“A few months ago we were joined on the Maeklong River by Justin and a friend from the USA. The US anglers hooked a monster Giant freshwater stingray (himantura chaophraya) which took an epic three hours to successfully land. In the course of the battle an 80lb stand up rod was broken requiring the anglers to switch to a heavier rod to continue the battle. The Giant freshwater stingray was estimated to weigh 200-210kg’s and was released after capture.”
I asked Rick how he managed to switch rods in the middle of paling one of these monsters and was told:
“When a rod breaks when fishing for Giant freshwater stingrays we are forced to pull off a large amount of line and then cut the line. We then retie to another rod with a Bimmini twist topped by a load of overhand loops and blobbed. After carefully feeding the big knot through the rollers we can commence battle again.”
Rick continued “We were also joined by two European anglers at a later date who caught a 1.9m wide stingray estimated 190-200kg’s which was landed after a long drawn out battle.
The most notable stingray capture of late was caught a few weeks ago by Newlyweds Nigel and Caroline from Ashford in Middlesex. After fishing two days at Bungsamran Lake and catching a large haul of Mekong and Striped Catfish to 50kg’s the anglers moved to the Maeklong River in search of stingrays.
Fishing only a one day session the anglers hooked a monster which was duly lost almost three hours later. After losing another smaller stingray due to vegetation fouling the line the newly weds hooked yet another Giant freshwater stingray which took another three hours to land taking turns with the rod.
The stingray, which was finally landed during the hours of darkness, was found to be a recapture of a fish caught 7 months previously with a width of 2.3m’s. The ancient female stingray had a short stumpy tail which had been severed during mating previously. It was estimated to weigh 220kg’s.
I have attached a picture with the bride and groom posing with the stingray in full wedding attire!
Regards,
Rick Humphreys www.Fishsiam.com
