We are well into April as I write my latest blog offering and yet what has turned into a relentless winter is still hanging on for dear life. Never before have I worked Easter weekend with sub-zero temperatures and snow on the ground but this year that’s exactly what I did, well half of it anyway. The other half was spent excitedly travelling to the other side of the world for a well-deserved break for me and my better half, southern Thailand to be exact.
Now I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to know that whilst you are sat at home with the heating still on full and donning fleece jackets to leave the house I’m sat behind my laptop on our balcony in what can only be temperatures approaching 40 degrees whilst sinking a nice cold Chang beer, bliss.
Before flying out on holiday though there was the rather more pressing matter of getting the end of our river season out of the way. As per usual the weather was grim and the prospect of much, if anything, getting caught was slim to none at best.
I must say at this point that surely it is time for the powers that be to look at the ridiculous and quite frankly outdated close season and in my eyes (and the majority of anglers I know) abolish it all together. I honestly can’t for the life of me see how it’s ok to fish stillwaters and canals all year round but not the rivers considering how few anglers venture onto running water in comparison to our nations other waterways.
Picnickers, ramblers, dog walkers, houseboats, canoeists, leisure craft and many more besides use the waterways relentlessly throughout the months of March, April, May and June yet us anglers who pay good money for 12 month club subscriptions and EA fishery licences (which give us no support as anglers whatsoever) are banished from the waterways for what are probably three of the best months’ fishing of the year; in reality it’s often nearer six months these days taking into account the cold and/or extremely wet winters we seem to face.
Anyway… I’m going off on a tangent and as you can probably see I’m no supporter at all of the close season so before I open up another can of worms which is the not fit for purpose EA I’ll move onto a more light-hearted note that is actually fishing.
My end of season plans always revolve around two things, catching a decent back end barbel and having a bit of a social with long time fishing pal Ashley Burton. We had originally decided to book the last three days of the season off and indeed have a bit of a social and hopefully catch a few fish but with the long term forecast not looking so good Ash took the decision to cancel his three days off and keep them back for when the weather was better. I however had to take mine as once booked it’s ‘use them or lose them’. Due to this we decided that regardless of the weather we would get out at the slightest hint of a temperature rise and have a go anyway.
During the first week of March there was a very small window of opportunity so rearranging a few plans we did manage to venture onto the banks in search of barbel.
Deciding to fish a fair distance apart so we didn’t end up competing against each other our tactics were almost identical: feeder fishing maggots during the hours of daylight then switching over to boilies or pellets come nightfall.
The day passed by rather uneventfully with just a couple of kamikaze chub falling to my rods and nightfall was soon upon us so, after preparing the swims, we gave them a rest and fired up the BBQ. Before long we’d had our fill of sausages and burgers so it was time to wish one another luck and head back to our respective swims.
My rods were soon baited with 15mm NashBait boilies and a small pva bag of the same bait broken into pieces. My plan was simple, having deposited the best part of six pints of maggots into the swim throughout the day without a barbel I would leave my casts in place until either daybreak or I caught a fish, whichever came first.
With both rods positioned where I wanted them it was time to crawl into my sleeping bag and see what the night ahead brought me. During the early hours of the morning my right hand rod let out a single beep which had me up and alert in an instant, a few seconds later the rod smashed round and the sound of a Nash Siren shattered the peace. The fish didn’t feel particularly big at first as it just charged around shaking its head but it soon hit the bottom of the river and that’s where it stayed, I couldn’t move it for love nor money so now, realising it was probably a good fish, I eased off a bit and played it a little more gently.
Several minutes of stalemate went by but eventually the fish tired and was ready for the net, it was indeed a good fish. Unclipping the hooklength I got a good look at her and it was a fish I recognised, not only that but this fish had topped out at nearly 15lb in the past so realising I could have potential PB in the net I gave her a good rest whilst composing myself.
I was soon ready for the moment of truth but the second I lifted the net from the water I knew it wasn’t to be, indeed she was big but not at her prime weight but far from being disappointed I was elated when my Avons bounced and settled on 12lb 12oz! Fantastic, what a wonderful way to finish my 2012/13 barbel campaign! I returned the fish to the water and excitedly gave Ash a call and he was in my swim within a matter of minutes, doing a great job with the camera.
It was interesting to see this particular fish down in weight for the time of year; a cold winter with prolonged floodwater or a big old fish nearing the end of her life being the reasons? One to ponder for the future maybe, all I can say is she put the icing on the cake on what (despite the awful autumn/winter campaign) became a very good season. Nine doubles, five over 12lb, a PB off the Wye and making it over 60 double figure barbel since I seriously took up barbel fishing in August 2007 made it a season to remember.
I had one more session left in me and it turned out to be one to remember for all the wrong reasons! I had recently gained membership of a club that I’d been on the waiting list for two years. With pike being the only realistic target that’s what I opted to target for the last few days.
My kit was readied and fresh baits bought so, despite not knowing this particular venue at all, I was confident that if I could find the pike I’d catch a few. I soon arrived at the river and taking the option of walking to the furthest peg so I could work my way back to the car I was soon negotiating flood debris and the odd stile.
I fished hard for the morning in every likely (and unlikely) swim and other than a lost pike and the sighting of yet another otter (my sixth on this particular river in the past few months) it was an uneventful morning. Early afternoon and I was finally into a fish and after a spirited fight a feisty pike of around 8lbmade it into my net, only very lightly hooked I quickly unhooked it in the water and returned it to fight another day.
Things went horribly wrong from thereon in. I’d noted a decent looking swim and decided I’d drop into it for a good couple of hours; there was plenty of water to go at for two rods so I paternostered a sardine just downstream and popped up a mackerel tail just below a bush slightly upstream of my sitting position. A cup of tea was poured and all was good with the world, but that was soon to change!
There were a couple of swans in the margin of my swim and they were causing no concern to me at all, just eating bits of grass and up-ending every now and again, nowhere near my baits or rigs so I wasn’t unduly bothered. Without warning, however, the male decided upon himself to attack his partner and before I could react the rod with the popped up mackerel on was attached to an angry swan and was being dragged to a watery grave.
This happened in a matter of seconds and only two feet from where I was sitting and yet it was over before I could do anything about it. Quickly reeling in my remaining rod I frantically cast around the area hoping to snag the lost rod and retrieve it but I failed miserably and then, out of the corner of my eye, saw a swan on the far bank towing my float behind it.
I was quickly onto the phone to both the RSPB and RSPCA who logged my location and said a local officer would be in touch. I quickly loaded all my gear (what was left of it) into the car and tracked the swan for about a mile downsteam.
Thankfully when I reached her she had shed the offending fishing items and was swimming around without a care in the world. I re-contacted the RSPCA informing them and was told they’d be in touch if a distressed bird was found or my fishing equipment. I never heard from them again so I presume the swan was ok and the only thing hurt that day was my pocket.
That brought an abrupt end to my season’s fishing as, despite having the 14th free to fish, I just didn’t have the heart after my lost tackle escapade.
At the beginning of this month’s blog I touched on the fact I was enjoying being on holiday in Thailand. I’m sure most of you have heard of Gillhams Fishing Resort over there and I couldn’t go on a trip without booking a few days’ fishing for the magnificent species that reside in this stunning fishery.
Through my annual holidays over the past few years I have been fortunate to have fished in some fantastic places and indeed caught some great fish. My latest trip however surpassed all of my previous experiences, the venue? Gillhams Fishing Resort in Krabi, Southern Thailand.
Opened by well-respected big fish angler Stuart Gillham and his son Sean in 2007 the fishery has quickly established itself and grown a reputation as one of the finest freshwater fisheries in the world. With no less than 48 species to target in the nine acre lake ranging from fish in the low double figure category to world record breaking specimens of several hundred pounds in weight it really is a place where dreams can, and do, come true.
I didn’t have long for my visit, three days to be exact, tagged onto the end of what had been a ten day stay in a resort with my fiancée, Eva. The morning for our visit soon arrived and, as arranged with Stuart, one of his staff was at our hotel bright and early to collect us.
The journey didn’t take long and having seen plenty of pictures of the fishery online beforehand I knew what to expect, or at least I thought I did! Pulling onto the fishery the views from all sides were breath-taking, mountains with sheer cliff faces adorned with a variety of trees, forest and jungle in every direction, exotic plants, birds and other wildlife not to mention a myriad of huge fish leaping, rolling and bow waving around the lake. It was obvious a lot of care and dedication had taken place to make the fishery and maintain it to the standard that I saw before me.
I was eager to check in and get fishing but first a few formalities such as double checking the rules and going through the methods and equipment to be used so I was familiar with what I was doing.
The best way I can describe it is carp and predator fishing almost as we do here in the UK but on a much bigger scale, 6lb test rods, 80lb braid or 35lb mono mainline, semi fixed inline leads and short hooklengths. The emphasis is on keeping things as simple as possible, it’s less complicated for the angler and, more importantly, safer for the fish.
Two elements that were an absolute must though were short hooklengths as it’s impossible to unhook some of the species if they are deep hooked and this could result in a loss for the fishery, and tubing above the lead to protect the flanks of the fish in the fight. Bait wise again it was nothing complicated, fishery own pellets for hook baits and feed and deadbaits supplied by the fishery. Every day of your stay you are supplied with a bucketful of feed pellets, a tub of hook baits and a packet of deadbaits, more is available to buy at a very reasonable price should you wish. This is one thing I did do as I wanted to target the Siamese carp so smaller feed pellets and ready prepared maize was the best way to go.
So hopefully by now you have an idea of the challenge that I was faced with so how did I get on?
It took me a few hours to get into my stride a little and to work things out but once I had a picture of the swim in front of me built up I could get to work with a baiting strategy and try to maximise the water I had available.
Fishing two rods I had three swims in my peg to target, which gave me plenty of options species wise: down the near margin to target the huge arapaima, out in front of me on the sandy bottom for the carp and the far cabbage-lined margin for the Amazon redtail catfish. All three areas were regularly baited and fished in rotation so one swim was always being rested. It took a while to get the fish going and on day one I finished with two redtails and a rare visitor the bank in the shape of a near 40lb Striped Catfish. The fishing is from 7am until 8pm so upon finishing time I baited up in preparation for the following day and what a day it turned out to be.
I could write a whole article based on just the 2nd days fishing. In total I hooked 12 fish, landing eight of them; that’s one of the drawbacks with some of the species, they have very bony mouths so hook pulls are sometime inevitable. Still I wasn’t complaining, Siamese carp to a whopping great 90lb, redtails to 30lb and the majestic and prehistoric looking arapaima to a huge size of 180lb (these fish actually go to nearer 500lb and 300lb+ fish are a regular occurrence in the fishery). It’s safe to say I was worn out come 8pm and by daybreak on day three I was full of aches.
Nonetheless I was up with the lark and raring to go. The fishing was much slower due, in part, to a drop in water temperature I did however still land two redtails and a Siamese carp. Heartbreakingly I lost four arapaima, two of which were of monstrous proportions. I can’t even begin to describe the sheer power of these fish and once they decide to get their heads down and run it’s all you can do to hang on. Despite the loss of these fish it was a truly fantastic experience and one I hope to repeat one day.
With 14 fish landed over the three days and almost the same again lost the action was at times hectic, double hook ups occurring twice and fish hitting baits on the drop kept it very entertaining. One thing I will say though is that if you are looking for a runs water Gillhams isn’t the place for you. If you work hard at your fishing, do all the right things and maximise the water in front of you then the rewards are there to be had but a turn up and chuck it out venue it isn’t. What it is? It’s a fantastic fishery, in wonderful surroundings with some of the hardest fighting most immaculate, well looked after fish in the world.
For more information on the fishing at Gillhams contact Stuart Gillham at info@gillhamsfishingresorts.com
