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My final day was to a fishery which Eddie normally uses to kick a week long booking off, and to close with. A lake where back then he was offering a money back guarantee if you didn't catch a fish topping forty pounds. How many fisheries dare make an offer like that. Bungsamran right in suburbs of Bangkok city justifiably can. This is quite a large lake surrounded by open fronted bungalows with fishing platforms looking out on to the water. Essentially, the fishing is either for mekong catfish or siamese carp, both of which can easily top one hundred pounds at this particular venue. The lake record carp if my memory serves me right is something like 264 pounds. On the flip side, siamese carp are neither numerous nor are they easy to catch, so the majority of people tend to concentrate on the mekong cats. There are also some huge arapaima in this lake, which as air breathers, you will see topping here and there over the course of the day. Not that you are liable to catch them, as both the carp and the cats are vegetarians, whereas the arapaima are strict carnivores. You can't deliberately fish for them there either. After some unfortunate historical incidents in which large arapaima died, deliberate fishing for them was stopped, which is a pity, as some of the specimens that have been left to munch their way through the many smaller bait fish the lake also contains, are now up in the many hundreds of pounds. Phill Williams, Giant Featherback Pound for pound, I would rate mekong catfish as the hardest fighting freshwater fish I have ever come across anywhere. The nearest comparison I can make is a big powerful tuna. They never give up, have immense reserves of power, and they stay deep, tearing off line right until the moment they are engulfed by the landing net. Worse still, some would run straight at you and swim between the wooden stoops holding up the fishing platform which meant they were actually behind you. But you couldn't turn to face them because they'd gone underneath with so many potential snags. 482
In terms of approach, we used a very large method feeder loaded with a grapefruit sized ball of paste made up from rice husks suspended under a sliding float. The float was there not so much for bite indication as maintaining fishing depth, as once a cat had picked a bait up it would be off, tearing line from the bait-runner spool. And they were relentless. From start to finish it was every egg a bird, with an incredibly brutal mauling guaranteed. Mainly from fish in the forty to sixty pound bracket, with, as you'd expect, progressively fewer numbers as the size range increased beyond that, though hundred pounders were reportedly common enough. No worries then in terms of the price refund guarantee ever needing to be met. In the end it became more akin to punishment. I'd caught sixteen of the things and couldn't physically take any more. Yet as soon as a fish was disgorged, Ali, my personal guide, had the rig baited up and out looking for yet another. I tried to get him to stop by pleading with him that I needed a rest, but nothing. The only way to escape was go for a walk around the lake. Unfortunately for her, my wife Dawn was sat at the back of the bungalow under the fan reading a book. Like a machine, Ali just kept on casting, then turned to her and said "you, lady, wind in this fish". By the time I got back Dawn was struggling with catfish number three. Needless to say I got it in the neck for deserting her. But at least it let her see that contrary to what she had previously said on many occasions about me going away enjoying myself, it wasn't necessarily always the case. My next visit to Thailand was five years later, by which time Eddie Mounce had set up a fishery of his own. He was still doing all the other stuff as well, but had based himself a couple of hours to the west of Bangkok at a purpose built water he called Jurassic Fishing Park, where the big attraction was the availability of siamese carp. Normally at locations such as Bungsamran, it can take a couple of days to get a carp result. At Jurassic, you can expect at least a couple and more in a single session, plus you get Phill Williams, Siamese Carp Jurassic Park Lake to put a second dead-bait rod out for arapaima which can well top two hundred pounds. A very pleasant fishery way out in the countryside, with excellent dining facilities, plus on site accommodation for those that might want it. For my part, I just wanted either an arapaima or a siamese carp. I didn't unfortunately get the arapaima, but I had a few nice carp to fifty five pounds, one of which ran me peg to peg along the entire length of the lake. Very powerful fish with huge shovel like tails and the strangest of faces, with their eyes, for whatever reason, set way down the side of their head. Very odd. But very good fish to catch on halibut pellets, both on the bottom and suspended under a float with a few fed in loose every so often. I can understand why people want to catch them and rave over them when they do. There were also a few small amazonian red tailed cats just to add a bit of extra variety to what in 2015 was still a fairly new fishery only just reaching maturity, but with a very promising future when that time does eventually come along. 483
1
THE ACTUAL BUCKET LIST 100 species
Colin Penny: skipper of the Weymout
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page The Actual B
Long Rough Dab 153 Turbot 154 Brill
Introduction to the Gobies 251 Blac
Bitterling 322 Gudgeon 323 Bleak 32
Spain 479 Thailand 479 Tunisia 484
As always, with any sort of ambitio
Working in conjunction with these i
viviparous reproduction, and the me
possible, use a landing net, and th
Only when a world record claim was
pectorals, with the second dorsal d
The harbour itself completely dries
Nor can weights be estimated by usi
shark and porbeagle exploits, all o
Mincing also makes demands on the m
Plymouth and some of the surroundin
That however isn't the entire story
Mark Ward, 71 pound Norfolk Tope I
off around Shell Wharf to the south
Network (SSACN), and it was on thes
COMMON SMOOTHHOUND Mustelus mustelu
But you would be wrong. Because exp
There are lots of good smoothhound
But it was a long hard fought campa
The object of the exercise was to c
LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus
One of the few occasions when I can
When they were more numerous than t
With its recent history, can there
Getting back to the history of thos
Ross Johnson, skate from the shore
From the shore, obviously, it won't
I remember one particular fish that
have a lot to do with numbers, dist
That said, I have on occasion been
I once took a bucket full of live m
With fast tides, a profusion of ban
igger than ten pounds, then it's a
Spotted Rays also lack rough prickl
A strikingly beautiful fish which e
An occasional specimen might even t
Most of the time we spent fishing i
Another of those at best rarely rep
A much smaller fish of more souther
As with all species, and for a rang
Our first trips didn't exactly ligh
etween Christmas and the last big t
The Fylde would fish best after a b
Muppets too began to appear in a ra
own boat over there to fish the rou
Colouration and lateral line are tw
Deep diving plugs too, providing th
pollack have a protruding lower jaw
The upper flanks and back have been
From my own experience, certainly f
photograph of a whiting he'd caught
s monofilament to help eliminate se
fishermen, presented as a flapper,
mouth is noticeably dark. There can
LING Molva molva Bucket List status
Mac McAllister, Whitby Ling Now, th
GREATER FORKBEARD Phycis blennoides
In common with all the rocklings, t
SHORE ROCKLING Gaidropsarus mediter
I used to tag along to collect dise
As with the more familiar flounder
fish, little realising that they we
Though it was still very early in t
A fish with a distribution potentia
aits, and a tiny sliver of squid or
e enough to push them right out wit
Hooks obviously can be bigger where
He also uses this description for t
I spent some time chatting to Paul
fin extending right around to the h
Whatever the reason, it did actuall
From the shore it's slightly differ
161 And if you are not holding your
MEGRIM Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis B
Colouration is brown with some dark
Dan Burrows, Fleetwood Because of m
Where there are still a few bass le
ecruitment in the face of imminent
As ever, there was always the dange
The EU is relying on existing enfor
The total reduction in fishing mort
south, as it is a common enough fis
A fish with a large mouth and power
weaning these otherwise algae graze
spots, and put in the time both swi
Ollie Stenning, 8.7.4 Thin Lip reco
Despite living nearby in Hampshire,
Simply fold the pectoral fin forwar
Otherwise, a family of fishes of vi
epeated off the Yorkshire coast. Ye
were forced to remove their fightin
So far as I can ascertain, this is
different scales starting at the gi
everywhere as was once the case. Wi
Quite an unusual visitor to our pat
Four of us we were drift fishing a
Physically, the almaco is a slightl
Already we are seeing that, not onl
the end of the trip, still with no
I've had it happen to me on more th
What clinched that line of thinking
much stronger sharper hooks, and bu
Mike Thrussell, Gilthead Bream I ha
BOGUE Boops boops Bucket List statu
AXILLARY BREAM Pagellus acarne Buck
Caught out, instead of reversing th
The biggest of the four was put at
So there I am winding in, certain I
CUCKOO WRASSE Labrus mixtus Bucket
For deliberately targeting them, th
The scientific wisdom suggests it t
As is the trend with most of the gu
In this particular case however, re
Although I've never caught one myse
So you can expect to see them in mo
The knock on effect would also sign
Phill Williams, Shad on fly Unusual
THE GOBIES Potentially quite a larg
Colouration varies between reddish
TOMPOT BLENNY Parablennius gattorug
BLACK FACED BLENNY Tripterygion del
A very dark blue-grey fish over its
If it's a conger, the eye will be l
Yes, conger can be a handful. Dange
to make a short flowing 10/0 hook t
Anyway, a good hour went by without
More recently, that trend has given
A fish well capable of weights well
eam covered in a mosaic of heavy sc
Trigger fish are not overly demandi
Distribution extends throughout all
exaggerated long filaments stretchi
sometimes lighter vertical bars on
GREATER WEEVER Trachinus draco Buck
SHORT SPINED SEA SCORPION Myoxoceph
The anal fin follows a similar patt
Colouration is sandy brown with a s
By far the biggest numbers I have e
RED BAND FISH Cepola rubescens Buck
FIFTEEN SPINED STICKLEBACK Spinchia
After spawning, the adults drop bac
So not a likely repeat prospect for
As for mirrors, commons, leathers a
That was it. We would film a demons
Granted, Richard Walker was from a
Anglers however tend to have mixed
It took us some searching to locate
RUDD Scardinius erythrophthalmus Bu
Match anglers love them too, as all
ait on their heads and immediately
BARBEL Barbus barbus Bucket List st
In addition to that, Mike also had
More towards the back-end however,
Looking at recent reports of catch
Let's start with the feel of the fi
distances on a regular basis to fis
I'd never been to East Anglia befor
Phill Williams, small Zander locati
Not exactly a fish to set the world
Dave and Paul went straight for the
For a whole range of reasons you co
Let's also not lose sight of the fa
You only have to look at the wider
villa I stayed in. Using worms boug
THREE SPINED STICKLEBACK Gasteroste
Included in the adipose finned spec
Other boats also came ashore with s
Theoretically, a very straight forw
particular tenkara fly fishing come
A scale count from the adipose fin
Living in a three dimensional world
the hook inside a small ball of the
Colouration is typically dark green
In Grayling circles, I have to say
around one hundred and forty or so
across the lake, and would therefor
There were certainly less fish abou
One day, Bob Fitchie and I decided
Inspired by Wally's catch, John and
PART TWO BEYOND HOME WATERS THE CAT
Cape Cod is a venue where bass in t
The obvious problem was that Dave,
FLORIDA - BISCAYNE CANAL When I fis
So why go to the trouble of fishing
It's just a pity that the hundred o
This is controlled by a single lock
idea was that as the light faded, t
You could drop a live mullet or blu
Having fished there on a number of
getting access to big fish too for
and reels supplied on-board, which
Paul Bennett hooked up a huge snapp
As one local party boat angler put
The entrance can get quite busy wit
Each morning at breakfast we would
407 What we had not expected was ei
cameras, this went into a rucksack
The fishing itself was straight for
ottom. It was all bait fishing with
Smaller asp on the other hand tend
also run this river in their millio
Surprisingly, for the size of these
Eventually it appeared within reach
On one occasion, as soon as I touch
shark, which, along with a fish I h
fixed spool reels. Fortunately we h
As it would turn out, this was the
And now here we are with the bucket
with no relevant qualifications, I
Deformed surviving Tope Most other
you dip the sampling can in at the
acteria feeding on it, or other inp
separate bucket for reintroduction
RESIDS 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 2 3
An asteroid impact 66 million years
As a point of balance, I should als
a vested financial interest in mopp
Podcast Interview 8: Graeme Pullen,
Podcast Interview 33: Zyg Gregorek,
Podcast Interview 55: Dave Beecham,
Podcast Interview 74: Justin Anwyl
Podcast Interview 95: Sven Hille, B
shore, and a 1000 pound fish from a
Podcast Interview 134: Mike Heylin,
Podcast Interview 155: Ally Gowans,
Podcast Interview 176: Terry Mosele
his job had to fish with many of th
Smoothhound at surface: Photo Phill
Dave Devine Haddock trio: Photo Phi
Gibraltar harbour: Photo Phill Will
Anchovy: Photo Phill Williams. Phil
Grass Carp: Photo Bill Rushmer. Vir
Char in breeding livery: Photo Phil
Danny Cove 200 pound Stingray: Phot
My angling hero & mentor, Davy Agne
The Lesser Spotted curse: Photo Phi