow to return here again early in the new year. We’ll look forward to seeing you again mate.

Aussie Luke from Brisbane showed up for a days session and took happy memories of Jurassic back ‘down under’ by landing 3 decent redtails, ! tambaqui and 3 Siamese up to 40 pounds a piece.
Have you ever wondered why it is that the Aussies, who we all know were originally our unwanted convicts, are so good at cricket?
Presumably it’s the only sport they could play whilst being in handcuffs.
Congratulations on a nice mixed bag of fish Luke and hopefully we’ll see you back here in the future.

Angus a bricklayer from Peterborough and Ian from Warrington were amongst a lakeful of anglers all looking for a decent result. Ian’s 70 pound Siamese and a 200 pound arapaima along with Angus’s 5 Siamese to 40 and 2 redtails to 60 was certainly decent enough and sent Ian on his way home happy and Angus with a smile on his face as he continued off on his holiday diving in the Philippines. Diving? I tried it once but, deep down …. I knew it weren’t for me,

Gerry Giles and Steve Byrne finally arrived at Jurassic Mountain. Judging by the comments made on facebook by these two, I can guarantee that nobody had ever looked forward to their holiday as much as these two well seasoned anglers had.
It’s a particular nice story on how these two came to arrive here. Steve, not being in the very best of health wanted to realise his life’s ambition by visiting Thailand and it was only because that he’d never had anybody to accompany him that his ambition remained unfulfilled. Enter Gerry who, up to this point had never had any inclination to see ‘The land of smiles’ but volunteered to be Steve’s travel companion just so that Steve could tick Thailand off of his bucket list.
They just couldn’t wait to get on their swims to get their lines into the water and they didn’t have to wait long for their first fish either. Steve soon had the pleasure of making acquaintances with an arapaima around 160 pounds followed by a couple of fine carp and it was particularly pleasing to see these two start off so well seeing as they’d been counting the days to get here for the last 8 months.
After 4 days on the lake and almost as many doing the Thailand sightseeing scene, these two firm friends went back to the UK not only with ambitions realised but with great memories of the fantastic angling that they’d experienced here at Jurassic Mountain too.

Anglers arriving thick and fast included Ex pat Jurassic regular Matthew, Brian from Bournemouth, returnee Glenn from Minehead and ex pat first timer Andy originally from Blackpool.

Where shall I start with this motley crew? First up is Glenn who badly wanted an arapaima on the bank, so you can imagine what he felt like after hooking three of ’em…. and losing the lot. Moving on swiftly, Brian from that old peoples home on the Dorset coast called Bournemouth landed 7 Siamese to 40 pounds on his first session whist Andy from that jewel of the north namely Blackpool weighed in with a cracking 70 pound Siamese caught on the waggler. Finally, fishaholic Matthew lived up to his fondly given name of ‘Mad Matt’ by fishing 4 days and 4 nights solid and it paid off with a magnificent specimen of a triple figure Siamese being the cream of his catch.

And from all corners of the globe, still they clamoured to come through the Jurassic Mountain gates that some have fondly nicknamed ‘the gates of heaven.’
Possibly a slight exaggeration there…..Paradise? Yes, Heaven? … that can wait.

This multi national contingent included Colombia’s equivalent of the Sopranos being South American father and son duo, the Hernado’s who got down to business by extorting Siamese carp and redtail from the lake between them.
Belgium’s Wilhem who along with his girlfriend saw more than their fair share of carp,
Stephane from France banked a fabulous arapaima after losing a monster carp earlier,
Murat from Kazakshtan who had great fun pulling out redtails and finally,
Balaz from Hungary who caught several heavyweight carp but also managed to land the Amazon redtail being the fish that he’d come to catch in the first place. Well done to you all.

Is this supposed to be the cool season? There’s not a chance of having to put a winter woollie on over here. It’s been so warm it’s just like an all year round summer…… with hot fishing to match.

Jurassic Mountain was proud to welcome a squaddie from the Royal Welsh Guards, John and his wife Charlotte are from Whitchurch in Shropshire.
John had 3 days on the lake and at the end of the third day, he’d managed to land an amazing 36 fish with his trophies being a redtail at around 75 pounds and a beaut of a Siamese at well over the magical 100.
John is in the armored vehicle division and he’s taking a well deserved holiday before he goes back on duty.
In light of world events and being unsure as to what the future will bring, we all at Jurassic wish you the very best of luck John. Stay safe mate.

We were also pleased to welcome Neil, Lisa and Brook from South East London. Neil is a martial arts expert and it didn’t take him too long to get involved in a tussle with a Siamese carp in excess of 180 pounds resulting in one more fight that Neil has won in his career and is featured in the main newsletter photograph. Well done Neil.

Christmas day arrived and what a glorious sunny morning it was too. Unfortunately for yours truly, it came in with a whimper and went out with a bang. The whimper was from me nursing the massive hangover caused by the Christmas Eve frivolities and the bang was when the lights went out for me around midnight after shall we say one Christmas toast too many.
Anyway, Jurassic Mountain does not close for something as trivial as Christmas day and we had eight anglers on the lake who it seemed were well pleased to forego the Queens speech and a few mince pies just to be able to get some angling in instead. I assumed that they were Christmas grinches or that they never quite got over the fact that Father Christmas didn’t exist or, more than likely, just plain old fishing fanatics.
Whatever their reasons for missing out on the Father Christmas bit, they all managed to land fish which would have filled the largest of Christmas sacks including Serzin from Belgium who gave himself the ultimate Christmas prezzie by landing an arapaima weighing in at 230 pounds.

My favourite day of the year, Boxing Day, saw the latest influx of anglers to The Mountain. Eleven to be exact. Some seemed to be quite weary having endured the Christmas Day activities but they all had one thing in common. They were all looking forward and hoping for a battle with one of our lakes larger residents and did some of them get their wish or what?
Apart from the fact that they all managed to catch fish, we had Beejay from Cambridge who started off with a Siamese at 104 pounds and finished off with one at 120.
We had Dave from Basildon who banked a carp at around the eighty and Peter and his son,, also from the UK who wasn’t slow to air his disappointment in not getting a bite during his first couple of hours attempts but who eventually went home happy having landed half a dozen fish with a ninety pounder being their Boxing Day best.

And then it was over. Another Christmas day in paradise had come and gone and apart from one or two people wearing soppy hats and a noticeable uplift in Jule’s mood to ‘festive’ because his smile seemed slightly bigger than standard, it wasn’t actually a lot different to any other day except for the fantastic Christmas dinner provided by the Jurassic catering army and the the fact that this particular day definitely seemed to be more alcohol fueled than usual.

So as the final days of 2015 ebbed away slowly and quietly into history, we played host to the last few anglers of the year who plumped for a nice bit of relaxation ahead of the impending New Years shenanigans to come.

As I sat looking at the final sunset of 2015, I witnessed the very last angler of the year reel in for the final time and head towards the bar leaving the now deserted lake behind him. The lake was as still as a mirror whose surface was only broken by the occasional lazy roll of an arapaima or the sound of a carps tail slapping as it fed in the fading light.
In those few moments. I thought of all the anglers who’d walked that same path during the last twelve months and how significant it was to be the very last angler of the old year.
As he approached me he hesitated and turned around to take a long last lingering look at the lake. It looked magical as it was bathed in the last remnants of the setting sun that was slowly sinking behind the mountains that stood high and proud as if like sentries on guard and, as it slowly disappeared with yet one more year of our lives, I wondered for those few poignant seconds if he’d read my mind and we were both sharing the same moving moment and thought?
That would’ve been nice wouldn’t it? The perfect serene moment to end our final angler report of 2015 on.
Sod all like it I’m afraid. Nothing quite as poignant and moving as that. The truth being that he’d noticed his pal also going towards the bar and he’d decided that it was about bloody time his mate got the beers in first,
Oh well. that burst my little bubble.

Well, that’s almost it for not only yet another month but another year too. As midnight fast approaches, I’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of all the staff here at Jurassic Mountain of wishing all past, present and future guests a very happy and an extremely prosperous new year.
I’m off to ‘The Anglers Rest’ to welcome the new year in and I presume that you’ll all be thinking along the same lines so just remember, the police will be out in force tonight so don’t kick off the new year with a drink drive ban.
I had a really close shave the other night. I’d had a good few beers in Cha-am town followed by the obligatory G&T’s rounded off with a couple of shots for good measure. Being well over the top I thought it unwise to drive my motorbike home so I left it outside the bar and took a taxi instead.
What an inspired decision that turned out to be. Not even half way home and there was the police road block with the Ol’ Bill breathalysing all and sundry. However, being in a taxi, they gave it a quick glance and waved it straight through.
Anyway, I arrived home without any further incident which was rather surprising really as I’d never driven a taxi before and I’ve no f**king idea of where I got it from.

NEW YEARS EVE …. JUST PAST MIDNIGHT………..

And now that another New Year’s Eve in my life has come and gone, I’m now looking forward to welcoming the first anglers of 2016 to Jurassic tomorrow and, as I’m still feeling in the festive spirit, I’ve decided to do my bit and award a little prize for the first angler to land the coveted triple figure carp here in January.
If this lucky angler ever has the undoubted pleasure of visiting Thailand again and his or her road leads them back to anywhere near the welcoming gates of Jurassic Mountain, you can have a free nights accommodation in a deluxe suite on yours truly. Not the angling world’s most spectacular prize I know, but it’s the thought that counts and you’ll also have the added bonus of having a guaranteed write up in the newsletter which I’m sure you’ll be ecstatic about.
In actual fact, Sod it, Make that two nights !
Holy mackerel, i must be going soft in my old age, or that Chang beer on draught is a lot stronger than I thought.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL.

I hope that my tongue in cheek comments were taken in the light hearted manner in which they were intended and as normal, any complaints from those devoid of a sense of humour will be dealt with forthwith on www. it’s about time you lightened up . com.

If this newsletter tempts you to sample the Jurassic Mountain experience for yourselves, please mention ‘Newsletter” in your enquiry and you’ll receive the chance of an automatic upgrade into a de-luxe poolside suite subject to availability.