Jurassic Fishing Park.
First impressions most definitely count. As they say, you only get one shot at making them, so you need to do everything conceivably possible to make sure you stand out above the crowd and get either noticed or remembered, which is exactly the what they've done at Thailand's newest purpose constructed big fish lake. "They" are Eddie Mounce, MD of the highly successful Fish Thailand, and Jules Fernandez, MD of Siam Fishing Tours, both of whom offer guided fishing experiences at a wide range of other big fish locations within a couple of hours driving time of the countries capital Bangkok, plus a number of jungle locations further to the north.
I'd already fished with Eddie in the past and was well aware of his ability to produce the goods. Last visit we split our time across Bungsamran for an arm wrenching day from beginning to end with big Mekong Catfish; fly fishing for Barramundi at Boon Mar, and a day spent at IT Monsters lake looking for a variety of big hard fighting predators which we got aplenty. But not my main target objective the Arapaima, plus I waived the chance of trying for a Siamese Carp, another target fish for me, which at Bungsamran are known to grow in excess of 100 Kg. Not that I was particularly bothered on either account, but it would have been nice. So when I knew I would be back in Thailand in early 2014, this time I decided that regardless of the outcome, Arapaima and Siamese Carp would be my focus this time round.
Both species are well distributed throughout most of the established locations used by Fish Thailand and Siam Fishing Tours. But in the case of the Arapaima, they can be patchy and of average size, with the Siamese Carp having a reputation for needing huge investments of targeted time to even be in a sniff of a good result. And therein lay my dilemma. Or so I thought. Because it was at this point that Eddie suggested we fish a brand new water constructed and stocked to fill a particular niche in the market which is big Arapaima, and more than a fighting chance of catching not just one but several Siamese Carp in a sitting.
As I said in my opening comments, first impressions most definitely count. So when prospective visitors are surfing the numerous available locations on the web, irrespective of what a particular water is capable of producing, if their attention isn't grabbed immediately to the point almost of compelling them to read on, it's an even bet that their potential custom could be lost which means it could all be down to something as attractive as venue name. Names like 'Mountain Lake' or 'Mountain View' don't exactly grab you by the throat. But Jurassic Park most certainly does - all names given consideration when the excavation work kicked off at the fishery in question back in December of 2011.
As an evolutionary scientist, the word Jurassic was always going to grab my attention. Thanks to the Spielberg epics of the same name, the general public's interest should also be equally well aroused, though the actual name of the fishery is Jurassic Mountain resort and fishing park, which is located close to Cha Am in the beautiful Thai countryside a couple of hours to the south west of Bangkok. Jurassic Park and huge monsters are an automatic association based on the movie, and in keeping with that theme there are monsters in this particular Jurassic Park too, with the emphasis on Arapaima which start at around 130 pounds going up to maybe 300 pounds, and Siamese Carp which were stocked up to around 60 pounds and are present in numbers almost certain to bring about a result.
So Jurassic Park it was. But unfortunately the whole experience looked like falling apart after my arrival in the country. I was staying a couple of hours the other side of Bangkok at Pattaya, so it was a bit of an epic journey at best to get to the fishery, made all the worse by having to cancel the first attempt due to a total lock-down down of the capital by the countries security forces in response to a huge public protest against the government. Thankfully the main arterial roads skirting Bangkok were re-opened in time to squeeze in the visit. We could have fished elsewhere at locations which would have been more accessible. But I'm glad we didn't, as this is an excellent fishery in a very beautiful part of the country with my two favoured target species as its main claim to fame.
To be honest, when I first pencilled in Jurassic, I wasn't aware that Eddie was co-owner of the place. Fish Thailand, and in Jules case, Siam Fishing Tours, are still operating entities successfully fishing all the same big fish locations as before, with this being an addition to their repertoire rather than an alternative. As Eddie said, they identified a gap in the market, found themselves a prime piece of land out amongst the rice paddies and went for it, with an official opening date coming about in September 2012. Obviously becoming fully established as a fishery takes time, though it has to be said that within months it was producing as anticipated what others were unable to replicate. Now of course it's completely established which is where I pick the story up from here.
It was another beautifully sunny and hot day as Eddie met me at the fishery reception and took me for a guided walk around the lake. Covering an area of around 5 acres and depths down to 25 feet with birds calling loudly in the distance, and surrounded by several rather strange looking mountains which seem to spring up suddenly from nowhere in the this otherwise flat expanse of countryside, I was introduced to Neum who would be taking care of me for the day and was waiting with all the gear set up and baits at the ready. The plan was to regularly loose feed small handfuls of Halibut pellets using one rod for the Carp, and to have a second rod fishing a dead bait along the margins hoping to pick up an Arapaima.
Surprisingly for Thailand, they had been experiencing quite a marked drop in water temperature in the run up to my visit and were relying on the sun warming the water up as the day wore on. That meant that in theory at least, the fishing was expected to improve progressively over the day with the last hour before dusk expected to fish the best, which turned out to be the case. It's a good job they had a sort of thatched bamboo seat come shelter at each swim to get out of the sun, because from dawn through to dark, as ever, it was relentless. A cool box filled with ice and drinks completed the set up with a call to lunch midday prepared on site by a chef. All very civilized.
There were a few heart pounding moments on the fish baits interspersed throughout the day as I thought I was about to get into that big Arapaima. Unfortunately, the culprits were suspected as being Amazonian Red Tailed Catfish, a batch of which had recently gone in for growing on, though there are some quite sizeable Red Tails already in the place already along with Giant Snakehead, Pacu, and a few Mekong Catfish. So any of the predators could have been responsible, though the catching of some small Red Tailed Cats did rather point the finger of suspicion in their direction.
For the reasons explained, the fishing in the run up to my chicken stir fry at midday was a bit on the slow side with just the one Siamese Carp of around 20 pounds to me, plus another across the way to a couple of Norwegian visitors who had one maybe going up in the high thirties. But after lunch and an hour or so with Eddie recording a podcast interview for Audio Angling, it most definitely was all change. Fish started showing at the surface as well as on the baits. One particular run took off so quickly that it almost had the rod following it. Neum had just nipped off for a leak and this felt like a very good Carp. These are particularly powerful never say die fish. Far harder work than the species we have back here in the UK, though the higher water temperatures will also play a part too.
By the time Neum had made it back I had the upper hand, but still it wasn't beaten, and nor would it be as just out of reach of the net the hook unfortunately pulled. So in went another handful of loose pellets followed closely by my hair rigged double pellet bait. And all the time fish were visibly boiling just under the surface. Obviously they weren't all Siamese Carp. Arapaima are air breathers and will also come to surface fairly regularly. But the majority would have been Carp as their showing repeatedly coincided with the pellets going in suggesting they were taking them on the drop.
This persuaded Neum to head back to reception in search of a float which turned out to be a good sized waggler which he rigged up maybe four feet above the bait. In would go as few loose fed pellets followed by the bait. But despite the bulges of water continuing to appear in the feeding zone, nothing it seemed was willing to pick up the double pellet bait, so this was reduced to a single pellet, and bang, it was taken almost immediately on the drop. Then it took off heading down the lake. A very powerful fish wanting to put as much distance between itself and me in the shortest time possible, forcing me to follow it down the bank with line still pouring from the spool.
Eventually it decided to make a stand and slug it out just before the bend in the lake where for what seemed like an eternity it gave as good as it got and refused give any ground. In it would come for a brief spell then off it went again. I've no idea how long all of this went on for but it was quite a time. Even when it was starting to give ground and slug it out just beyond the reach of the net there was no getting it any nearer. What a scrap. Eventually (thank goodness this time) it did see the inside of the net. A fabulous fish of well over 50 pounds which more than made up for the lack of interest on the part of the Arapaima.
Photo shoot out of the way and feeling quite cool as I climbed back out of the water with the sun now dipping very low in the sky, we made our way back up to where the bait bucket was. Neum made it first, and gee'd up by the success we'd just enjoyed threw in another handful of pellets followed by the bait, which no sooner had it hit the water than the reel drag was yielding line again. I was still trying sort myself out from the last one and get the blood re-circulating again through my aching arms, so I said to Neum " You hooked it, you fight it and let's see you in the water cradling the thing cold and wet just as it's time to pack up and go home".
That fish was another good one well up in the forties. Nuem did offer to strip down to his Y-fronts and go in for a picture, but we couldn't be so cruel. Instead it was disgorged in the net floated on the unhooking mat as the perfect end to what turned out to be a very successful and enjoyable day. So why not take a look at the prospects on line – the first class accommodation, idyllic setting and the excellent fishing by logging on to www.jurassicfishingthailand.com