Lloyd Gay found himself booked in for the fishing trip of a lifetime as a surprise organised by his partner Linda Clarke and his Nephew Glenn Clayton, as a 40th Birthday Present.

Jules Fernandez of Siam Fishing Tour had this too say about their experience “I came out to Thailand with a strong motivation of trying to prove to myself and others that the Giant Siamese Carp is not only a worthy target for the UK carp enthusiast, but also to put to rest my own doubts about some of the story’s and anecdotes that have been published in the angling press around the world about this species from time to time, I wanted to see 100LB+ Carp with my own eyes, and try and understand why it’s claimed they are so difficult to catch and land. In addition I‘m sure it frustrates all those in the guiding business in Thailand, that many western angler‘s either don‘t believe these fish can grow so large, or that it‘s not a “true“ carp, when in fact it is without a doubt the most impressive species of carp of all, and I’m sure now Lloyd will be telling everyone at his local lake his amazing story for many years to come, which Im sure all the fishing guides in Thailand would agree will be a good for the fishing scene here in Thailand.

The Giant Siamese Carp is certainly as shy and wily as our carp species in the UK and Europe, and this combined with the fact few carp anglers are putting this species on their radar at present means only a very few fish upwards of a hundred pound are ever hooked and successfully landed by westerners. However I always believed that it should be entirely possible for an experienced UK carp angler who is used to doing battle with wily carp, to land a large specimen fair and square. In addition to the fact European Carp anglers understand how carp fight thus giving them a good chance of landing the big ones. Lloyd by hooking up with these two massive fish in 24hrs proved two things for us. The Giant Siamese Carp can be played fairly, even in Bungsamran with all its obstacles and be beaten.”



Also American angler Lenny Husch had an extraordinary 4 fish haul with a combined weight estimated to be well over 300KG in a single days fishing! The fish were all estimated at well over 70kg’s.

The first couple of days fishing for Lenny left him pretty impressed with the usual 30 to 40 Giant Mekong’s landed per day the biggest weighed in at 48kg(100LB+) on our smaller 50kg scales. But nothing was going to prepare him or us for the days fishing that he was to experience a few days later. Because we had had a good day fishing the “shed” with one of the other guides the previous week, Lenny was happy to return to the shed for a 2nd time, rather than take a bungalow, he allowed the guide to do his job and decide where it was most likely the big fish might be on the day. Good decision!

What makes Lenny’s days fishing so extraordinary is that the big fish he landed where not the only ones he got into. There was at least 3 others that we estimated to be of similar size that for all the usual reasons on Bungsamran managed to escape being landed, either due to snagging on Stilts, or finding the weed bed on the far side of the lake some 80mtrs or so from the point we was fishing. It seemed as if rather than find a shoal of fish, we had found something that would be more accurately described as a “Herd of Hippos!“ at around 3.2mtrs depth on the float, in a quiet corner of the lake, unfished by foreign anglers since it is not fishable from a bungalow.(sorry lads, good fishing is not always about bungalows!)

The pictures do not do the size of these fish any justice really, unless I was to give out vital statistics of Lenny and his partner kneeling behind the fish! Luckily we had another customer, Vikram from Bangalore, India, fishing side by side with Lenny on the day, as well as a number of guides and local anglers present, so the estimates we placed on the fish, were a collective decision from some experienced Bungsamran people and independent individuals. The Thai guides tend to over estimate at times, but we air on the side of caution…one of the guides was convinced the largest fish was in fact over a 100kg, well all I can say is that 3 of us tried, but could not lift it even one inch off of the unhooking matt, its girth was too wide to get our arms underneath and around, and none of us are small blokes! It took five pairs of hands to lift the net out of the water on that one! I personally can haul the head of a 60kg Mekong onto my knee for photographs without too much difficulty….but I really struggled to even get any of these fish off the deck for photography,(except just about manged the smallest of the 4) and they always look so much smaller when not held up, so as you can see the fishes girth and depth, all of these fish seemed to be from new stock placed in the lake in February, since they where all extremely fat, and had very little (if any) in the way of hook marks in their mouths. They where all in very good health, it seems these fish are currently holding up in a different part of the lake than the longer standing lake inhabitants, that hang out in front of one of the commonly fished bungalows.

Lenny’s fishing was not without incident, with the gears on one our Shimano reels being stripped bear by the brut force of these fish, the canoe having to be brought into action twice to try and find the fish in the weeds on the far side of the lake and free it from snags. The only consolation that we did not have the means to weight the fish is that none were landed within IGFA rules on this occasion, so would not qualify as records, but its only a matter of time now before we are ready to start trying for some records at customer request only.  Now Lenny has had some experience playin the big Mekongs, he is probably looking forward to an extended trip next year trying out some venues further afield with us. Who knows maybe he'll get a few 100kg plus Arapaima in a day! The way things are going, anything is possible!