May 27, 2011

Thailand: monster mekong, redtail catfish and arapaima caught!

Jean Francois Helias, legendary fishing guide in Thailand send us this interesting report: 
"I just got back today from a 4 days fishing trip at both Ratchaburi and the Mae Klong river. I fished that river to try breaking my still current 1.80 kg Golden Belly Barb All Tackle record (a tie with my client) which was set a long time ago. I only had one bite fishing with fruit on top water. The fish did not get hooked... 

But we did very well at Ratchaburi with 5 clients from the USA. 

One of them from San Antonio, Texas, Kyle Burgess, who was on his first visit to Thailand, got particulary lucky during the 3 days fishing he had with us. 

On his first day fishing on May 11, he had the chance to land after a tremendous fight a 72 kilos (158 pounds) Mekong giant catfish.

Two days later, while guiding him for a day at Ratchaburi, the higlight of his day was a 30 kilos (66 pounds) Redtail catfish. A big one for Thai angling standards!nks one million

The fish he wanted the most of all was an Arapaima aka Pirarucu which he had failed to add to his list of new fish species captured in the Land of Smiles. I had to go back to Ratchaburi and luckily was able to convince him to give it one more shot. Thank you for trusting me Kyle! I'm known in my big circle of faithful clients to back my words at 98 %.   

Kyle ended his Thai angling adventures with the capture of a marvellous 75 kg (165 pounds) Arapaima (see attached pics).  

As they say everything is bigger in Texas....when it comes to fishes captured in Thailand by Texan anglers then I may start believing it a bit (lol)....

For more information:  http://www.anglingthailand.com/