The Sessions - May 2024
Spring Bream & Thailand
Last months Crucian fishing didn’t go to plan with the Carp following me around Johnsons and a number of good fish landed to over 34 pounds. I finished the month with my first visit to Walthamstow chasing the big Bream that reside there and wanted to fit in at least one more visit in May before heading back to Jurassic in Thailand.
04 May 2024 – Walthamstow
With a week of unsettled weather and lots of rain the Reservoir had fished really well with some people having some fantastic catches of big Bream while I was sat at work wishing I could be there. Saturday morning soon came round and with the complex being open for one of the two available nights per month I was in the van driving down at 04:30 to be there in time for the draw, it’s certainly not my favourite way of getting a swim but necessary and very fair with the way it is managed.
The trip hadn’t started well with a very unsettled night and not much sleep, and I couldn’t get the gear in my car so had to take my van which incurred Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ charge of £12.50 per day……
The journey was painless that early in the morning and I arrived just before 06:00 to find quite a few people there already, I loaded the barrow and got myself sorted and joined in the camaraderie while we waited for the draw and the gates to open.
I came out sixth and got into the area I wanted, not knowing the lake that well I went in a new swim and intended to do that on the next few visits to get to know the place. I’d arranged to meet my pal Neale and hoped we’d be able to fish near each other but that wasn’t to be as he came out on the draw very late which was disappointing but worked very well in his favour….
I chose a swim with the warm southerly wind blowing into that area and when I got there found it was quite tight but I got set up ok, but that’s when the next problem occurred, I’d lent the Hi S spod rod against the bivvy and the gentle wind blew it off and it fell on the floor, the top two inches hit the concreate path and broke the top eye liner. To make it even worse I didn’t know until I cast the first spomb off as it cut through the braid, so I wasn’t even fishing, and it looked like I wouldn’t be able to bait up. I had no tape so I had to whip some braid carefully around the whole top eye to stop my braid being cut on the cast, it worked ok and I did get a decent amount of bait out before it cut me off again so it was back to the drawing board.
Fortunately, the angler next door didn’t mind me using his spod rod so I could get my bait out but I knew that would be it and I wouldn’t be able to top up again if needed. So, it was almost midday by the time I got the rigs cast out and could get the kettle on.
Late afternoon I got a call from Neale to tell me “I’ve been a busy boy” and he went onto tell me about a real special red-letter day, but it’s his storey and I’ll encourage him to put that in a feature somewhere soon and it will be well worth a read.
My first bite came at 22:40 with a Bream at 11-07 and another shortly after but the hook pulled.
05 May 2024
It took another 90 minutes before the little wafter was picked up again and this was a better one at a very fat 13-13.
It was another 90 minutes before the rod went into melt down and this definitely wasn’t a Bream as it tore up the reservoir, the Carp this Spring seem to be following me everywhere with a Mirror at 28-08.
It was a cold foggy morning, so I waited for the gear to dry out before packing up, I’d like to have stayed all day but had plans for Monday so I needed to get home.
09 May 2024 – Walthamstow
I felt the fish were at bursting point ready to spawn and wanted to have another day session in hope of a big Bream, so I was back in the car driving down arriving for the opening at 07:00. Being midweek it wasn’t busy and I got into a very good area that had been productive in recent weeks.
It was clear and sunny and looked like being a hot day, not the best conditions but well worth a try. I got ten spombs of mix on the spot and cast out three rods on different hook baits, one on a little wafter, one on three fake casters and one on fake corn and got the sun cream on as it was warming up nicely.
Unfortunately it didn’t really happen on this session, I had one bite, a Bream at 10-00 exactly and nothing else despite fish rolling over the baited area. With our Thailand trip coming up I knew I wouldn’t get back down for a while so took it on the chin and will look forward to some summer trips hoping for a 15+ Bream.
18-28 May 2024 – Jurassic, Thailand
Julie and I booked a return to Jurassic back in November last year and had been really looking forward to it ever since, on this trip we were joined by some of Julie’s family, her daughter Tash, sister Jane and her wife Linda. You may remember I’ve done a bit of fishing with Jane over the past couple of years, she is a very keen Carp angler and couldn’t wait to get there, my goal was to hopefully help her catch the big Siamese Carp named Scarface…
We landed in Bangkok mid-afternoon and were met by our taxi driver for our transfer to the resort; this took about three hours due to traffic but was very comfy with plenty of room for us all. We arrived at Jurassic at about 20:00 and were met by the very friendly staff and just in time to order a meal in the restaurant.
The resort has changed hands since we were last there but remains very secure and is just as stunning as we remembered it and they have made lots of improvement which include a well-equipped gym and a games room.
The other big change was the Manor, this is a private two bedroom villa with ensuites, a fully equipped kitchen and large lounge area, two additional one bedroom bungalows, a games bungalow, large swimming pool and gardens all secured with a wall and locked gates. This is situated at the back of the resort with very easy access with a foot bridge over the river and a locked gate into the resort.
We had booked the Manor and after sorting the formalities and eating a good meal we were taken to the Manor and as soon as we walked in it has the wow factor, they had thought of everything. Please have a look at the website, as it’s just stunning.
After unpacking tiredness took hold after all the travelling and we all crashed out for the night, whilst at the same time Jane and I were buzzing for the morning to get started on the Specimen Lake.
The draw for swims takes place every evening at 20:00 during dinner, we’d missed the draw due to travelling but the lake was not overly busy so I was able to choose peg 6, which from previous experience would have been my first choice, and I wanted to share swims with Jane on the first day to help her get started and peg 6 has plenty of room.
The fishing starts at 07:00 until 18:15 so we were up early and went to pick up our bait to ensure we got to the swim for 07:00, the bait was part of the package and runs on a token basis. You are given a pack of tokens when you arrive and you buy your bait with the tokens, on my first trip I was concerned I wouldn’t have enough but I gave half of them back at the end of the holiday so I had no concerns on this trip, you get more than enough. We each took 2kg of Jurassic boilies, 2kg of pellet and a 1kg of fish to start with and we bought 2KG of Chicken hearts (a great predator bait).
Every swim has a purpose built shelter with seating to keep us out of the sun and our rods were lent up against them when we arrived at the swim, a lot of the Thai gillies were the same as last time and Fong was there as we walked round, he remembered Julie and I straight away and it was good to see him again. I mentioned previously I have found in previous trips to other lakes in Thailand guides can be a pain, but at Jurassic they do as little or as much as you require, Fong knows me well and he made his way to a shelter a couple of swims down and only came up when we hooked fish to assist with the landing and photographs. We found all the old and new gillies were very friendly and their fish care remains first class.
Our rods and reels were the same as my last trip, Free Spirit Cat Tamers and the Shimano 8000 loaded with 85 pound braid all in top condition and labelled up with our names so we knew we had them for the whole trip and could leave our rigs attached each night.
You can buy tackle and rigs and are given a tackle pouch that is included in your package which includes plenty of Carp rigs and a predator rig, leads, tubing, beads, baiting needle, etc, however we took our own end tackle and made our rigs. Jurassic insist on an 80lb mono leader, 18 inches of tubing and a 4oz inline lead on all rigs, the Carp hooklinks are a max of 18 inches, and the predator hooklink must be 6 inches to prevent deep hooking and strong and abrasion resistant enough for the huge fish in the lake.
We ordered breakfast which was delivered to the swim and spent the first part of the day getting the rigs right and after a bit of playing around I settled on the following:
• I didn’t do much predator fishing on this trip but my predator rig was – 6 inches of Kryston Ton Up to a size 1 Korda wide gap XX hook with three chicken hearts in a bait band.
• My Carp rig was – 8-10 inches of Korda Arma Cord braid which was 65 pound tc, to a size 4 Gardener Continental Mugger tied KD style. We started on a snowman set up with a Jurassic 20mm bottom bait topped with a white 15mm Krill pop-up. I attached a pva bag of pellets every cast. But I soon found this wasn’t as effective as last time and changed my hook baits a lot to keep bites coming. Most of my Carp came on three pellets or a trimmed down 20mm boilie, Jane however did catch most of hers on the snowman set up.
• Over the holiday I used 50m of Castawaypva 35mm pva and the one edge I’m convinced made a huge difference to both rods was a flying back lead set so that the 10-20 feet behind the lead was flat on the bottom.
• The predators responded to baiting up and I found breaking the fish up into little pieces and baiting with them and chicken hearts was best.
• For the Carp I used more bait than last time using 1-3kg of boilies and 2kg of 18mm pellets a day catapulted out accurately to the spot, clipping the rods definitely made a difference keeping it all very tight. Last trip I experienced issues with small mussels but that wasn’t the case this time so I can only assume they are getting eaten…..
The manager Oliver, and English guides Tom and George made daily trips around the lake and were very helpful and full of knowledge, the stock had changed since my last trip with a lot of the smaller fish being removed and a few more bigger ones stocked, they did not give themselves up easily and we had to work at it every day with accurate baiting and casting once we found the spots they would feed on, this was where Oliver, Tom and George helped as the lake had changed a lot since the aerators and fans had been installed, the trick was to find the hard patches down the slope before it reached the silt. I fished five different swims during the holiday and each time I went in a new one I spent time leading looking for firm spots, it was time well spent and definitely helped me catch more fish. Jane fished seven swims and used the gillies valuable experience to help her locate the spots.
The fishing was amazing and this was right up there with some of my best fishing holidays we had a fantastic time, Jane fished so well and caught some amazing fish and on the second day caught Scarface at approx. 180 pound, the smile on her face with her fist Carp at approx. 40 pound was great so you can only imagine how she was with Scarface, it was just brilliant.
All the extra effort paid off, don’t get me wrong a day ticket holiday angler will catch but if you want a big hit then put the effort in.
It would take pages of text and probably be a little boring for you the reader to blog in my normal fashion of writing about each day so I will give an over view of what we caught:
• In eleven full days fishing I had 67 fish, a truly brilliant holiday.
• I wanted to target the Siamese Carp and finished up with 59 Carp with four 100’s to 120, six 90’s and nine 80’s, a lot less fish than my last trip but a much bigger average size.
• I did one days predator fishing and had an Arapaima at 152 and three lovely Red Tails, great fun and a privilege to catch but my dream would be to catch some true wild ones from the Amazon, I have planned trips in the past and they have fallen through but I will go at some point
• I caught Chaophraya, Y-Catfish, Molly Cotts to finish with six different species.
• Jane had a fantastic trip and caught 61 fish in total with the big Siamese Carp called Scarface at approx. 180, Arapaima to 202, Redtails to 65, and three other species.
The place and facilities are fantastic and I highly recommend it, they have thought of everything and the food was delicious, and we were getting regular visits from the Monitor Lizards and I did manage to hand feed one, without doubt the best all round holiday fishery in Thailand.
On our last couple of days we visited two different places, on day one we went back to the Wildlife Friends Foundation, it’s a rescue centre for Elephants and said to be the only genuine rescue centre in Thailand. It’s grown so much since our first visit and they have rescued so many more animals of many species which now includes 23 Tigers. We spent the whole day there and were able to make the food and get up close and personal with some of the Elephants, it was an amazing moving experience that we all enjoyed immensely, certainly a day to remember and well worth a visit.
On day two we went to the Phraya Nakon Cave that involved quite a hike up and down an mountain and then another similar climb before we entered the cave and what a stunning place to visit, tunnels of sunlight come through gaps in the mountain to create small oasis of trees and fauna in the middle of a cave, it was quite beautiful and another brilliant day. As we climbed down we were met with a troop of Dusky Langas up in the trees and jumping across the path as we descended down in the pouring rain, and we all felt it was a real privilege to see them in their natural environment.
We had our final meal that night and returned home the following day, Thailand has everything and is a beautiful country to visit and Julie and I will be returning in two years.
Until next month, tight lines and be lucky 😊
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