Brendan, has fished this Lake before targeting the many wonderful fish species of Thailand that this diverse fishery holds. This particular trip Bren has a few days dedicated to fishing the ‘Monster Catfish Twilight Package’ at Shadow Lake; targeting only the Mekong giant catfish. There are a huge numbers of catfish over 100lb at Shadow Lake; every single day there are countless cats over the 'ton' caught here.
This is mostly due to the sensible stocking level of other fish; giving anglers no problems to hook into one of these giants.
The best fish of the first session came at dusk, although by the time it was landed at 104lb - it was already dark! From the picture you will see that Shadow Lake Mekong giant catfish are fairly short in length - but are extremely dense and in fabulous condition.
To only target the Mekong giant catfish the crude but deadly technique of fishing ram under the float was employed again. This method tends to 'put off' the unwanted smaller fish and leaves us concentrating on the monster cats. Fishing our daytime package on light tackle at Shadow Lake is great fun while targeting a wide range of species - but these few days were all about the giants for Bren.
On the second twilight session Bren hooked into what we immediately knew to be a real whacker. With the spool being relieved of line at an alarming rate, it was clear this fish was also over 100lb.
After an exhausting battle, Bren was more than happy to see the fish in the net. It took 3 people to lift the fish out and eventually into Bren’s arms – all 132lb of healthy Mekong catfish!
Our third and final twilight session again with Bren and we were holding out hopes for another Mekong giant catfish over 100lb to make it 3 in a row. This time early on in the afternoon Bren hooked the fish that we thought would make the trio of 100's. It certainly fought like it should break the ton again, but the scales told us 93lb - just 7lb short of Bren's third 100lb+ catfish in as many days.
Having just read the previous catch report - you would be forgiven for thinking 'wow - the lake must have been fishing its' head off.' Where-as the truth is that over these few days Shadow Lake was fishing unusually hard; 132lb \ 104lb \ 93lb captures during this hard time truly shows the great potential for when the lake is 'fishing good.'
Shortly after Bren’s Twilight fishing sessions, UK based angler Stephen booked 2 of the same sessions at Shadow Lake – again targeting the monster Mekongs. The first run of the first Twilight Session came from a healthy Mekong giant catfish which put up a good fight but only weighed approximately 75lb; however a nice start but we were after the 100lb+ fish.
The next run proved that an obviously larger fish had picked up the bait by the way the spool of 40lb mono was stripped down to a few turns. The fight was simply indescribable; imagine applying as much pressure to a rod and fish as physically possible and working that amount of force for more than 30 minutes. On a couple of occasions help was given to turn the fish from a couple of dangerous runs but other than that Stephen played the fish with great skill from the duration of the fight.
For the picture above the fish was simply 'put' onto our laps - from playing the fish, netting, lifting and manoeuvring we were all very tired and lifting the fish into a better pose was just impossible. Our 100lb+ catfish hunt was accomplished already and we still have 1 more session to fish.
On the second and final day the lake was looking uncomfortably ‘dead,’ with no signs of fish activity whatsoever. To our joy the silence was broken by a 1 tone screamer hollowing out from the bite alarm – the rod was gabbed from the rod-pod and struck into a healthy bend. The fight was not as strong or as long as usual and we were all surprised to see that it was indeed a cracking fish in the landing net! Knowing that the Mekong catfish would not have broken the 100lb we took the pictures and returned the fish without weighing it, an estimate of around 90lb would have been fair.
Already a fantastic result with 2 fish between 80lb-90lb, but we really were after much bigger fish; but were not expecting another run. That is until the left rod began singing to us again; and this fish really was the ‘big one’!
This Mekong catfish knew all the tricks but unfortunately for the fish; so did we! Approximately 25 minutes later the 130lb beast was laying peacefully in the landing net – what a splendid fish to finish the last session on.
Shadow Lake – Daytime ‘Total Carp & Catfish Species Hunt’ Fishing
For many anglers fishing in Thailand is all about experiencing a good variety of wonderful fish species that can not be found back home. Keith is no exception and opted for a days fishing at Shadow Lake, where the target species were Siamese carp, Chinese bighead carp, Mekong catfish & Striped catfish.
After a couple of enormous striped catfish over the 40lb mark all went quiet until the next run produced a healthy bend in the rod for Keith. The fish was immediately identified as a Mekong catfish by the long hard run heading out to the middle of the lake. After a ten minute fight and no line gained the Mekong giant catfish managed to spit the hook back at us. The moment was soon forgotten after a few more 35 - 46lb striped catfish had graced the banks.
Keith was over the moon to catch a bighead carp, although not the greatest fighter in the fish world - it is still an absolute joy for any carp angler to catch and admire.
Keith's heart was set on a giant Siamese carp which is one of the reasons why we chose Shadow Lake - although a low average weight there are large numbers of Siamese carp in Shadow Lake.The fish God's were blessing us today as Keith hooked and landed 2 Siamese giant carp, displaying 2 totally different colourations; ending the day perfectly.
Night Fishing Bungsamran – Siamese Carp Pro-Package
Night Fishing at Bungsamran Lake in Bangkok for the notorious Giant Siamese Carp; paid off for UK specimen carp hunter Simon Clarke. The biggest advantage of fishing a 24hr session or longer at Bungsamran Lake is that an accurate and effective baiting program can be executed. Added to this key advantage is that the carp rods are in place and the trap set through dusk, dawn, day & night. Night Falls - Along With A Giant Giant Mekong Catfish
The first few hours of the 24 hour pro-carp session saw Simon warming up with some striped catfish & Mekong catfish upto 54lb. The heavens then opened and down poured the rain, reducing visibility even further. It was at exactly this time that Simon struck into a monster monster Mekong catfish; which continually took back 80 yards of line on each run. Unfortunatley the fish found the safety of the far bank bungalows and subsequently cut Simon off. Into Daytime & Into Siamese Carp
The morning began with us fishing extra rods for the standard size (40lb!) Mekong giant catfish - during daylight hours there is absolutely no harm done to the baited carp swim by banging out 40lb cats one after the other way away from the baited carp area. Around late morning the carp rod began singing to us as Simon struck into a heavy and powerful giant Siamese carp. The classic speed and directional changing characteristics of a Siamese carp battle were all too apparent as Simon skilfully weakened the beast. A brief but intense 10 minute battle saw smiles all round and from ear to ear on Simon's face as the Siamese giant carp lay in the bottom of our landing net; defeated.
Simon Clarke(right) now returns to England to show the pictures of his 74lb carp to the syndicate.
Brendan, has fished this Lake before targeting the many wonderful fish species of Thailand that this diverse fishery holds. This particular trip Bren has a few days dedicated to fishing the ‘Monster Catfish Twilight Package’ at Shadow Lake; targeting only the Mekong giant catfish. There are a huge numbers of catfish over 100lb at Shadow Lake; every single day there are countless cats over the 'ton' caught here.
