I have been travelling for the last 8 months all over South-East
Asia and it’s been fantastic. I have seen some amazing sights including the Taj
Mahal and Angkor Wat, sat on some beautiful sandy beaches, dived with sharks
and seen some truly stunning sunsets. I have even been able to get some fishing
in as well, including my biggest fish of 54lb Mekong catfish plus some other
weird and wonderful fish..... But I have to say... How I have missed the
English fishing scene.
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| 54lb Mekong catfish - caught in north Thailand on bread |
Taking an ipod touch, I have been able to keep up to date
with all the new products, baits, who’s been catching what (my mate Smith in particular has had two pb’s since I
have been away) and thanks to Facebook, Twitter and regular news reports emailed
by companies, I’m always aware of what’s what. Even sitting on a beach in
Thailand I entered a Facebook competition and only guessed the right weight and
won a reel.
I have had time, maybe too much time to think about rigs, bait,
places to fish, what the best approach is and even drawn potential rigs that I
would like to try. I use a lot of imitation baits and will still continue to
use them as I still haven’t seen that many anglers using them and will be
trying the Baitcraft baits, as a new possible angle. As with places to fish, I
am going to continue to fish my two local syndicates and make a point to venture
out to odd day ticket waters.
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| Gave great fights between 25-40 minutes each fish |
I’m planning to land on Tuesday night and fish Wednesday
through Friday and do the family thing at the weekend. I don’t actually plan to
fish that many if any weekends as i’m lucky enough to do overnighters during
the week and there is generally less pressure on the water. But if the
conditions are right then i will be there with the rods out at the weekends!
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| Another odd looking catfish |
I’m heading off to Lake Beauregard in France at the end of
July with 5 friends so need to get as much practice in between now and then.
This will be my first time to France and am really looking forward to the experience.
There are big cats and carp pp over 50lb and would be an amazing achievement to
land one or two, but even see one will be equally astounding. We are grouped in
3 teams of 2 and already have some trophies for the “Biggest Fish” and “Biggest
One Lost” – How we will measure this will be the angler who is crying the most
after the hook pull!
Here are my many/few aims and objectives for this coming
year;
- · Fish with my dad more
- · Keep a better diary/record of the location, swim, weather, pressure and movement
- · Continue to analyse the impact is any of a full moon
- · 25lb+ Carp, 9lb+ Bream and 7lb+ Tench
- · Try some zig fishing – as haven’t done any yet
- · Continue to use the plastic/imitation baits
Be lucky and tight lines
