Opening week at Gillhams fishery, Thailand

[cobleyn]

Just a quick post for those that have ever wondered what Gillahms is actually like.
I'm lucky enough to able to say that the week before last (a week to get over jetlag and get some work done before getting back on the forum!) was my third visit to Gillhams and it wont be my last. Stuart (Gillham- the owner) made a decision to shut the lake down for 6 weeks to add some extra stock to the lake and rest the fish through the hottest part of the year. I was lucky enough to fish it on opening week.

I wont bore you with a full holiday review- so far as to say it is in one of the most stunning parts of teh world and you feel very looked after out there.

The fishing is certainly not what you would call easy and will really seperate thinking, talented anglers from 'chuck it and chance it' anglers'. If your watercraft isnt up to the mark or you know your lake and thats it-I would consider twice whether Gillhams is the fishery for you. That said the guides are alll excellent and will put you onto the fish and help you to catch your target species. If your prepared to work at the fishing as hard as your UK or French fishing- you'll get some awesome results with true 'fishes of a lifetime'. Several anglers have turned up in my visits there, not willing to listen to the guides who work on the water every day and have left empty handed. Its a long way to go to blank through not wanting listen to some local knowledge.

Anyway- long story short...

We (and my dad) arrived on the Saturday morning jetlagged and tired. Rather than nap we went straight out onto the lake chose our peg and started to talk about strategy. We chose the peg on the basis that there is a big plateau around 60 yards out that the carp seem to like to feed on (our focus for the week was the carp and a Mekong Catfish). Our plan was to spod maize and boilies onto the Plateau and create a situation where the fish came to us. I'd had 15KGs of Trigga, N-Byuric, pineapple and GLM mixed up with some additional hardener in (due to the shrimp population) by rollin' baits.

The first after 1/2 an hour casting the marker float around I spodded out around 3KGs of bait and pur the first of the rods out. As the second rod touched down it roared off- producing a fit fighting 30lb'er. The power of even the small (25-35lb) siamese is incredible. Even with a 6lb Free spirit rod- they rip your arm off. What was clear thayt the fish were taking the bait on the drop so I switched to a floating method style set-up with critically balanced pineapple and n-byruric pop-up trimmed down to just sink under the weight of the hook. This took a further 6 fish until it became too dark to fish it.



This was the story of the first three days, with most of the fish coming to the float and us catching around 4-5 fish each per day. Once the fish got on the baited patch though (we were putting out 6 or7 kgs of bait in the morning), we started to pick them up off the bottom with the Mekongs really getting switched on to the bait. My goal was to catch one of thses fish during the trip, but my final tally was 6. If god made a freshwater fish with the intention of being to smash angler us- this is it. Truly mind blowing runs of 60 and 70 yards interpseced with 10 minutes of heavy charging up and down before roaring off again. Awesome fish- with the shortest of the fights being 25 minutes (of me locked and gurning- no pussying around with them) the longest being 50 minutes.

The week produced carp up to around 85lb's with a few around the 55-70 mark.





The highlight was a very rare Julians Golden carp on the last night of 30lbs


Mekongs ranged from around 60 up to 120.


Great fishery- a good crowd at night having a great crack. a week was just not enough![/img]

[138cgj]

Wow!! Looks awesome! Me and a mate have been talking about this for some time now, ill have to show him the pics! Well done lads

[stoogi]

It's very rare that i'm envious of others.

This comes damn close though

[keenook]

Sawatdee Cap, Dee Mak Mak loi!

[daryl23]

1am booked for 11 days from the 10th november on countdown now.

[bobstains]

Wow!! Some stonkers there. I bet that was great fun.

One day!
_________________
Its better to have cast a line and blanked than to have never have cast at all..

[keenook]

Those Juliens Carp are stunning!

[bluebirdjones]

That's a stunning looking place

Well done that looks like a great week

[swirlstrike]

stunning pics great report! this place got a website?

[keenook]

[arl]

..Great catches..well in