Newsletter December 2018

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

Welcome to Jurassic Mountain Resort. Fishing in Thailand

In the shadow of the mountain sits an angling paradise and those of you who have already visited Jurassic will understand why anglers return time and time again to test their wits against the lake and hopefully catch some of its monster inhabitants.

We cater for all levels of experience and ability with our team of gillies, overseen by our fishery manager, on hand throughout the day to provide assistance and support.

Trips can be booked for any duration of time and we are ideally located for day trips from Bangkok; being a fully facilitated resort we offer a relaxing place for anglers and non anglers alike. If you haven’t made the journey to us yet perhaps it’s time to get in touch and see the Jurassic monsters for yourself

For a truly memorable fishing holiday contact us on enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com

Arapaima for the future!

We thought you might like to see how our juvenile arapaima have progressed over the last few months. The first photo was taken at 1 month and at this time they measured 12cm, 2 months later at the ripe old age of 3 months they measured 36cm (14 inches). Suffice to say they’re growing well and over the next 3-4 months we’ll be looking to put them into the stock ponds.

It was a busy December on the lake. Siamese carp once again topped the ‘most caught species’ list with almost twice as many caught as the second placed species, the redtail. For the second month running the tambaqui has been the third placed fish narrowly seeing the net a few more times than the arapaima and Indian carp. During the month the lake record for the most fish caught in a session has been broken twice and PBs set for a number of our guests. All in all it’s been a great festive season.

Christmas Day saw all our guests sitting down for perhaps the best Christmas dinner in Thailand as our staff once again did a superb job in ensuring that the festive season was celebrated in style. It’s always a great time of year to be at Jurassic so if you are interested in spending Christmas/New Year 2019 with us get in contact now – enquiries@wordpress-1242400-4445492.cloudwaysapps.com

A look back at who’s caught what in December

December has been a cracking month on the lake – records broken and memories made. Returning guests mixed in with new faces made this festive month one to remember both on and off the lake.

Dave kept things nice and simple using a bare lead to explore the swim with the gillie searching out the harder clay areas. Counting the time taken for the lead to touchdown coupled with the feel he soon gained an appreciation of the different depth and substrate. The rods were cast and a tight bed of chopped boilies and pellets soon followed – the takes soon began. Action slowed during the heat of the day so Dave switched to pre-glugged hookbaits and this certainly made a difference in speeding up the takes with fish creaming off into open water before he had a chance to set the drop back indicator!

Lance’s day started off with a series of unfortunate events as he lost all the fish he hooked, despite using the same tactics as had proved highly successful on previous days. He decided to have a short break and pick the brains of his fellow anglers. Returning to his swim he went back to basics choosing to fish 2 pellet rods over a single baited area at 10-12m. His left hand rod ripped first giving his a specimen tambaqui – his faith in his approach was restored and then with just over an hour to go he recast his rods and applied a light scatter of feed. Suddenly the right rod sprung into life and he lifted into something substantial – one of the lakes 100lb+ carp. After an auspicious start a dream ending to his day.

Although he has fished in Thailand on previous occasions it was Martin’s first visit to Jurassic and he came with a list with 2 items on it; an arapaima and one of the large Siamese carp. His very first cast saw him hook an arapaima but unfortunately it shook the hook. Throughout the trip he caught some great specimens and on his last day he was able to tick an arapaima of over 100lb off his list.

Dan is never far from water be it working on cruise ships, surfing, diving or fishing. He did have second thoughts about getting in when he netted an angry alligator gar but seemed happy to have his photo taken with it when the fishery team had managed to calm it down. Another species off the list though!

Keith returned to Jurassic with his brother Phil for a bit of winter sun. Large pacu and pla sawai, aka striped catfish, graced their nets as they worked hard, learning from the other anglers on the lake and assisting others when they could. The pla sawai are a common Thai species but there is only a handful of them in the lake so it’s nice when they put in an appearance for our guests. They are usually grey through to silvery blue in colour and can appear pearlescent due to their scaleless body with a faint stripe along the lateral line.

Mark is a keen predator angler from the UK and throughout his trip was successful in landing arapaima. There are 2 photos of Mark below – the first one was taken and seconds later the arapaima bolted, clearing the cage the instant the second was taken. Wonderful fish but a reminder that they need respect and careful handling at all times. Dave visited us for 5 days and enjoyed the relaxed pace of life far away from the rat race. He saw a good number of fish during his stay with a number of tambaqui taken on double pellet.

Fabian and friends – carp
Christoff – Rita Salween
James – Giant Snakehead
Jason – arapaima
Sam – tambaqui
Phil – Pla Sawai
Matt – pacu
Graham/s arapaima
Dave – carp
Matt & John – carp
Keith – pacu
Martin – arapaima
Dan – alligator gar
Mark and another arapaima
Dave – carp
Photo done – he’s off!
Mark – photo no 1
Daytripper Neil – arapaima
Lance – carp
Dave – tambaqui

Derek and Neville have been friends for years and often compete in matches in and around their home town of Sheffield. This was their first trip to Thailand in search of some different species. Their visit started with more than 10 fish between them including an arapaima, which was the largest freshwater fish Derek had ever landed.

Experienced sea angler David returned with his friends for their annual trip to Jurassic. This visit saw Dave land his first arapaima and gave him bragging rights over his fishing mates.

Fabian from France is a keen angler and is often found out fishing with his friend. At Jurassic the pair fished as a team choosing to double up in a single swim during their two day session. Fabian’s goal was to land a fish over 100lb during the trip and midday through their final day his dream came true, landing one of the lake’s giant Siamese carp.

Matt has been a keen angler since a young age although in recent years it has been hard to find the time to be out on the bank. Together with his friend John they visited us for a relaxing holiday with rods out! Amongst many fish during their trip Matt caught a pristine pacu.

With not a cloud in the sky and very little wind Anthony knew it was going to be a hot day. Whilst some anglers sought shade and a cold beer as the temperatures soared he took the opportunity to explore the upper layers with the float. With his sun hat on, sun cream applied and a steady supply of lum he got to work and before long the float shot under and the rod tip arced round. Game on!

It was Jason’s third trip to Jurassic with his friends and with all groups there tends to be a lot of competitive banter both on and off the lake. It was Jason’s turn to silence the group when his first cast hooked an arapaima, which turned out to be his biggest to date. Well done!

Sam is keen angler and loves to travel during his free time exploring areas within Asia. With a love of water hobbies he is never far away from fish having scuba dived with an array of different species and this trip was no different.

Christoff arrived at Jurassic with 9 days of fishing booked and a target list of species and sizes to focus on. On his list was a Rita Salween catfish, a rarely seen species of catfish in Thailand apart from in the Salween river north of Chiang Mai, where it has been known to reach lengths up to 2m. Christoff succeeded in ticking this species off his list – well done!

Jim and his family came to Jurassic to celebrate his 50th birthday and they certianly did it in style Catching an array of fish – Chao Phraya for the birthday boy and a giant snakehead for his son James to name a few – they certainly seemed to have a great time.

Andy came to Jurassic with one aim in mind – to catch the most number of fish in a day. Well he certainly did that, landing 36 fish – 25 Siamese carp and 11 Amazon redtails. Incredible fishing!

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

Swims
Swims All the swims here at Jurassic are equipped with a Solar worldwide rod pod, 3 stainless steel rear rest, 3 Delkim bite alarms, Delkim snag ears and Fox swingers. The standard fishing package is for 2 rods however in some of the larger swims you might like to maximise your chances and rent a third one. This also gives you the opportunity to simultaneously fish different methods. Just ask one of the fishery staff for more details.

We do have several swims that can accommodate 2 anglers at a time or up to 4 rods. This makes them ideal for families or groups of friends where there is a mix of angling experience/ability and helps build confidence before anglers tackle a swim on their own. They are also popular with anglers wishing to use 3 or more rods.

Swim choice is always dictated by the swim draw, a good-humoured and social affair, which takes place every night at approximately 7.30pm. There are no reserved or cordoned off swims at Jurassic and every angler goes into the draw. Having a draw also means that if you have a late night or just fancy a lie in (after all you are on holiday!) you can do so without losing your swim.

There are several water hyacinth beds around the lake that whilst creating habitat for the natural ecosystem provide swims with marginal features. They are a magnet for prey species such as frogs, crabs, prawns and snail meaning that the fish are never far away. The plants offer shading and protection however as it’s not rooted to either the bank or the substrate the fish can be played from beneath it by keeping the rod tip low.

One of our other residents

The water monitor is a common lizard that is native to South and Southeast Asia where they have been known to reach a total length of up to 3 metres (nearly 10 feet!), making them the second largest monitor lizard in the world and second only to the more aggressive and dangerous Komodo dragon. This size is unusual and normally they only reach around the 1.5 metre mark. If you’re lucky you might see them wandering round the resort’s grounds enjoying the sun!

Jurassic will be at The Big One this year so if you’re based in the UK come and talk to Martin & Jo Bowler about a holiday with us! Special offers will be available for bookings taken at the show so don’t miss out!

The sun sets around 6.15 and the last fish of the day is returned to its home in the lake – 2018 has now come to a close and all of us here at Jurassic wish you all the best for 2019 and look forward to seeing you all in the coming year.

Video Round-Up for December

Neil: Arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1150147695140508

Mark: Tambaqui https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/742673899422052

Mark: Arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/302182460397639

Frank: Arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/299221504256763

Neville & Derek: Amazon Redtail
https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/574942639586456

Lance: Huge Siamese https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/1887896134598554

Simon: Alligator Gar https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/2400373419990917

Phil: Arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/330859124171908

‘Dangerous’ Dave: Arapaima https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/896355210559191/

December Action 1 https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/302651427038492

December Action 2 https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark/videos/358912991602136