World class renowned fly fishing champion Pascal Rommelaere from Belgium booked a fishing holiday in Thailand with his brother Chris and brother-in-law Pascal. Visiting a different fishing holiday destination each year, this year was their first time fishing in Thailand.
A total of six days fishing the game plan was simple but proved to be effective. The first day on Bungsamran float fishing for Mekong catfish, what was supposed to be a 'warm up' turned into a lot more for Pascal Rommelaere, as he lumped into a very special Mekong catfish of 65kg (143lb).
Day two and a visit to Boon Mar Ponds saw the Belgium trio catching countless barramundi. Pascal Rommelaere took the opportunity to fly fish for the barramundi, just to watch Pascal in action with a fly rod was to feel sorry for the barramundi; they stood no chance!
Checking out of the Bangkok hotel and traveling towards Ratchaburi, the next two days fishing in Thailand were spent at IT Lake Monsters. The famous Amazonian & Thai predator lake which has been shown on numerous TV angling shows across the globe was the highlight of the trip. Every single angler fishing Thailand especially at IT Lake has their 'wish list' of what to catch and nearly all the time the top of the list is the arapaima. However it is certainly not caught every single visit even to IT Lake Monsters, so for the two Pascal's to hook into and land an arapaima each at the same time was incredible sport. Weighing approximately 35kg & 70kg it was a remarkable brace, not to mention all of the alligator gar, Amazon & Asian redtail catfish & pacu also landed earlier on in the day.
An early start for the second and final days fishing at IT Lake Monsters this time saw Chris land two arapaima himself, along with a big Chao Phraya Catfish on drifted float fished livebait at range.
The final two days fishing were at Bungsamran Lake back in Bangkok this time targeting the larger Mekong catfish and Siamese carp. Unfortunately the Siamese carp were not co-operating but for Pascal the big Mekong were; at over 100lb it made a wonderful end to the Thailand fishing holiday.
All in all over 200 fish were caught in 6 days by the Belgium trio, of which included 10 different species of both Amazonian & Thai freshwater fish.
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