AUSTRALIA :Black Marlin Estimated at 1,100 Pounds

For 30 years, Bob Rich Jr. has been trying to catch a 1,000-pound marlin. Rich, 70, finally got his wish this month with a black marlin he caught out of Australia on October 5 that was estimated at 1,100 pounds. Bob Rich Jr. is the chairman of one of the world's largest frozen food companies and recently published a book called The Right Angle: Tales from a Sporting Life.

In the book, he tells of catching a 750-pound marlin off the coast of Africa, according to the Miami Herald. He asked his publisher if it was too late to add the story of this most recent marlin, and was told he'd just have to pen another book.

USA: huge 93 pound blue catfish

When Randie Lieneke watched a friend pull a 93-pound blue catfish out of the Missouri River several years ago, he made a simple goal.

“I’m going to catch one bigger,” he said.

In early October, that goal was met. Using a trotline baited with large shad, Lieneke caught a 95-pound blue cat near Wellington, Mo., where he lives.

That exceeded the 81-pound blue cat he and friends caught this year during the flood.

“The Missouri still has lots of big catfish,” said Lieneke, 53. “We catch a lot of fish weighing from 50 to 60 pounds.

“But when you get up over 80 pounds, that’s still a rare fish.”



www.kansascity.com

USA: big 52.5 inch muskie in Ontario

Autumn in Northwestern Ontario might be chilly, but it looks like there's some amazing fishing. Ben Beattie, on his blog Ben Beattie Outdoors, posted these impressive photos of some huge muskie and walleye caught so far this fall. Ben is a writer and guide based out of Sioux Lookout in Ontario. He says the first of these fish was a 52.5-inch muskie. 


www.benbeattieoutdoors.com

AUSTRALIA: Bligh Reef Lagoon Explorer

Highlights: Released 62 GTs between 9:30am - 2pm!! 

UNBELIEVABLE - is the only way to describe our day.....Our day started well in the shallows with a triple hookup on red bass, followed by a huge bustoff on a 30kg GT on the light gear. After a few more trout and bass, we decided to fish our way west and start fishing some isolated reefs back towards our evening anchorage. This turned out to be a great plan, with one of the craziest GT sessions I've ever seen. We arrived at the reef to catch a 20kg Spaniard on a popper on the first cast, and then all hell broke loose. I can't recount everything, but it was literally a fish chasing every cast for the next 4 hours. Between 9:30am and 2pm we released 62 GTs ranging in size from about 8kg-22kg, as well as Spanish mackerel, barracuda, red bass and sharks. To say the fish were jumping in the boat is not an overstatement because GTs tried to jump in the boat chasing poppers on 2 occasions!! It was literally one of the most ridiculous sessions I have even witnessed, and we may never see anything like that again, but who knows!!! What a week it has been, and to finish the trip with such a crazy day fishing with guys who truly appreciated it was something we'll never forget.

Damon Olsen

www.nomadsportfishing.com.au

CAPE VERDE:1150 lbs Grander Blue Marlin biggest of the season

Here the story of the biggest CAPE VERDE marlin of the 2011 season:

Our first fishing day on the AMELIA started at 6:30 a.m.. Our team: Jörg Donath (Angler), Zak Conde (Captain), "Scuba" Steve Hall (Mate), Towares Chyi (Mate) and myself. As the fish hadn't been biting around Sao Vicente, we pulled up anchor and headed for out next fishing spot, the sea between Noroeste-Bank and the island of Santo Antao. At 11:30 a.m. our onboard instruments showed that we were approaching the bank. We saw large schools of small fish and tuna as well as many sea birds hunting there. We caught three Wahoos and a small Yellow Fin Tuna. Around 2:00 p.m. we returned to Marlin fishing. At 3:00 p.m. came a violent marlin attack a long struggle began at that point for me. After an hour and ten minutes I had the guys take the leader and set the flying gaffs. Despite our best efforts and great teamwork, we couldn't manage to pull the fish on board. The door of the boat was too small for a marlin of this size. Then someone yelled "Shark!" and our blood went cold. Our boat was indeed surrounded by hungry sharks coming ever closer. "Scuba" Steve summoned up his courage, jumped into the water and tied a rope around the tail of the fish. In a fit of desperation we finally managed to muster enough power to get the marlin on board. Our battle lasted more than two hours! We were then homeward bound toward Mindelo at over 30 knots. In the thick of the night about ten miles from the marina, the boat came to an abrupt halt: our AMELIA was ensnared in a fishing net. After some initial struggle we were finally able to set a single propeller free and with only the one engine we puttered on. Before long we saw the harbor lights of Mindelo, finally reaching the marina at around 11.30 p.m.. A crane truck and helpers stood at the ready among many spectators. The Blue Marlin weighed in at 1,150lbs!

Summary: For Zak Conde as Captain his first weighted Blue Marlin Grander, "Scuba" Steve Hall and Towares Chiy caught their largest Blue Marlin and now I'm only missing a Black Marlin for my "Grander-Collection". After that I'll stop the Marlin fishing and only go fly and popper fishing …

Many thanks to Captain Berno Niebuhr and Captain Clay Hansley, as well as his two assistants from Ghana, for organizing the crane truck and digital scale at midnight.

The Fish was caught with our BluewaterFishing Lure "Superjet" in Black/Chartreuse/Red

www.marlincapeverde.com

IRELAND: 183lb skate on 12lb rod

On a recent trip aboard my Red Bay Fast Fisher, the weather was horrendous with near gale force wind and torrential rain. Being quite “certifiable”, we still wanted a day out on the water somewhere, even if it was simply sheltered behind a headland fishing for pollack and wrasse. We opted for the north coast as this would give us a little protection from the strong southerlies.

In the lee of the headland, we managed to find some fantastic pollack fishing on light tackle, with fish to double figures and also a bonus specimen cuckoo wrasse. As the tide turned and the area became un-safe, we decided to anchor over an in-shore sand bank in the hope of finding a small ray or two. After a few obligatory dogfish, Glenn and Big Phil found a blonde ray each, before Glenn lifted into something some-what larger!It was obvious he had found a common skate that had ventured close in to shore. This in itself is interesting, but  the skate was taken on 12lbs class tackle and a light flouro-carbon  hook-length. Playing the fish with a great deal of skill for over an hour, he managed to bring it to the surface and realise his goal of landing a “ton-up” fish. The measurements put the female skate at 183lbs. Glenn deserves a pat on the back for landing such a sizeable fish on very light tackle.

Terry Jackson

MOZAMBIQUE: Bazaruto archipelago report

 

  

The Marlin Season off the Bazaruto as gone off to a great start with numerous releases over the past two weeks.
With excellent numbers of sailfish and game fish including big wahoo and yellowfin very few boats fished for Marlin over the last two weeks of September. Most choose to take advantage of the light tackle opportunities and had a ball chasing sailfish and game fish.
But conditions were perfect and by early October a good number of boats brought the heavy tackle out and the numbers were just staggering.
The first week saw about 50 Marlin released amongst the fleet of about 16 boats, mostly black´s but also a few Blues and a striped Marlin.
Amongst the Black´s there were some big fish caught including an 935 lbs that died and two fish estimated at over 800 lbs released.
We on Vamizi release 8 fish in the same number of days with sizes ranging from 700 to 200 pounds.
Hardly any boats have fished this last week, so we on Vamizi have been out there on our own making the most of a great bite and in the last 5 days have released 6 Black Marlin and numerous game fish.
So far we have fished 18 days for Marlin the numbers are as follows in that time;
Raised: 39  Strikes: 26  Hookup: 19  Released: 16
  
Duarte A. Moreira Rato
Moz cell: + 258 82 805 7160   /   + 258 84 639 0466
Portugal cell: + 351 96 398 4392 (June-July)
Skype: duarteamrato

e-mail: dudas7mares@gmail.com

BRASIL - AMAZON: 2500 peacock bass caught!

This is my first report from the Brazilian Amazon and our Fly-In Floating Suites. The first group that experienced the Floating Suites had a great time and 8 anglers caught 2500 peacock bass in 6 & ½ days of fishing. Think about it, this is 50 fish per angler per day! They loved the “Floating Suites Experience!We just hosted Keith Kaneko of “Angling on the Fly”, who is Anglers Inn International’s official fly-fishing specialist. Keith and his customers were mightily impressed with our shallow draft, exclusive operation. We continuingly moved and positioned the Water Train and Floating Suites to maximize the shallow water that was perfect for fly - fishing and topwater action. The group averaged 60-70 peacocks/ boat/day up to 17 pounds. They even had 100+ fish days.

www.anglersinn.com  

A New Future for the Atlantic Salmon Reserve

As many of you will already have heard Peter Power, the founder of the Atlantic Salmon Reserve, has stepped down and handed over control and ownership to Vladimir Rybalchenko.  Peter's vision, forethought and ruthless attention to detail has almost certainly done more to preserve the integrity of the Atlantic Salmon fishing in Russia than anyone else, past or present.   His successor, Vladimir, whose passion for salmon fishing and the ASR is unmatched, has undertaken the role of preserving the integrity and ethos of the ASR whilst continuing to maintain and improve its appeal for all.

For the 2012 season there will be a few pleasant changes, most notably a reduction in the rod numbers across the weeks as well as an overall reduction in the prices.   It is hoped that veterans of the ASR will show their continued support to this remarkable destination.  Equally those keen to experience what must be some of the most exciting salmon fishing on the planet will hopefully join us on the rivers next year.

EQUADOR: Galapagos, Manta and Salinas Marlin Report

Winds continue to blow strongly making fishing quite rough. As October progresses we should see the winds begin subside much more. By November the winds should be much nicer and the rides out to the fishing grounds much more pleasant. Water has remained 72 -73 F for the most part around Rosa Blanca and cooler closer to the island. Marlin have been scarce with a few tailers reported seen mainly between san Cristobal and Santa Cruz. Most boats are doing their yearly maintenance waiting for winds to calm down. The Big Fish has been out a few times this month with little luck with striped marlin but has been doing well jigging for groupers up to 30lbs near the island. The wahoo bite has been slow as well as the tuna. This has been a strange year and it appears the influence of La Niña has rerouted important bait masses such as sardines and squid to stay further North than usual. As the season begins to change we should see the fishing pick up enormously.

Salinas.

Salinas has been pretty strong this entire month of October with striped marlin. Double digit raises on most days have made Salinas the place to be this October. Don Chuma (28 Bertram) has reported raising over 40 striped marlin and seen another 40 tailing in 3 days of fishing October 10-12, 2011. Winds have had some days choppy and others pleasant. On average seas have been bearable and temperature has remained around 74. Some dorado and tuna have been caught in large numbers around debris.

Manta.

While Manta has been under the expectations of the last 5 years the fishing was quite reliable until about 10 days ago when it slowed almost to a halt. Most days were experiencing 2 to 5 raises of marlin and sailfish each day. Last week boats averaged 2 or less raises per day of stripes and blues.

For more info: info@ecuagringo.com

IGFA Hot Catches News October 2011

“Think pink” is this month’s theme! French, Japanese, Australian, Portuguese and American anglers – four of them with pink-hued fish – are awaiting word from the IGFA on whether their hottest new catches will be approved for World Records. If approved, these nine anglers will collectively add three All-Tackle, two All-Tackle Length, two line class and two tippet class records among freshwater and saltwater species in next year’s World Record Game Fishes book, due out in January.

Visiting South Florida, USA from his hometown of Saint Perdon, France, angler Alexandre Lafage tried his hand at some of the region’s fantastic snook fishing on the evening of September 8, 2011. Fishing out of Stuart, Florida with IGFA Representative Patrick Sebile and local guide Andy Tasker, Lafage pulled up this 92 cm Atlantic snook (Centropomus spp.) that qualifies him for the potential new All-Tackle Length record. Lafage was thowing a Sebile lure and needed seven minutes to land the potential record fish before it was measured, photographed and released alive. The IGFA current record is 71 cm.

Angler Dr. George Bogen recently traveled north from his home in Los Angeles, CA, USA to the renowned Elfin Cove, Alaska to do his favorite type of fishing – deep bottom jigging. Dr. Bogen certainly wasn’t disappointed when he pulled up a 12.64 kg (27 lb 14 oz) boccacio (Sebastes paucispinis), that - if approved - will give him the All-Tackle record. Bogen was jigging a lead head and plastic grub combo with guide Riley Niewenhuis on August 24, 2011 when the fish hit. Six minutes later, Bogen had the fish in the boat and another potential record. The current IGFA record is 12.08 kg (26 lb 10 oz).

Angler Takeshi Kandori of Aichi, Japan landed a nice 5.67 kg (12 lb 8 oz) snakehead (Channa spp.) to qualify for the potential 10 kg (20 lb) tippet class record. Fishing Taketoyo, Japan on August 14, 2011, Kandori needed four minutes to land his snakehead after it slammed the bass bug fly he was casting. The current IGFA record is 5.67 kg (12 lb 8 oz).

When angler Matt Snyder of Osprey, FL, USA dropped down a live grunt while bottom fishing in the Gulf of Mexico on September 16, 2011, he was hoping to bring up one of the many bottom fish found in this area of the world. However, Snyder was certainly not expecting this massive 47.63 kg (105 lb 0 oz) black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci), that took him 12 minutes to pull from the bottom of the Gulf. If approved, Snyder’s giant black grouper will easily surpass the existing men’s 24 kg (50 lb) line class record, which stands at just 8.16 kg (18 lb 0 oz).

Australian fly angler Frank Bluch recently returned from his annual trip to Canada where he fishes with local guide Mike Harrison. This year, Bluch and Harrison fished Canada’s Tree River, which produced two pending Arctic char (Salvelinus alpines) class records for Bluch. The bigger of the two was this 9.64 kg (21 lb 4 oz) beauty caught on August 13, 2011 while casting a Dumbell Strip Tease fly. After a 20 minute fight, the angler and guide combo were able to weigh and release the potential 02 kg (4 lb) tippet class record fish. The current IGFA record is 7.17 kg (15 lb 13 oz).

While vertical jigging off Algarve, Portugal with guide Jeronimo Joana on July 3, 2011, Portuguese angler Hugo Silva landed this gorgeous pink dentex (Dentex gibbosus) to qualify for the potential new All-Tackle record. Silva’s 15.94 kg (35 lb 2 oz) fish struck a Barros Amberjack Jig and took the experienced angler 18 minutes to land. The current IGFA record is 13.8 kg (30 lb 6 oz).

Usually the targets of spear fishermen, hogfish are tasty tropical fish that are difficult to catch on hook and line. However, angler Wesley Adair Covington of Summerville, SC, USA pulled up this potential All-Tackle record hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) on September 11, 2011 while fishing out of Charleston, SC, USA. Covington’s potential record hogfish tipped the scales at a massive 9.95 kg (21 lb 15 oz) and took the angler 10 minutes to land after it ate the crab he was soaking for bait. The current IGFA record is 9.63 kg (21 lb 6 oz).

Australian angler Mark Hope knows how to successfully catch big barramundi (Lates calcarifer) on light tackle. Hope currently holds the 3 kg (6 lb), 4 kg (8 lb) and 37 kg (80 lb) line class records, and also has a pending record on 2 kg (4 lb). Hope has just recently submitted another application for a 23.7 kg (52 lb 3 oz) barra that he caught on September 21, 2011 while fishing Australia’s Lake Tinaroo. Using only 1 kg (2 lb) line, Hope fought his potential record catch for 20 minutes after it hit the lure he was trolling. If approved, Hope’s potential 1 kg (2 lb) line class record would more than double the existing record that stands at 11.6 kg (25 lb 9 oz).

Philadelphia, PA, USA native Glenn Bennett recently took a trip to Key West, FL, USA with his daughter and IGFA record holder, junior angler Brielle Bennett, to do some record hunting with his brother Captain Brian Bennett. The trip produced three potential record fish for young Brielle, but Glenn also joined the fun with a 140 cm greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili) that he landed on July 17, 2011. With the current record at 120 cm, Bennett’s fish qualifies for a new potential All-Tackle Length record as it was released after being photographed and measured.

www.IGFA.org 

KENYA boats on the podium at Latham Island tourney

Latham island is a small uninhabited rocky isle that rises out of very deep water forty miles out from Dar-es-Salaam, notable because of  the great variety of gamefish in it’s vicinity. This tournament has become an annual fixture with excellent sponsorship, and due to it’s popularity there are not enough game fishing boats locally for all the contestants. So every year at this time a fleet of the top Kenya sportfishing cruisers make the long run down south to compete.

This year the winner was Tanzanian boat Mistress with two blue marlin tagged, skippered by well known Kenya captain Ali al Harazi. Second place went to Unreel, from Watamu with skipper Rob Hellier, which despite losing a good blue marlin, had a big catch of sixteen yellowfin tuna, running up to 40kgs each and a wahoo, while third was B’s Nest with a striped marlin released, and Tarka, also with good catches of tuna and wahoo, came in fourth - both these are Watamu boats, with local skills proving effective in far off waters!

An interesting catch was two rare short billed spearfish on White Bear, these fish are more common down south than in Kenyan waters and this same boat last caught spearfish off Watamu nearly twenty years ago - a cast of which can be seen on the wall at Hemingways!

The weather was wet and calm, important as there is no suitable overnight mooring off Latham, and the boats have to run a dozen miles to another island to anchor.

On the return run, passing through the Pemba Channel off Shimoni, many of the boats had marlin strikes, with Tarka hooking into a very big blue marlin which spooled all the line off a 24kg reel. When this occurs there are three possibilities -  break the line, pray, or for action skippers like Callum Looman, clip the whole rod and reel to another line and throw it overboard! The first rod was duly recovered, but reels do not function their best when they have been deep under water, and the line eventually broke to free the huge fish.

It would seem from this that there are probably plenty of marlin around in the Pemba Channel, and Broadbill, with skipper Pat Hemphill, played a good fish on 15kg line which eventually broke free, but there have been very few charters and when boats don’t go out, they can’t find fish!

With most of the boats away, it has been a quiet week at Watamu, but both the South African catamarans Castle Lager and Contagious came home with a couple of sailfish flags, while Seastorm released a good bull shark of about 150kgs for Poultenay Courtenay and Alleycat tagged a small mako shark, rare in these waters and the only shark which scores gamefish points in tournaments here, most of which require sharks to be released due to their endangered species status. Earlier in the week this same boat released a black marlin and a sail, and another day caught seven wahoo with Mr Yencken fishing as well as losing a marlin so there are still billfish around as well as the yellowfin tuna and wahoo which normally proliferate this month, with warmer and calmer days out at sea.

The first major tournament of the season here is the Malindi Herbie Paul Memorial Festival over the holiday weekend of the 22nd/23rd October - it looks as if there will be plenty of sail and yellowfin tuna in Malindi waters so good action is expected.

www.captainandyskenya.com

COSTA RICA: Crocodile Bay Lodge report

There is a reason Crocodile Bay Resort closes every year in October. One is because we need to do some deep cleaning on the boats, bottom paint and do a tune up on the motors. The other reason is why I am writing this under an umbrella. October is our rainiest month. Just before the rain started, Crocodile Bay used their open schedule to invite a group of 14 kids from the local high school out to explore the gulf on two Strike Yachts. The kids got a chance to see pods of dolphins and three humpback whales! (The young crew returned to the Crocodile Bay pier with smiles on their faces and a new perspective on ocean life.

By the first of November we are starting to move into the dry season and the days are sunny and if the rain falls, it is usually at night. Dorado move in offshore and hungry marlin who love to slurp down dorado and football sized tuna also move in.

Celebrity Tournament and More Events This Season at Crocodile Bay! This season at Crocodile Bay we are hosting several tournaments and other exciting events. We have at least 4 fishing tournaments already scheduled, hosted by the likes of fishing greats Larry Dahlberg from “Hunt for Big Fish”, and another with fishing legend Mark Sosin of Saltwater Journal.

Baseball Hall of Fame legend Wade Boggs will host a fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis in the Red Bone Celebrity Series and the International Sailfish tournament will return to Crocodile Bay again this year.
(Baseball Hall of Fame legend Wade Boggs and wife Debbie Boggs pictured left will attend this years RedBone Tournament)

Information on any of these tournaments can be had at our U.S.
office (800 733 1115)  http://www.crocodilebay.com

CAPE VERDE: 506 kg (1120 lb) biggest marlin of the season

From the moment we arrived on the island of Sao Vincente in the Cape Verde Islands the word on the dock had not been especially encouraging, more specifically, we had soon learned, very few marlin had either been seen or caught during the past few weeks; the general feeling was that the main run of fish had migrated through. Our first of five days fishing booked aboard ‘Dimeu’, a 40ft Pace sports fisher skippered by Calu Banbosa, seemed to confirm this. Following 9 hours trolling in the channel between Sao Vincente and Santo Antao, blue marlin alley when the fish are running, we returned to the dock after just one strike that had produced a 50lb wahoo.

Our second days fishing, July 14th, again started off slowly and as Calu headed towards the western end of the island and the famed San Pedro Bank, once again we settled into the generally dull routine of sitting and watching our spread of lures working astern of us, to the monotonous thump of a powerful diesel engine. Then, a little after 0930 in the morning, just as Dimeu was working the inner edge of the bank, a fish smashed the Black Bart Oz Prowler fishing off the long right.

The explosion of white water behind us could not have been more impressive had someone lobbed a hand grenade into the sea, and as the 80lb class outfit started to scream loudly I leapt forward and repositioned the bent butt outfit from the gunwale to the fighting chair. There were four of us fishing, and purely by good fortune this was my designated rod!

That magnificent first run all but emptied the reel but eventually it slowed and I managed to gain some line, and such was the incredible speed of that run the crew thought that possibly I had foul hooked a small to medium size fish. Following her initial run she started to swim deep and as earlier we had seen a huge hammerhead swimming in the area I applied maximum drag and put everything I had into lifting her as soon as possible. Steadily I gained some line then after about 25 minutes the angle of the line started to change, indicating the fish was coming up to the surface.

This allowed me to recover even more line and eventually after some skilful boat handling by Calu our wireman, Mario Lopez, was able to grab the leader. At this point the fish showed herself properly for the first time: as if in slow motion she emerged through the inky blue water. First we saw her enormous bill, truly it was the size of a baseball bat, and this was followed by her immense blue shoulders, which in turn were followed by a monstrous great body that seemed to go on forever before she greyhounded away from the boat forcing Mario to dump the leader to the cries of “Grander”!

I now knew that without a doubt I was attached to the fish of my dreams, truly the fish of a lifetime, and as once again the fish ripped a huge amount of line from the reel, silently I prayed I wouldn’t lose her. 10 long minutes passed before Mario was able to reclaim the leader, but again the fish instantly tore free, and it was the forth or maybe fifth attempt before finally he was able to turn her immense bulk and start to gain some control.

Sat in the chair I was unable to see exactly what was happening on the port side of the boat, but apparently the ‘Oz Prowler’ was located deep inside the fishes mouth and already she was bleeding badly, so Calu gave the order that she was to be boated. I was at the same time both elated and devastated as even though I wanted to know her exact weight, never had I set out to kill such a magnificent fish. I can only say that over the years I have released well over 100 billfish, and ever since that day in the Cape Verde Islands whenever I think of that fish, which is often, my emotions go on a roller coaster ranging from elation to a deep sadness.

Back at the commercial fish dock the fish was accurately weighed on a certificated set of electronic scales, which recorded her at 506kg, that’s all but 1,120lb at time of capture; one of the biggest ever from Sao Vincente. I was able to gain some satisfaction when I saw her delivered to the local fish market where she was distributed to the local community.

The optimum time to fish in the Cape Verde Islands for blue marlin is from March through until June, and at the peak of the season catches of several fish released per day are common. A few years back one boat released an amazing 15 blue marlin in one day!

www.anglersworld.tv 

USA: giant gar alligator

We have just  receive this images fake or real? Some one do you know more? Please le us know!

Iceland: end of season report

Total catch in Iceland for the 2011 season is 35.504 salmon . Still fishing will be going on on the Rangas to the end of this month , so perhaps max1000 salmon can be added to this number by the end of this month. This is the 4th or the 5th ( depends on Ranga catch this month ) best salmon fishing season on Icelandic rivers in the history

RUSSIA: Varzuga end of season report

As ever the season has simply flown by and it is hard to believe that it was only 6 weeks ago that our first guests got off the helicopter at Lower and Middle Varzuga. From that first week it was clear that it was going to be a bumper season as those 13 rods landed an average of 61 fish per person. It can be cold at this time of the season but early on is when the big numbers of fish run and this year was no exception. As the season progressed it was also clear that unless we had heavy rain it was going to be a relatively low water year. This is something that we generally welcome as it makes the river more defined and easier to read although it can make boating to some of the beats harder than we would hope. In the event we did have rain on the 3rd week of our very short season which helped somewhat but the last two weeks did involve some walking for some of the camps.

 The amazing thing about the river is that it does not seem to be affected by sun, rain, wind or extreme temperatures. In conditions that would mean most rivers would not produce fish (we had one day of 30 degrees Celsius with a searing sun) the Varzuga continued to be remarkably productive. We finished our season with a very healthy average of 37 fish per rod per week. The lower water also meant that we could access areas of the river earlier in the season than usual and this led to some big fish being landed. Several fish of over the magical 20lbs mark were taken with plenty in the high teens.

 The Varzuga is not a river where you are likely to land a fish of over 40lbs but it offers an unrivalled opportunity to hook a very good number of salmon and I lost count of the number of people who commented on how much they had learnt about their fishing after a week on the river. The new accommodation at Lower Varzuga is quite simply superb and with some finishing touches it will be the best lodge on the Kola by quite some margin. As we continue to invest in the boats, the accommodation and the training of the guides, the programme improves year on year and we look forward to our next 20 years on the river.

 For 2012 we are excited to say that we are able to substantially reduce the cost of fishing at Lower Varzuga and Kitza for the prime weeks thanks to an exciting opportunity presented to us by our new Russian partner. Please contact me in the office for further details. It has been a wonderful season with an amazing total of 5,401 fish landed over the 6 weeks – there simply are not many places that can match these statistics in terms of Atlantic salmon fishing and I am constantly reminded as to how lucky we are to be able to fish there every year.

Charlie White

MALAYSIA: Fishing Adventures Thailand last report

I'm still guiding a group of 6 international anglers in Malaysia (two from India, two from New Caledonia, one from Belgium, and one from Holland). I will get back to Bangkok on the 10th of October.

As I've informed you in previous mails, we already have set 3 new IGFA world records for the snakehead spp.category on our 2 first days fishing (see below):

  
It got more difficult yesterday as the weather turned terribly hot. No rain at all. So the fish did not display any activity at all. We did quite good though as everyone in our party caught good size snakeheads. And one of my clients captured a rare Toman Bunga (Channa marulioides) on top water.

Today, the day was still very hot. My fishing partner in the boat, Philippe Pletincx from Belgium, and I, fished hard but could only manage 3 fish between ourselves. It was Philippe's turn to catch the biggest ones; both on top water.

 

One being a super biggie estimated in the 6.50 kg mark which qualifies for a new length world record for the snakehead specie as his fish had a total length of 84 cm.  Therefore breaking my 80 cm  pending record set two days ago. 

For the anecdote, note that big "snake" failed for a M2 Thunder Frog lure in lime charteuse color which was sent to me months ago for testing on our Asian predators by Scott Muth, the M2 lure company owner . We already have caught several good size snakeheads on them. So I profit of the occasion to recommend  to every top water angler that particular Thunder Frog lure which works great in territories with lots of aquatic weeds. It can be worked with or without a propeller. 

Check out these M2 Thunder Frogs at: http://www.m2lures.com/index.html

That's 4 new world records set in 4 days fishing.....and we still have another 2 days fishing before going back home...a 5th one would not surprise me....I'm not greedy, just confident in our lure fishing abilities and our apparent good luck to eventually make it happen!  

We have now a tally of 243 records....only 7 more to go and we'll get to the mark of 250 which I've been waiting for since I reached 200 in January 2010

Jean-Francois Helias
IGFA Lifetime Achievement Award
243 IGFA World Records
www.anglingthailand.com

USA: Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame

For his significant and lasting contributions to the sport of freshwater fishing, Musky Hunter publisher and professional angler Jim Saric has earned himself a spot in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.

Saric has won seven musky tournaments, and has been in charge of Musky Hunter Magazine since 1997. According to the Hall, both his accomplishments and the lessons he's brought to his fellow anglers, specifically muskie-catching techniques, have made him a valuable addition, according to the World Fishing Network