There are only a few places in Thailand where you can target large carp; Chiang Mai's very own
Dreamlake is one of the top spots.
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| Sorry about the face...... Big Siamese Carp Caught in Chiang Mai. |
My luck is definitely in this month and I must put it down to the new lease of life for fishing that has been injected into me from my new fishing buddy, Mac.. The man is fishing mad and has caught many big fish while fishing in Thailand.
Mac made me join him on an evenings fishing at Dreamlake in Chiang Mai. Which gave me another huge fish. This time I was fishing for the carp. Dreamlake holds a good head "
Rohu" and "Small Scale mud carp" which are hard scrapping and growing fast, but the lake here in Chiang Mai also holds a good stock of Siamese Carp as well as Julians price carp which both can grow to huge sizes and fight like steam trains. This is what we were targeting.
We fished a Lum mix only a rod length from the banks. They definitely love a nice cloudy mix and this is what we gave the on a small method feeder. the rods sat untouched for several hours and the lake did not want to give up any fish. Mac was stalking a redtail catfish that had been taking his baits from down the margins and I was standing guard on the rods with the buzzers. I was sure Mac was going hook the first fish of the evening and my confidence in the other rods was dwindling fast. When I jumped instantly to the scream of one of the buzzers screaming but couldn't work out which rod was going in the darkness, after a moments hesitation, I realized it was one of mine. The line was being stripped at an incredible rate. Strike!!!! The rod curls round , I know it is something big, but it could be one of the Mekong Catfish which fight like monsters, too. (The Mekong Cats are passing 35-40kg in the Dreamlake already) When Fighting a big fish in the dark it definitely makes it more exciting. The fish fights all the way stripping line as it wants. Finally we see the beauty, it breaks the surface. The mouth is big enough to fit a grapefruit in. I decided to enter the water to save lifting the fish out, this I feel is always better for the fish. It slides into one of Dreamlake's extra large landing nets, then is easy to unhook. Keeping it in the landing net we get ready for a picture , I lift the beast feeling the weight , being reminded of a sack of cement we snap a picture, as we get ready for the next shot the fish flaps and I can not hold it . It slides back into the darkness.
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| Huge Mouth for the Siamese Carp (Fishing in Chiang Mai) |
Soaking wet and covered in fish slime I splash out and buy the Cokes to celebrate another great fish taken while fishing at Dreamlake in Chiang Mai.
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| Fish slips away before another picture could be taken. |
This is why I love fishing in Thailand and
Chiang Mai.
