Newsletter January 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 December. A big thanks to all the new faces and returning guests who succumbed to the gravitational pull of our Thailand fishing paradise, it was our pleasure indeed to welcome you all to Jurassic Mountain Resort and Fishing Park.

January 1st 06.00 am

It wasn’t quite light when I awoke on New years day and like most other mornings, I strolled down to the lake to greet the impending new day except that today would be slightly different, today was also to greet the sun rising on a new year ahead too.
As I sat alone by the bank looking in the half light at the Jurassic mountain that stood up high and proud waiting to greet another year to add to the millions she’d greeted before, I wondered to myself what this year would hold in store not only for Jurassic but also for myself included. If there were any elements of doubt in my mind as to what the impending new year would bring, they were soon dispelled in the space of the next few moments.
As the sun slowly rose and cast the warmth of its glow against the towering rock face of the mountain, a kingfisher that I’d never spotted before dived for his breakfast in a vivid sapphire blue and orange flash not five metres from where I was sitting, an arapaima, as if enjoying the significance of the moment himself rolled in spectacular fashion just beyond it and, in those few moments, I just knew that it was about to be a beautiful year, a year that would hold unknown events to come, some good and predictably, some sad, but a beautiful year here at Jurassic Mountain it would be nonetheless.

So, on that note, I have a few words of wisdom that I’d like to share with all those who intend to grace our Thailand paradise with their future prescence….

Life’s ambitions and wildest dreams can become reality at Jurassic Mountain,
Enjoy the moment …….because in just one minute……it will become only a memory …….. but a damn good one at that.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF JURASSIC MOUNTAIN………

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 January. 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 ….

The new year’s first angler out of the Jurassic Mountain starting blocks was Ben from Castlethorpe In the UK (pictured above) who arrived with our regular visitor, Bangkok based ‘Tescos Tom’ as he is fondly referred to in these parts. Ben landed the first fish of 2016 which was a cracking Siamese carp estimated to be in the mid eighties. A nice fish for Ben to start off the new year with and one which set the scene for the good things to come here at Jurassic Mountain.

Congratulations were extended to Clement from South East France who not only landed a magnificent Siamese carp at over 180 pounds but also managed to win the two free nights accommodation that I’d donated as a prize for the first angler in January to catch a treble figure carp. Well done indeed to Clement and what a fabulous fish it was that helped him become the winner of this January prize.

It was just another standard day at Jurassic Mountain. Anglers dotted around the lake included honeymooners John and Anna from Basildon. In the distance, a strange noise I heard was nothing more than a mere irritant that disturbed the tranquility as I slowly strolled around the Jurassic Mountain lake. It reminded me of a garden strimmer or two but it was getting louder and louder by the second finally building up to what sounded more like an aeroplane than a strimmer. I turned in the direction where this strange noise was coming from and what I saw made me almost freeze with fear.
The sky was black with the swarm of bees that was flying a few metres high towards me and directly over my head. The swarm was at least five metres wide and three times as long and now the noise was deafening.
I just stood there rooted to the spot praying that these bees which, by the way were the size of flying golf balls, didn’t mistake my multi coloured shirt for a flowerbox.
Anyway, my fears were unfounded because they flew over and on their way to flowery pastures new and within seconds, it was back to the tranquil silence around the lake. It was almost as if it had never happened but I can remember thinking ‘WOW !!!’…… or words to that effect.
Anyway, after I’d rushed back to my villa for a large vodka and a much needed change of shorts, I returned back to the lake later to see how the days contingent were doing. The newlyweds were still at it (fishing that is, what else?) and Anna had showed John just how it’s done by landing their wishlist fish being an arapaima around the 200 pound mark.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard visitors to Jurassic say “I wish we’d booked for longer” and “We didn’t realise it would be be as nice as this.”
Chris and Cat from Nottingham were the next couple to voice their frustration that they’d only booked a short stay. This is because their perception of the place before booking was ‘Well, it’s only a fishing lake’ but upon arrival when they see that the Jurassic Mountain resort is a far cry from being ‘only a fishing lake’, it’s only then that they realise that an extra few days here would have been more than welcome indeed.
Chris and Cat landed more than enough fish to keep them happy including a beauty of a Siamese carp around 85 pounds which prompted another phrase that I’ve heard many times before as well which is……. “We’ll be back!’

Paul Bradley from Ipswich found the time to prop himself up against the palm trees of Jurassic for a few days having been directed here by our very own Martin Bowler of the Angling Times.
Ipswich? That vibrant town stuck in the mountainous region of Norfolk is also the hometown of our Eddy Mounce by the way. Ever been there? I wouldn’t lose too much sleep if you haven’t and the fact that Eddy jumped ship at a very early age into Thailand describes the place perfectly and says it all really.
Paul is one of the nicest guys we’ve had the pleasure of accommodating here at The Mountain and he had a fabulous time as he landed numerous fish including the fine Indian carp around 30 pounds that set the precedent for the many others that followed.
Well done Paul and it was our pleasure having you here mate.

From Peterborogh in the UK, Selina, Shaun and lovely daughter ‘Billy’ spent so much time here at Jurassic they were almost like a permanent fixture. After a most enjoyable visit where they caught more than their fair share of specimen fish, Selina left a great review on facebook that sung Jurassic Mountains praises and we shall look forward to their reappearance through our gates just as much as they’ll be looking forward to it when they visit these shores again in the future.

Paul and Carol from a town called March in Cambridgeshire caught almost as many fish as the amount of draught beers they sank between them……..and did they sink some beer or what? Now I’m not implying for one moment that these two were excessive drinkers but their idea of a balanced diet was a full beer mug in each hand.
All joking aside, a recent study has shown that beer contains excessive female hormones and too much of it can actually turn men into women. To test this finding, one hundred men were each fed ten pints of beer each. it was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making the slightest bit of sense, couldn’t drive, became over emotional over nothing, failed to think in a rational manner, became psychotic whilst arguing over the slightest thing and refused point blank to apologise when wrong.
Evidently no further testing is planned.

Included in Paul and Carol’s beer barrel full of fish that they landed was a fabulous Siamese carp that was estimated at 160 pounds plus. Well done and good health to you both.

January saw an influx of anglers that included Sean from Worksop who banked a fine Siamese of some ninety pounds,
Sebastian from Germany got to grips with an arapaima that tipped the scales at 185 pounds and followed it up the next day with a nice Siamese around the 50 mark and
Isaac and Emily from ‘Down Under’ landed a few with Emily getting her name on a Siamese at over 30 pounds,

We are pleased to welcome the latest residents to succumb to the lure of Jurassic Mountain, Beejay from Cambridge and Neil from London.
Both came here on holiday just to chill out and throw out a few lines, and after sampling the Jurassic Mountain delights, both went home the proud owners of one of Jurassic’s villas each. They just couldn’t resist the opportunity of owning and being a part of this place and we wish them both many many years of enjoyment and successful angling. Welcome aboard lads.

A great days fishing was then followed by yet another great night’s entertainment at ‘The Anglers Rest’ bar. As I’m very often nominated as the resident D.J. it was just before that I was about to put some sounds on for the evening that we were watching Sky news and a few of the customers were very interested to hear that astronomers had found ‘a massive black hole ‘burping’ galactic gas’ somewhere out there in the galaxy. This actually didn’t interest me one bit as they’d obviously got their bearings wrong and had their telescope firmly locked upon my ex wife.

This reminds me of the time that a couple of my pals, Charlie and Fred were preparing to go out and do a spot of sea fishing in the bay. Whilst Charlie was getting the boat ready, Fred went to Charlie’s house to pick up the bait that had been left on the veranda.
While he was there he peered through the window and saw a man in bed with Charlie’s wife.
Back at the boat he told Charlie that he had some very bad news for him and proceeded to describe what he’d seen.
Surprisingly, he took it very calmly. ‘Gee you had me worried there for a minute,’ said Charlie, ‘I thought you was going to say you’d lost the bloody bait.’

Jason who works on the oil rigs in the Middle East found the time to grab some sport here at The Mountain and landed one of our rarely seen redtail / tiger catfish hybrids.
Unfortunately an unexpected call from the rig cut short his visit here but nevertheless he had a great time while it lasted.
Talking of oil rigs, here’s a completely true story about the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska a good few years back. it was a fact that the average cost of rehabilitating a seal affected by the spill was a staggering 80,000 U.S. dollars. Yes, 80,000 dollars for one seal would you believe?
Anyway, at a specially organised ceremony, two of the most expensively rescued animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers with the poignant moment captured live by the TV cameras that were also present.
Unfortunately the TV cameras also captured the moment when after only a few seconds of swimming away to freedom and in full view of the still applauding and cheering crowd, the two seals were ripped to pieces by a five metre long Killer whale that just happened to be passing by. Oops !!

Louis and Allison from Birmingham got involved in some serious angling during their 5 day stay and they ended up with a bag of fish exceeding 30 in number with the best of the catch being a Siamese of just over the fifty and a cracking redtail around the sixty. Well done the ‘Brummies.’

In the midst of the procession of anglers that trundled through the Jurassic gates came Mick and Carol from Putney in South West London. These two have been lifelong friends of mine and it gave me great pleasure to see their faces again and also great pleasure to be able to show them the delights that Jurassic Mountain and it’s surrounding district had to offer. Not being anglers and not really having the inclination to start a new hobby, they were more than content just to soak up the relaxed atmosphere here during the day and in Mick’s case particularly, to soak up a gallon or two of draught Chang at night.

Now, the old saying of ‘You can’t please everybody all of the time’ was never more applicable as to when Oleg the Russian decided to vacate the banks of the Volga to grace us with his prescence here at Jurassic Mountain. Oleg came here on a day ticket session with one aim which was to target and catch an arapaima but as 99.9% of you anglers know, sometimes you get a day where no matter what you try to do, the fish play hide and seek which in Oleg’s case, unfortunately today was the day. So did our friend Oleg accept this as part and parcel of target fishing or did he throw his Russian wooden dollies out the pram? Well I’m afraid the latter applied to Oleg because he was so upset that the arapaima had decided to go on a ‘Moscow No Show,’ he decided to put a non too complimentary post on facebook insinuating that the lake had a low concentration of fish and that there are far friendlier places in Bangkok where you can not only pull fish in one after the other with a fish every chuck and where I assume his far friendlier comment means that they will also put a consoling arm around your dejected shoulders in the unlikely event that you haven’t pulled in half a ton of fish by lunchtime too. Not exactly my idea of fishing but each to their own.
Well Oleg,in reply to your low concentration of fish remark, here’s a statistic for you, We had 202 swims occupied in January landing a total of 1146 fish with quite a few of these specifically targeting the arapaima. Unfortunately January proved to be a pretty tough month where the arapaima were concerned with only 18 anglers being lucky enough or dare I say skilful enough to land the fish of their dreams which left the remainder of them to be content with whatever else came their way and the knowledge that there’s always tomorrow and maybe, just maybe tomorrow might be the day. That’s what my concept of fishing is and no doubt most other anglers concept of fishing too. It’s the knowledge that you don’t know if today is going to be your day and the thrill of the moment when your reel screams off…… and you actually realise that it is.
I also believe that a vast proportion of anglers treat fishing as a day in which they cherish a desire in anticipation of landing the fish of their lifetime and that most will accept the fact that the ‘good days’ and the ‘not so good’ days are all part and parcel of the sport that we all love and enjoy.
For me personally, fishing is about the closest you can get to physically experiencing poetry. It’s a pursuit based on contemplation and solitude that involves an appreciation of the elements. It’s a game of chance, of hope, of expectation and escapism; a step into the murky waters of the unknown. It’s the perfect interaction of man with nature and there is little difference than the angler setting forth on a misty dawn than the poet staring at a blank page. Both seek inspiration and both are hoping for greatness, but both will settle for a brief silvery flash of transcendental brilliance that lies just beneath the surface. Some days they acquire what they seek, some day’s they do not. That, Oleg my friend, is the beauty of fishing.

Meanwhile, Simon from Hamburg in Germany who arrived with girlfriend Claudia was thrilled to realise that today was actually his day when he landed his dream fish being the coveted arapaima, (Oleg please take note.) It certainly wasn’t the lakes biggest specimen by any means at just short of a hundred pounds but that was of no consequence whatsoever to Simon and Claudia as this was what they’d came for…… and this was what they’d got. Yes indeed …… the beauty of fishing.

Yet another arapaima capture was made by Alex from Suffolk who arrived with his girlfriend Bianca. We were proud to welcome this ex army lad here especially due to the fact that he sadly lost his leg to a landmine in Afghanistan. We have nothing but the utmost respect for you Alex and if anyone deserved to catch the fish of their dreams, then it was certainly you son and it was particularly pleasing to witness you do it.
Alex had actually extended his stay by a day here at Jurassic and it was during this extension that he landed his prize fish being an arapaima in excess of 200 pounds. A good choice that turned out to be then didn’t it? Er…Paying attention are we Oleg?

It is with much sadness that we announce that Barry Humm, our friend and regular visitor to Jurassic sadly lost his battle with cancer and passed away in January. Rest in peace Barry.

So as January drew to a close, we looked back on the anglers who visited Jurassic for the exotic fishing Thailand has to offer and we found that our swims were occupied no less than 202 times which bagged 597 Siamese carp to 188 pounds, 49 Indian carp to 36 pounds, 18 arapaima to 273 pounds, 412 Amazon Redtails to 66 pounds, 27 Asian Redtails to 34 pounds, 3 Chao Praya catfish to 94 pounds, 4 Niger ripsaws to 22 pounds, 31 tambaqui to 39 pounds, 3 snakehead to 18 pounds, and 2 Redtail Tiger hybrids totaling an amazing 1146 fish in all.

And as the final setting sun of January was slowly engulfed by the mountains that surround Jurassic, it left a magnificent crimson and turquoise sky that only God could design and that looked as if Constable had painted it himself.
But this only acted as a prelude to the wonderful moonlit night that followed.
She appeared out of nowhere along with a million stars casting their welcome light across the lake illuminating it like a living jewel with a thousand flickering flashes of moonbeam and, as I surveyed this stunning scene, my thoughts once more returned to that very first sunrise of 2016 and it confirmed to me once again….. Yes, what a very beautiful year indeed it was going to be at this wonderful place in paradise known as Jurassic Mountain Resort and Fishing Park.

So it’s cheerio for yet another month and I look forward to writing the newsletter for you again in February. Tight lines all.

If this newsletter tempts you to sample the delights of Jurassic Mountain resort, please mention ‘newsletter’ in your inquiry for a free upgrade to a de-luxe poolside suite subject to availability.