Hello and welcome to another month of captures here at Gillhams Fishing Resorts. This month’s newsletter is going to be slightly shorter due to Stuart and I being over in the UK for trade shows and some piking down on Chew Valley Reservoir, leaving Becca and Benz to take care of the customers and running of the resort along with our team. Because we’re in the UK and the resort is very busy, everybody back in Thailand is extremely busy, so we didn’t want to put even more work on them with the newsletter. Instead were going to do a small write-up on the resort and then more on what we’ve been doing over here. We would like to apologise to any customers hoping to get a mention in this month’s newsletter, but please understand and accept our apologies.
First of all we are thrilled to announce the birth and newest member to the Gillhams family, on the 21-02-17 at 23:28 Riley David James Vickerstaff was born weighing in at 4.7 kilos to proud parents Rebecca Gillham and Dale Vickerstaff. Becca and Riley are both doing well and are back home where Dale is currently eagerly awaiting the day his son can start showing him how to catch monsters.
Once again the Siamese carp have shown many customers just why Gillhams Fishing Resorts is labeled as one of the best freshwater fishing destinations in the world. This month saw a staggering 72 100lb plus Siamese carp come out to a total of 33 lucky customers, of which most were weighed to give our customers a true size on their catches with only a few repeat captures. Siamese carp that are 100lb plus, not recognized or haven’t been weighed for a while will be weighed in front of are customers. Certain times of the year when water temperatures are high or we believe the fish is stressed an estimated weight will be given, we will not risk the wellbeing of our fish. Gillhams Fishing Resorts is the only venue to visit for your chance to catch numerous different Siamese carp over 100lb rather than the same few coming out every other day with different estimated weights like other venues. Here are the names of customers who caught monster carp this month: Aaron Lilly, Colin Pacatti, Ray Cowell, Paul Backhouse, Robert Watts, Mick Huber, Mark & James Fagen, Matt Storey, Gavin Drew, Andy Sheltron, Steve Watson, Richard & Jimmy Edmunds, Mark Goodfellow, Alan Mclean, Paul Stanley, Frank Blattner, Chris Hawkins, Jake Belgium, James McBride, Darren Roberts, Mike Chisholm, Dave Jones, Fred Vande Vusse. We also had some customers that were lucky enough to land several 100lb-plus Siamese carp during their trip. Graham Wall caught a total of six Siamese carp with four over 100lb and a personal best of 155lb. Three of Graham’s were caught on an afternoon session after spending the morning with his girlfriend elephant trekking. Marc Pickering landed nine Siamese carp over 100lb with his biggest at 178lb. Adam and Caroline Smith caught three Siamese carp over 100lb with Adam landing the biggest at 116lb. Adam Huber and his girlfriend Lucy caught four Siamese over 100lb with Lucy’s being caught on Adams rods while he was back at his room. Adams father Mick Huber also caught Siamese carp to 110lb. Steve Emery landed four Siamese carp over 100lb with his biggest at 126lb. Dean Macey caught 15 Siamese carp over 100lb, read his story in next months newsletter.
Stuart got his winter fishing fix in between shows while pike fishing at Chew Reservoir in Bristol. I also managed to join him for four days hoping to catch a 20lb’er, which for me would be my biggest pike. This was going to be hard for me, as I was looking forward to the fishing, but due to living in Thailand for 11 years, I wasn’t so keen on the weather. Unfortunately the new PB didn’t happen for me, but I did manage to land six small pike to 12lb, which was nice considering I hadn’t pike fished since I was a little kid. Stuart however managed some good fish including three 20s to 27lb 4oz and a 34lb 8oz, plus many others from jacks to high doubles. As usual Stuart was using his Free Spirit pike rods. Stuart was also lucky enough to witness some of his friends’ PBs. Paul Sharman caught his PB of 37lb 8oz while fishing with Stuart, beating his previous best of 32lb 8oz, also caught with Stuart back in October last year.
Cheshire’s strongest man 1979 and well known pike angler, big Kev Shore, invited Stuart out for a day’s boat fishing at Chew after his friend couldn’t make one of the days he’d booked. Although Stuart’s luck wasn’t in this day, Kev’s certainly was when he landed his personal best pike of 39lb 12oz while testing the new Free Spirit boat rods. Lee Benson, another good angling friend of Stuart’s, had all his fishing gear stolen from his van late last year. Stuart and Brian Ingram organised a whip round with other anglers to kit Lee out with all brand new pike tackle, and Free Spirit also donated four Hi-S pike rods, which Lee christened with a personal best of 34lb 12oz followed up a week later with another pike of 33lb 8oz.
He was also fishing Chew when another friend, Simon, took one of his mates Known as the Axeman to Chew for the first time. The Axeman had only just started pike fishing and had not even experienced a double figure specimen when Simon took him for this trip. They had both fished all morning with no joy, and around midday the Axeman got peckish so took a drive to the local shops. On his return Simon told him to get the rods out first. “I’m hungry and going to eat first,” the Axeman replied. Once again he was told to get his rods out: “You won’t catch anything if they’re not in the water. I’ll put one out to keep you quiet…” Within minutes of the bait being in the water, the line started pulling off the reel and the Axeman was left speechless when he landed a beast and new personal best of 37lb 8oz! How’s that for your fourth pike and first ever double? Top angling! Stuart will next be back in the UK pike fishing in October after another trip out fishing the wild waters of Sweden in September later this year.
Show season has once again been going very well with lots of interest and many bookings from new and returning customers. Gillhams Fishing Resorts will be attending the Northern Angling Show in Manchester April 1st/2nd and finishing at The Big One in Farnborough April 8th/9th. Stuart and I will not be attending these shows, but you can still book your fishing trip of a lifetime with our team who will also be running Gillhams raffle and announcing the winners at The Big One, Farnborough on April the 9th.
Next month our newsletter will have a write-up by Dean Macey who has now been fishing with us for several years. Dean will write on the changes he’s experienced, from the resort to the fish. Dean has currently been fishing here through February and caught a total of 51 fish with 42 Siamese carp and 15 over 100lb. We will also include a write-up on our trip to Guyana, where we’ll be fishing from the 2nd of March for two weeks with friends. We will also be writing about one of our new sponsors, Pallatrax – what they will be doing for us and why were teaming up with them. Finally we will also have information on our newly opened spa, and anybody interested in using this five-star facility can book on arrival or email regarding any information.
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 716 fish caught of 21 species, made up as follows: 22 arapaima to 320lb, six arawana to 9lb, seven alligator gar to 45lb, 129 Amazon redtail catfish to 70lb, two Amazon stingray of 25lb, 93 Asian redtail catfish to 40lb, nine bighead carp to 44lb, one brycon of 4lb, 24 black pacu to 45lb, six giant gourami to 10lb, three giant featherback to 12lb, 8 Julian’s golden carp to 47lb, 68 Mekong catfish to 240lb, two Nile perch to 7lb, one rohu of 12lb, two ripsaw catfish to 23lb, 21 red bellied pacu to 20lb, one spotted sorubim of 35lb, two spotted featherback to 6lb, 307 Siamese carp to 178lb.
I’ve added pictures below from some of our customers this month, and we would like to thank everybody who visited us this month. We would also like to thank everybody who sent in their pictures of their captures, and again apologies to anybody missed or not mentioned.
We’ve also had some nice fish caught up the little lake this month, anybody wanting to take a break in the day from the main lake are more than welcome. It’s a great place to take the kids or just knock up your species, please note we do not have guides on the small lake. Anybody wanting to lure or fly fish (small lake only) must supply their own tackle and read the rules on equipment on our website prior to arrival.
Well that’s it for this month. We’ll see you again next month with more captures and stories of what’s going on over here in paradise.
For those of you planning a return or first trip, please send us your enquiry via our enquiries page or email us at gillhamsfishingresorts@gmail.com
Tight lines from us all at Gillhams Fishing Resorts. We hope your next fish is the one of your dreams, which it probably will be if you come to Gillhams!
