Here the last fishing report from Top Thailand Fishing Guide Jean Francois Helias: "I'm still guiding here our common friend Richard Hart from Orlando, Florida, who has a deep passion for the various snakehead species inhabiting in our Thai waters.
We just came back last night from a 2 days fly
fishing expedition at a reservoir close to Burma. Richard caught there on fly his biggest giant snakehead (channa
micropeltes) to date, weighing close to 11 pounds on certified scales. A lovely
colorful male (see inserted pic below), in full mating colors justifying the
name of "freshwater tiger" given to that particular specie by southeast asian
anglers. That "gangster of the deep", as I like to call myself that specie,
was taken on a black/silver DNA Bush Pig.
Very few sport anglers worlwide can brag they have
captured a giant snakehead in the wild on a fly. Richard Hart did it twice. He
already achieved that ultimate challenge two weeks ago, in the jungle of
Malaysia, with the catch of an over 9 pounds giant snakehead (see inserted pic
below). These two catches of a lifetime confirm his reputation as a highly
skilled and dedicated fly angler.
Richard who is fishing in Thailand until the
beginning of December is now gonna targetting a few IGFA world records for both
the All Tackle and the Freshwater Fly categories. He already succeeded 12 days
ago by capturing in northern Thailand, on lure this time, a 0.54 kg Hampala
dispar (see inserted pic below) which earned him an All Tackle record for that
specie.
For those who would like to know what tackle was
used for these catches on fly, note that Richard, listening to the advices of
yours truly, is now using exclusively Tibor reels (the Rolls Royce of fly
reels). To me, Tibor reels are without a doubt the finest fly reels ever made.
They are truly worth every single penny invested in them. As for his fly rods,
Richard uses only G.Loomis. I personally use mainly Sage, my favorite brand of
all, though I do enjoy having an affair at times with my 11 WT G.Loomis Cross
Current. For tippets, he uses exclusively the Rio brand.
Big up to Richard Hart for his recent fishing
achievements!
Also we have plenty of old friends (Simon Huggins,
Greg Kohler, Dale Fischer, Dr Lenny Kouba, Gavin Clarke, etc) returning to
Thailand to fish with us this coming November. So I expect lots and lots of
catches, and hopefully a few new records in the whole bunch."