Lucky2

The first fish is actually a Golden Belly Barb (Pla Tapak) very common in the River Kwai

Another good lake in the area is Teak Tree Lake http://www.teaktreelake.co.uk/

thanks

found mention of them here

Name: Alligator Gar

Species:Atractosteus Spatula

Thai name: Pla Jonakay

Max weight: Max weight 180kg+

IGFA record:126.55kg

Diet: Fish, Frogs and birds

fortunately they only get to 40kg in Thailand according to that site

Probably the two venues in Thailand that currently have the biggest alligator gar are 'Dream Lake' in Chiang Mai http://www.dreamlake-fishing.com/

and 'Palm Tree Lagoon' in Ratchaburi http://www.palmtreelagoon.co.uk/ see photo

Palm Tree Lagoon has its own website http://www.palmtreelagoon.co.uk/

and is actually 1 hour North of Hua Hin see link http://www.palmtreel...k/location.html

2. Three Day Coconut

Ingredients: 1 kg grated coconut; 2 kg fine rice bran (preferably from new rice or jasmine rice); 1 kg breadcrumbs (fine crumbs); soya bean meal; 1 carton of soya milk 300ml

Preparation: Mix the coconut, bread and bran (sieve the bran first). Once well mixed add soya bean meal and soya milk, continuing to mix them together by hand until a nice consistency is obtained, not too dry and not too moist. Adding the milk a little at a time is best rather than dumping it all in and praying. Put the dough in a plastic bag and seal (just tie it off to keep it airtight). Keep for three days and it will be ready for use.

Method of use: Check the bait to make sure it is ready (don't ask). It should simply look ready and smell ready. Fish using a spring feeder rig. Can also be used as ground bait.

Types of fish: All kinds of scaled fish.

Could not select reply to recipe 1 as it had been edited

However, Cyclocheilichthys Enoplos common English name is 'Soldier River Barb' or 'Pla Takok' in Thai

Biggest catchable ones around are probably in IT monsters lake including this one of 5.05kg grow to 7-8kg

Agreed, you need an experienced team and good tackle for these monsters. I understand that the Bangpakong River, in Chachoengsao is also home to the Freshwater Giant Stingray

I agree that this is probably the one species where you definitely need a guide though the trips are not cheap. I have been recommended http://www.fishsiam.com/ by a number of different anglers. The guide "Boy" is very good so I hear.

There is no doubt that 'Boy' is the number one guide as far as fishing for freshwater stingray in Thailand goes and he was the one in fact who guided Zeb Hogan

http://www.fishsiam....xpeditions.html

He also guided Jeremy Wade from Animal Planet's River Monsters series

http://www.fishsiam....nd-fishing.html

I should say Thai Visa Forum seems to have gone mental keeps reposting parts of the same thread in error.....anyway those fish pictured above (1 courtesy of Fish Thailand, the others Siam Fishing Tours) those two Arapaima are the largest I have seen ever, and even those now with experience and hindsight I would question that they weigh in excess of 160kg (its possible but not likely)Im thinking more 140kg to 160kg. The carp maybe 45kg as i have photos of weighed fish over 50kg that look only marginally larger....where this leaves fish that are clearly much smaller yet claimed at ridiculous wieghts im not really sure!

Hi Rafunuf,

I believe there is a pet 25 year old arapaima around the 300kg mark that was weighed when it was purchased by Benny sitting in the Palm Tree Lagoon stock pond that you can hand feed.

Have you not seen this one?

Benny bought it in April from a Thai family that had it in their garden pond and sold it because it was getting to expensive to feed.

She aquired it because she wanted to own the biggest Arapaima in Thailand. It currently consumes over 10kg of chicken and batu a week.

It may have put on a few kg since then as last week she drained the water down in the stock pond to get the 15 x 3-5kg carp out and put them in the main lake and found the arapaima had porked its way through 12 of them lol...

Also Gilhams had one die a couple of years ago that they weighed at 190kg, and he still maintains he has arapiama over 200kg in the lake....

I believe you have fished Gilhams in the past did you not see any big arapaima caught down there?

Now I know your pulling my plonker Tim, but sounds like a 180kg fish? Id like to see that of course. The point Im trying to make is that if everybody estimates fish sizes, and with time and experience they realise they estimate way over the top, its not long before everybody has a completely distorted view of fish sizes. I personally had to downgrade my estimates on most of the Arapaima we have captured with guest including the 2 you pictured above over the last few years. One of which Benny asked me what I thought and suggested a 109kg. I accepted that estimate at the time, but believe it looks like the same fish that has recently been estimated at 180kg by another customer at Palm Tree.

Having this year handled some really big Arapaima (as you have at Lake Monsters in the past)...Im now reasonably confident that 180kg is the abolsute ceiling for these fish, and I beleive out of hundreds of fish we have capured I have only seen maybe 3 in the 150kg plus bracket, based on a broader experience than most people.

As peoples experience grows their estimates of wieghts start to decline.

All I can say is 'Hong' maintains its the biggest 'Arapaima' he has ever seen, its still in the stock pond, so Jules you are welcome to come and hand feed it and take a closer look. It took 10 people transport it.

When the stock pond was drained down the other week a lifting team of seven failed to lift it in a planned photography session.....

By the way on your website you say the biggest arapaima you ever saw weighed went 224kg? I know I am not an accountant with an IQ of 135 (by the way was this measured on a certified scale or questimated?) but is this not bigger that the180kg ceiling lol.....

All I can say on fish estimates is that it is often very difficult to convince excited customers that their catches are a lot smaller than they would like to believe.

Often even when you offer to weigh the fish the customer declines as they are more than happy with their own estimates.... Go figure...

I should say Thai Visa Forum seems to have gone mental keeps reposting parts of the same thread in error.....anyway those fish pictured above (1 courtesy of Fish Thailand, the others Siam Fishing Tours) those two Arapaima are the largest I have seen ever, and even those now with experience and hindsight I would question that they weigh in excess of 160kg (its possible but not likely)Im thinking more 140kg to 160kg. The carp maybe 45kg as i have photos of weighed fish over 50kg that look only marginally larger....where this leaves fish that are clearly much smaller yet claimed at ridiculous wieghts im not really sure!

Hi Rafunuf,

I believe there is a pet 25 year old arapaima around the 300kg mark that was weighed when it was purchased by Benny sitting in the Palm Tree Lagoon stock pond that you can hand feed.

Have you not seen this one?

Benny bought it in April from a Thai family that had it in their garden pond and sold it because it was getting to expensive to feed.

She aquired it because she wanted to own the biggest Arapaima in Thailand. It currently consumes over 10kg of chicken and batu a week.

It may have put on a few kg since then as last week she drained the water down in the stock pond to get the 15 x 3-5kg carp out and put them in the main lake and found the arapaima had porked its way through 12 of them lol...

Also Gilhams had one die a couple of years ago that they weighed at 190kg, and he still maintains he has arapiama over 200kg in the lake....

I believe you have fished Gilhams in the past did you not see any big arapaima caught down there?

I should say Thai Visa Forum seems to have gone mental keeps reposting parts of the same thread in error.....anyway those fish pictured above (1 courtesy of Fish Thailand, the others Siam Fishing Tours) those two Arapaima are the largest I have seen ever, and even those now with experience and hindsight I would question that they weigh in excess of 160kg (its possible but not likely)Im thinking more 140kg to 160kg. The carp maybe 45kg as i have photos of weighed fish over 50kg that look only marginally larger....where this leaves fish that are clearly much smaller yet claimed at ridiculous wieghts im not really sure!

Hi Rufanuf,

Are you saying that you have only personally seen one arapiama caught over 90kg?

I know you witnessed both these arapaima catches. What would be your estimate of these fish?

Just got back from 3 days fishing for carp at Palm Tree Lagoon.

Fishing was action packed but I didn't manage to hook my big Siamese Carp. Had over 60 rohu, mud carp, a Julians Carp and a new PB Catla carp around 20kg. Several rohu and Mud carp were new Pbs too so overall I was quite happy and gives me a good excuse to go back .

Whilst I was there another bloke fishing on his own nearby, caught several Catla carp and 2 large Chow Praya catfish on lum, 2 nice redtails and another huge Chow Praya (at over 60kg the biggest I have ever seen) on worm. Benny, the Thai boss, fished for few hours down the other end and caught a chow praya and 2 siamese carp, the biggest around 40kg! She is clearly a good angler in her own right and I found her to be very helpful. She was clearly concerned that I had not caught my target fish and went out of her way to provide different consistencies of method mix (at no extra cost) for me to try.

Interestingly, nearly all of the fish came during the middle of the day.

For anyone fishing there for more than a day, the Western Grand Hotel is good value at 850B. I used my own gear but the equipment available was top end Shimano Stella and Finns. For info, I was charged exactly what I was told when I booked.

Hi Pangit,

The chao phraya and if fact all the predators can come out on just about any bait with banana being the bait of the week this week. Local Thai angling expert 'Bung' after guiding a couple of happy customers decided to float fish banana to try and catch some of the big Gourami in the lake. Although he was not successful on the gourami front he did manage to break two lake records with a 9.2kg mrigal followed by an incredible 51kg amazon redtail catfish. He also managed to catch some of the rarely seen bony lipped barb that inhabit the lake.

a newbie and just posting about this lake with his first post. It could be true of course, my experiences are different. I never got any postings back from the presumed farang owner on this thread.

I am not saying this lake is bad, because im sure it has potential. Just the cheating around it and the cutting costs was anoying. Had i have been asked to pay more from the start and not get treated like a walking ATM (the lam scam and giving out small fish at start) my review would have been more positive even though that day the catches were not that good. But that is fishing that can always happen.

The lake is a bit small for my taste too. Even my local lake here (filled with sawai) is bigger. But that is just my personal taste.

A couple of other customers also seemed to enjoy their week judging by the smiles in the photos, but they did seem more preoccupied with the size of the fish they were catching under Benny's guidance, and lost track of other far more important issues like the size of the lake. They also seemed undetered by the size of the livebait but that could have been a clever ploy by Benny convincing them that lum and worms were the way to go.... lol...

The lake has potental??? you mean you know of another fishery with chao phraya over 60kg, and asian redtails over 30kg in it???? It must be a well kept secret....... or do you have the exclusive fishing rites lol....

Well it looks to be a very similar size to mine, in fact if you take off 3.5kgs for the weigh sling it is the same as mine lol but even if there was not a picture of the scales I would believe the fish was the weight you stated, I don't believe anyone would lie about the weight of a fish or anything else but then thats me, great fish,great picture.

I doubt the sling is 3.5 kg as the poles are aliminium and its all light weight. But soon there will be steel poles in because after the 51kg fish it was all bend up. I just take pictures of the scales too as it is definitive proof of the weight of a fish. (unless i got some weight stacks with me to put in there with the fish)

I did not even try to lift the fish and i am used to handling 125 kg weights for dead lifts.

Here is a picture of a Palm Tree Lagoon mekong caught the other day. I think this one is bigger lol....

Gnau nam is the best lake in Thailand by my opinion. The rubbish is so small an inconvenience that it barely bothers me and it could be removed in 24 hours notice. It's all off behind the park where you can't walk and it's not in the way. I wish they would use bins but it seems to be a Thai habbit.

When you consider that Gnau nam is 150 baht for 12 hours of fishing it's hard for anywhere to beat it. I've never seen anywhere including Bung Samran with a higher quality of strong fish.

3 rods fished for 450 baht. Now that's value! The mekong catfish I catch must average 40kg a time with some going to the 100kg mark.

It seems a bit funny that an experienced group of fishermen could feel ripped off? Doesn't look good for Palm Tree lagoon.

I'd say Gnau nam is the common man's fishing park. No need to mortgage the house for a great time!

It's the reason why right now I travel 20,000kms a couple of times a year to fish.

I only felt ripped of because of the lam. A fishery should have lam in stock (i did not order a thing) and they will use it anyway. But to charge me for a bag as all i wanted was a bucket is a bit crazy. I was lucky i saw it on the bill.

Also the fact you only get 1 big fish and later i found out that the small fish you get first are not favoured by the big predator fish. Then you are basically waisting your time trying during the day and then in the last 1-2 hours they come with a big fish. Mind you there was only one real big fish and we had to draw straws to get it. I got it and it was the only fish that got taken (says it all doesnt it).

I cant speak for the others and i wont. I still had a nice day. Even though i was burned to a crips because there is absolutely no shade around the lake (unless you stay at the buildings and then 75% of the lake is not fish able.)

It still was nice because you know the big ones are there and the redtails were nice. But if 5 fishermen with 10 rods get around 12 fish (all of whom not real big) Though my pacu was big. The catch rate is not that good.

At ngau nam currently the catch rate is also not good for the big ones. But its an affordable place in comparison. Like you said its the common mans fishing pond.

If the thing with the lam and the size of bait fish had not happened i would have felt a lot better about the place even if i did not catch much.

I don't know who told you that the big predators only come out on large livebaits but it was obviously someone who has not fished Palm Tree Lagoon very often. By far the majority of large predators in particular the arapaima come out on either pieces of dead fish mackeral/batu or chicken both supplied as part of the ticket. A couple of days ago an 82kg chao phraya was caught by Siam Fishing Tours customer Matt expertly guided by Jules on you guessed it a piece of chicken. As far as the number of fish caught goes, Steve a customer from Fish Siam being ably guided by 'Boy' caught more than 20 fish in a day only two days after you fished Palm Tree Lagoon. This again included a good sized predator namely a redtail catfish which when it was last weighed was 37kg caught on deadbait, and also caught 3 siamese carp between 25-30+kg. I also don't understand this myth that you can only catch big predators in the last 1-2 hours of the day, given both these large predators were caught before lunch. Please click on attached link for catch report and I have attached some photos of fish caught by these two anglers.

www.fishsiam.com/carp-fishing-thailand-palm-tree-lagoon-for-giant-carp-and-catfish-451.html

Palm tree was good too bad that food was a bit overpriced and they tried some stunt with the lam bags. Other then that i think the lake is stocked well. Even though we did not catch much. I wont be back there for a while because of the price. Had we caught more i would have been back faster.

I dont mind not catching much at ngau nam because you pay a lot less and its closer by for me.

I suppose if you like fishing in the middle of a rubbish tip then ngau nam is the place to go. Next time you go there and catch a Juliens Golden Price Carp, a Black Ear Catfish, a redtail, or even see a 100kg+ arapaima swimming around, or a flying pig, please post the photo on this forum.

Also everone in this group I believe was charged the special promotional rate of 3500baht for 1 carp rod + 1 for predator rod negociated for you by 'boy'.

As for the lam someone in your party rang up and ordered four sacks in advance which the fishery manager had to go and pick up for you and then you decided at the end of the day you didn't want so much after all and sold it back to her.