Welcome to another month of captures here in paradise at Gillhams Fishing Resorts. We would like to thank all our readers and everybody that follows us on social media.
We’ve had a very quite month this month with customers at the resort. We’ve been finishing of the refurbs on the bungalows. We kept bookings down so that we could get the bungalows finished before we get in to Thailand’s high season and go fully booked. The resort has now had all the bathrooms in our bungalows fully rebuilt and gone from 14 two-bedroom bungalows to seven two-bedroom bungalows and seven one-bedroom bungalows with an optional rear suite room, which is done out with a nice L-shaped sofa, 43-inch flat screen TV with satellite channels plus DVD player giving you a nice place to relax watching movies in the evening or somewhere for your partner to escape the midday heat relax in front of the TV with a nice glass of wine while you try to catch the fish of your dreams.
Apart from the bungalows being done not much else has happened this month, so let’s get on with this month’s fishing and find out what’s been getting caught and what species have been landed.
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 484 fish caught of 18 species, made up as follows: 29 arapaima to 400lb, four arawana to 12lb, one alligator gar of 45lb, 143 Amazon redtail catfish to 85lb, 98 Asian redtail catfish to 40lb, seven barramundi to 12lb, 20 black pacu to 40lb, three featherback to 15lb, seven giant gourami to 12lb, one Hoven’s carp of 15lb, 12 Julian’s golden carp to 50lb, 17 Mekong catfish to 170lb, three Nile perch to 22lb, one ripsaw catfish of 20lb, two red bellied pacu to 15lb, two spotted sorubim to 35lb, 138 Siamese carp to 138lb, three tilapia to 5lb, three tambaqui to 40lb.
First up this month we had Lee Bratherton. Lee was very keen to get started, but the first couple of days Lee struggled slightly but soon found his feet, got used to the heavier fishing gear and started landing some good fish. Lee put a lot of effort into his fishing and was regularly recasting, baiting little and often and watching the water for fish movement and feeding bubbles. The hard work all paid off for Lee, as he went on to land a total of 32 fish of eight species. Lee caught ten Siamese carp with three over 100lb with the biggest at 137lb, Mekong to 180lb and an arapaima estimated at 400lb.
Matt and Clare Skinner made another trip over from their resort on Boracay in the Philippines on their yearly visit while closing down their resort for the monsoon season. Matt’s mum and dad, Margaret and Dave, flew over from England to meet them here before heading off to Phuket playing golf for their second week. Last year on their visit Dave was worried he would miss his flight home due to receiving a very nasty black eye and was concerned about the swelling. This year however, it was his wife Margaret who was worried, as she lost her passport in the airport (which Dave was supposed to be looking after). Luckily for her, a fellow traveller found the passport on the floor and handed it in, and Margret was reunited with her documents. She decided it was best to keep hold of it herself, as Dave was obviously daydreaming about all the monsters he wanted to catch.
During their stay, Matt and Dave doubled up so they could have a catch up and of course make sure the other one wasn’t cheating on the competition. While the boys fished every day, the girls relaxed around the pool, visited the spa and had their own competition on who could drink the most gin and tonics and red wine. Both Matt and Dave went on to catch 15 fish each, although Matt won on species with seven. Dave caught the biggest fish though with Siamese carp to 105lb and two arapaima of 100lb and 130lb. Once again everybody had a good time with everybody looking forward to another reunion next year.
Mike and Carol Turton from Manchester made their first visit to Gillhams Fishing Resorts. After following us for a couple of years, Mike finally made it here. Mike was very keen to fish but was also worried his wife Carol wouldn’t enjoy herself as much as he would. Mike’s worries were all laid to rest very quickly as Carol was soon enjoying the laid back atmosphere of the resort as well as spending time with Mike, relaxing around the pool, going on day trips and visiting the spa. Mike even booked a romantic meal at the spa in one of our salas overlooking the lake on the hillside to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The fishing also went well for Mike, with him landing 17 fish of four species, which included both Amazon and Asian redtail catfish, Siamese carp and the biggest fish of his trip and life was a cracking arapaima estimated at 220lb. Carol even managed to drag Mike away for an afternoon’s elephant trek, finished off by bathing the elephant in the nearby river before the elephant had ideas of his own and returned the favour by blasting a trunk full of water all over Carol.
We had the return of the Shim family from Malaysia who had booked a three-day trip for a short family fishing trip. The whole family enjoyed their time here from the minute they arrived and were all very keen to start fishing. While here the Shim family caught a total of 14 fish of six species, which included Amazon and Asian redtail catfish, black pacu, spotted sorubim, Siamese carp to 90lb and their biggest fish of the trip, a Mekong catfish estimated at 170lb, when the whole family entered the water for a great family fishing picture.
Christian Deck and his partner Carron Sturdy from Germany made their first trip to Gillhams. After following us for a few years, Christian finally got his chance to chase a monster. Christian was very keen to start, but was fully aware he wasn’t going to be landing 20-plus fish every day. This was what he liked about the venue – that you had to work for your fish and what you catch is down to your own work. Even on quiet days, Christian was enjoying his time at the resort, so much so that Christian will now be joining our Dutch team for the carp Zwolle show talking with all our German visitors, and he will also be doing some promotion in Germany. Christian caught a total of 14 fish of five species including arawana, Amazon and Asian redtails, Siamese carp and arapaima.
Andy King brought his two sons on an all-boys fishing holiday, leaving his wife and daughter back home in England. Only Andy’s youngest son was into fishing, so while Andy and Jevan fished, his eldest son spent time relaxing, reading books and just spending time with his dad and younger brother. Andy has a personal best of 19lb and his son Jevan’s biggest fish was 28lb, so they were keen to up their PBs, and Andy wanted to claw back some dignity and catch something bigger than his son, as he has had years of joking about not catching anything big. Andy was so happy when he landed an arapaima estimated at 120lb; this was his biggest fish and the end of Jevan’s piss-taking, or so he thought. The following day Jevan also had something big on the end of his line, which turned out to be a Siamese carp, which was put on the scales and weighed in at 122lb, beating his dad’s PB once again. In total the guys caught 26 fish of eight species, and Andy has already started talking about the rematch next year here at Gillhams.
Mario Winter from Germany also made his first ever visit out to Gillhams this month. The first couple of days, Mario struggled slightly but soon found his feet, got used to the heavier fishing gear and started landing some good fish. Mario put a lot of effort into his fishing and was regularly recasting, baiting little and often and watching the water for fish movement and feeding bubbles. The hard work all paid of for Mario and he caught a total of 28 fish of seven species including six fish over a ton with three Siamese carp 140lb, 150lb, 152lb and three arapaima to 140lb. Other species include redtail catfish to 65lb, Julian’s golden carp to 48lb and a cracking Hoven’s carp at 15lb.
Unfortunately that’s all we’ve got time for this month. We’ll see you again next month with more captures and stories of what’s going on over here in paradise. As always, we apologise to anybody that we missed out of the newsletter, as we can only write about so many. 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 all of us 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!
