Hi and welcome to the February 2016 newsletter, our monthly roundup of news, catch reports and anything remotely connected to our little slice of paradise out here in Krabi, and with a few of us heading home for the shows, we’ll stick that in this much shorter than normal news roundup too!
February saw Stuart finishing off his pike fishing adventures, and although he continued to catch them, he didn’t catch any more whoppers this time. Sticks managed to get himself a couple of weeks off and ended up in Bali with his girlfriend for a nice bit of R&R. In between shows I stayed in quite a bit and managed to lay down about 150 pages of my next book. If not writing, then I had a few friends to catch up with, which invariably ended up with something nice to eat, and when you add on top of this my parents’ ability to overfeed me, then after six short weeks back home, I had managed to gain a portly 10lbs! Back to the drawing board again methinks.
Following on from last month’s newsletter, the next show that was on the list was the northern angling show at Manchester. This was going to be our second visit to the Event City arena. We all travelled up separately, and I met Stuart, Sean, Jo Green and Mike up at the venue. Also helping to set the stand up was Darren Hunt (along with his missus Lisa and tiny baby daughter Rio). It was going to be Darren’s first time working on the stand, and he was well up for the challenge!
It had been a boring teeth-pulling journey of nearly five hours for me, and I must confess that I wasn’t heartbroken to see the stand half way set up. I was knackered! Anyway we squeezed the big stand into a slightly smaller than expected area and went to check into the hotel, after a couple of hours chilling out and the arrival of Ron Griffiths and his missus, Cath. We then popped over the road to an Indian for some grub. After this Daniel Swan arrived after catching the train up for Hastings, and the team was then complete for the show.
We were all up early the next day and got to the show around 7.30am, which was fine but we weren’t allowed enter the arena till 8am, so a nice leisurely stroll to a Costa coffee then ensued before we returned and the show opened.
The show seems to be going from strength to strength, and on the Saturday there were noticeably a lot more people at the show than the previous year. In fact around our stand and Fox international’s stand, we were absolutely swamped between 11pm-12pm, with people literally standing shoulder to shoulder as far as the eye could see. Things seemed a little quieter on the Sunday, but we were still paid many visits from returning customers and potential customers, and by the time we wheeled the last box onto the big dog’s van, I think it’s fair to say the show had been a success.
Next stop on the Gillhams roadshow is THE BIG ONE in Farnborough, Hampshire on Sat 19th-Sun 20th March. You can find us on stand 92 and we look forward to meeting you and answering any questions you may have on booking your dream holiday at Thailand’s premier big fish resort.
I drove back after Manchester and landed back in wet, cold Norfolk around 9pm on the Sunday evening. I had pretty much packed everything to come back already, as I had an early start to come back on the Tuesday. Tuesday started at 5am, as I had to catch the coach at 6am for a four-hour journey to Heathrow Terminal 5. After waiting five hours we took off for Bangkok BKK on board British Airways BA009. The only problem I find with BA is that when you are in cattle class you run the risk of the person in front of you reclining their seat right back until (if you are a big one like me), you nearly get pinned in, which makes for quite an unpleasant and uncomfortable flight. I don’t blame the other passengers; I blame the airline for providing a seat that reclines so much in the first place. The other airlines don’t seem to as far as I have seen. Anyway I had the seat in my face the whole way back to England six weeks before and I was determined not let that happen again.
The plane took off, we were fed and then the chair in front of me started to slowly creep back in my face, so I gave it a good shove in the opposite direction to let it be known, that I wasn’t impressed. This led to a debate with a mouthy French woman, who in the end said she wouldn’t push it too far back, as that only meant I would have to do the same to the poor person behind me. Anyway as the flight progressed and they turned the lights off for a few hours, I tried to catch a bit of sleep myself, only to wake half an hour later with the chair in front of me fully reclined!
Now I don’t know what was wrong with me, but from that point on I had to keep going to the toilet, and every time I did, I couldn’t help but “accidentally” catch the seat in front of me (with all of my weight) and wake her up. It was such a shame for her, as she couldn’t get to sleep for long at all, and in the end gave up and started watching movies! Ha ha.
After finally landing in Bangkok and avoiding the angry stares of said “lady”, I then had four hours to kill before finally landing in Krabi and being picked up by Becky and returning to the resort, 27 fun-filled hours after leaving England.
Back at the resort Becky’s fella Dale has been finding his feet, which in fairness shouldn’t be too difficult, as they are only a foot away from his waist (sorry, Dale… I couldn’t resist that one!). Anyway the two of them had a day off, and they decided to have a little fish together on the top lake. Dale asked Lawrence where the rods for the top lake were, and Lawrence replied that they were in the garage, so off up the yellow brick road he trotted, and the two lovebirds went fishing. As they were fishing, Becky noticed the rod seemed a little bit heavy, and it only transpired that Dale had grabbed a pair of rods for the main lake! Becky’s comment to this was that it was probably a good idea not to let him guide on the main lake after all.
This month the guides were joined by Mathias, a German ex-pat who lives in Shanghai and came here for his birthday as a customer a year or so ago. Speaking of the guides, they seemed to be more busy than normal, as I noticed more and more photos of them holding fish up for returning customers, Colin Pacitti particularly, but having said that Colin is more interested in photography, so I guess we can let him off on that one.
Right, that’s enough of our ramblings, so best we get on with the whos, the whys and the flipping ‘ecks from this month’s fishing.
The anglers who visited us for the exotic fishing Thailand has to offer had some good fishing in Krabi this month with a total of 434 fish caught of 19 species, made up as follows: 19 arapaima to 520lb, eight arawana to 10lb, one alligator gar of 45lb, 157 Amazon redtail catfish to 75lb, 56 Asian redtail catfish to 40lb, 15 black pacu to 35lb, two Chao Phraya catfish to 120lb, one mrigal carp of 15lbs, one big head carp of 30lbs, one giant featherback of 6lbs, nine Julian’s golden carp to 45lb, 71 Mekong catfish to 210lb, two Nile perch to 8lb, one ripsaw catfish of 20lbs, five red bellied pacu to 35lb, one Hoven’s carp of 18lb, 224 Siamese carp to 150lb, one giant freshwater stingray of 140lbs and two black shark carp to 19lbs.
Colin Pacitti made a return visit for a few days and caught his usual array of fish including Mekongs, Siamese, Amazon red tails etc. Because he has caught many of these previously he couldn’t really be bothered to jump in for a picture so happily left it to the guides to hold the fish up for him. However, when a ripsaw catfish landed in his net he couldn’t get in fast enough to have his pic taken!
Dick Larter made his second visit to us in February, and in his usual laid back way he got amongst a few fish including a 45lb alligator gar, a couple of Asian red tails to 30lb, a couple of Amazon red tail catfish to 40lb and a couple of Siamese carp to 80lb, but then on a his final day’s angling it all went a little silly when he landed Siamese carp of 85lb, 85lb, 50lb, 50lb, 80lb, and finally one of 90lb! Now that’s not a bad day’s angling at all.
Adrian Harris enjoyed his time here and had a great holiday where he caught a good amount of fish including two Mekong catfish over 200lb, a nice Amazon red tail and a few others to boot!
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- Mekong catfish 200lb
Ann and Mac also popped back for a bit of a session, and they both landed a few including Siamese carp of 75lb, 80lb, 35lb, 70lb for Ann whilst Mac had fun with Siamese carp to 80lb and a couple of red tails including a real cracker of 70lb. He also had a traditional Thai tattoo done using the bamboo method. Ann then went onto land a 300lb+ arapaima and Mac was over the moon when he landed a nice Julians
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- Asian red tail catfish
Simon Mawer and Stephen Wickens came as a pair, and they both wanted to get a Siamese carp over 100lb and a juicy Amazon red tail if possible. Well things went rather well for them because Stephen had one at 150lb and Simon had two, one of 105lb and the other at 120lb! Simon also had a nice big Amazon red tail catfish, a cool featherback and the two of them had a load of fun up the top lake where they caught a multitude of fish including a brace of Julians.
Mark Baker and his wife came along for a bit of R&R in the sunny hills of Krabi, and he pretty much decided to fish one day on, one day off. Well it didn’t go quite according to plan on the relax and rest bit, as he seemed to find it very hard to avoid the hard-fighting Mekongs! One day he had a battle royale with a monster of 180lb only to then land another one of 200lb that evening in swim E3. He then had a day off and returned to the lake and fished Sala 9 where he duly landed another of 140lb. A day off then ensued, so upon his return he thought swim A1 would be good, so he then landed two more at 150lb and a 130lb, I had to laugh, as the two of them had a kayaking trip the next day. I am sure his arms were knackered by the time he went home!
Well, that’s it for this month from all of us at Thailand’s premier fishing resort . We’ll see you all again next month, with more news of rod-bending MONSTER fish action and in the mean time you can come and visit us on stand 92 at THE BIG ONE show in Farnborough on Sat 19th-Sun 20th March.
For those of you planning a return or first trip, please email us at gillhamsfishingresorts@gmail.com or phone +66 (0) 861644554, and please remember we are +6 hours GMT.
Best wishes and tight lines from us all at Gillhams, and we hope your next fish is the one of your dreams (which it probably will be if you come to Gillhams).
