It’s a big carp – but not as we know it!
I tangle with a Thai giant and get a taste of paradise
AS I came off the lake I heard a familiar laugh. That, and a glass of red wine in the hand of the man it belonged to, could mean only one person – John Wilson.
We embraced warmly. Judging by his tan and broad smile, retirement to Thailand suits him!
John and brother Dave, who has had a longer association with Asia than any of us, had come for a family gathering along with my wife Jo and Dave’s missus, Boon.
I took a second to reflect on how I got here because in the autumn of 2013, after John’s last fishing trip in the UK, we shook hands and I thought we’d never see each other again! I should have known that Uncle John wouldn’t disappear that easily and, sure enough, I got a phone call to see if I wanted to do an Angling Times feature at a new Thai lake.
To cut a long story short, I was so impressed that I bought a villa over there and my wife and I began arranging fishing holidays for UK anglers, where their every need would be met in a fabulous setting. Glasses raised, we toasted being together again. A lovely day, and with another week left of our visit there was promise of more wonderment to come.
Local markets, temples and a restaurant were all on the agenda, but with a six-acre lake full of huge fish only yards away from the front door, how could I resist a try for them, if only for a few hours?
Soon after casting out I had hooked and landed an arapaima but alas, I was not fated to get a picture of it. It leapt out of my hands and those of famous German carp angler Claudia Darga. Not to worry, there’s always another chance in the land of fish superlatives, and a cool beer in the bar quickly made up for the loss.
On a busman’s holiday I never like to set too many goals, but I wanted a huge Siamese carp. With our lake being one of the best places in the world to catch such a creature, I thought I stood a good chance!
So, as warm sunlight threw long shadows over the paddy fields, I left the villa early. Despite it being only 7am all I needed was a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops.
I walked through the tropical gardens to collect my tackle, and the ghillies had already prepared my gear to take to the swim I’d drawn the night before – number 3, and a good carp peg.
An evening draw gives everyone an equal chance, but there’s never really a bad outcome, maybe just not the particular species an angler wants.
My peg in the middle of the lake has a track record for big carp, so the minute I arrived I fed a couple of hundred pellets 30 yards out.
While these hopefully occupied my quarry’s attention I adapted the rigs already in place on the two 4lb test curve custom-built rods with their Baitrunners.
To be fair, there wasn’t much wrong with the ghillies’ approach, but I always like to make a few tweaks to personalise my rigs.
In this case it involved placing sink tubing behind the inline lead, something most people struggle to do when using a thick braided mainline. To simplify the process, take a length of pike wire trace just over double the length of the tubing and thread both ends through to create a loop of wire. Lay the braid through this and pull – it will now pass easily
back through the tubing.
With my fiddling complete, I tied on the hooklength supplied and threaded on two 20mm pellets. Finally, I nicked on a PVA mesh bag of freebies, which hopefully would add attraction and help prevent tangles from the long braided hooklength.
Unlike mirrors or commons, Siamese carp suck their food in from a distance of up to a foot – too short a hooklength will never even enter the mouth.
On each cast I feathered the spool to separate all elements of the rig before feeling the lead drop 12ft or so. With everything in place, it was time to order a black coffee and a full English breakfast to be delivered to my swim. Life didn’t seem so bad!
In paradise everything should work perfectly, and as I mopped up the last of the sauce with a bit of bread the alarm sang out and braid was ripped from the Baitrunner.
My strike set the hook home in a cavernous, underslung mouth and braid whipped out in the wake of PVA mesh bags of boilies for leger tactics.
a scale-perfect critter the size of a fridge!
It had no reason to panic; that was for me to do. The fish ploughed its way across the bottom of the lake, and all I could do was compress the rod to its limit and wait for time to take its toll. After 20 minutes, and all I had achieved was to slow the Siamese, not stall it. That would take a further 20 minutes and a great deal of sweat. These brutal battles are to be endured and enjoyed in equal measure, and finally I felt the fish roll on its side.
The game was now being played out in the margins, but with no snags the beast wouldn’t risk grounding itself. Instead it A powerful catty for loosefeeding boilies.
remained under the rod-tip where I could sap its energy more easily.
Countless times enormous vortices hit the surface from a tail the size of a paddle, then at last the fish’s chainmail-clad back rose in the water and I had my 100lbplus carp. Just how big I would never know, as I didn’t want to take it out of the lake, but at a guess I’d say 120lb – a fantastic fish that was a privilege to hold.
I was destined to land another Siamese carp of a similar size in between swimming, massages and the Jacuzzi before I headed home. I can’t do better than quote Uncle John: “What’s not to like about Thailand?”
See you again soon, Wilson!