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Jean-Francois Helias' Fishing Adventures Thailand team is known
internationally to be the most professional pro guides for
freshwater sport fishing in Southeast Asia.
That team of pro guides has accomplished numerous angling
achievements, including up to today racking up an amazing total of
129 IGFA world records (114 homologated + 15 currently pending an
homologation), or setting several non-official records such as the
record of the Southeast Asian biggest fish ever caught on rod and
line. A record they still hold up to this day and certainly for many
more years to come, for the catch on August 26, 2001 of a
gigantic 185 kg (407 lbs) Arapaima gigas or Pirarucu.
In July 2007, Jean-Francois Helias' Fishing Adventures Thailand team
did it again in a very impressive way! This time with the catch by
Fishing Adventures Thailand pro guide "Kik" of the world's biggest
carp ever caught on rod and line in the history of sport fishing.
Kik who has been guiding in Jean-Francois Helias team since
its inception is known locally as the most complete local angler of
the country. He is also Thailand's top rod builder and top handmaker
of top water lures. Though he does not fish much as he used to do in
his younger days, nowadays preferring guiding visiting anglers and
making them catch our Thai fish species, he still has it under his
skin.
On July 2, 2007, while guiding an American client at Bung Sam Lan
Lake, Kik had brought with him a brand new fishing rod he had just
finished to custom build. His intention was only to hook up and to
play one or two Mekong giant catfish so he could test his rod.
His karma on that day was gonna turn in a way he would have never
expected.
Instead of a hardfighting Mekong catfish, Kik hooked up the kind
of catch of a lifetime some anglers would sell their soul to the
devil for. A Siamese Giant Carp or Catlocarpio siamensis we
estimated weighing just over 120 kg (265 pounders). She may be a
tiny bit bigger but to give her 120 kilos is already very fine with
us. On the opposite of lots of anglers we have always
preferred estimating the weight of our fish catches at the minimum
rather than exaggerating or hyping it.
Even with a bunch of kilos missing from her real weight, Kik's catch
is anyway the biggest Siamese carp ever caught here in Thailand on
rod and line, and on top of it, the world's biggest carp ever caught
on rod and line!
Isn't that catch twice bigger the size of the current 52 kg IGFA All
Tackle world record for that species? Yes it is!
Has the fish been caught according to the IGFA rules? Yes!
Does it qualify then for a new record? No!
The only scales we had that day at the lake were our usual certified
100 kg scales. No way we would have thought we were gonna catch that
gigantic carp.
Knowing she was weighing well over the 100 kg mark there was no need
for us to bother with the weighing procedure. We had no other option
than accepting losing the opportunity to submit that exceptional
catch with the IGFA for a record. Shame is I have purchased last
month a set of 500lb digital scales from the USA. I bought them
especially because I thought we may have to weight one or two fish
catches over the 100 kg mark one of these days. The brand new 500lb
digital scales are still at my home.... waiting for me to find free
time so I can bring them to the calibration institute to have them
certified. Too busy guiding and fishing, as usual not enough time to
do everything I would or I should!
Kik's gigantic carp catch is the second carp ever taken at Bung Sam
Lan Lake from the 5 "super biggies" stocked at the lake 23 years
ago. These 5 carp coming from the wild, exactly from the Chaopraya
River in the Singhburi province where they got netted, were already
all weighing above the 90 kilos (almost 200 pounds) mark when sold
to the lake owners.
In over two decades, only one of them has ever been landed by an
angler. It is the estimated 110 kilos Siamese giant carp caught by
our local friend Lung Dam. Any dedicated European carp angler knows
about that famous photo showing Lung Dam with a straw hat posing
behind his capture. A picture which has been published in almost
every European fishing magazine.
For the anecdote, that very giant carp caught by Lung Dam was so
close to be caught a second time last year. We were guiding a return
client from England, Nicholas Dean, a lovable guy and a very
experienced angler as well. Nick hooked up Lung Dam's over 200 lb
carp - no mistake about it - it was her 200% with her very unique
pattern of dark brown scale nuances on her body. Nick played her the
right way all along the fight. He did not let the powerful
carp entangle his line around the close neighboring structures. He
was doing very fine. The carp got finally tamed, almost ready to be
netted.
Apparently, the gigantic size of the carp appearing at the surface
in front of him had Nick losing his focus for a few
seconds....enough for the carp to play the usual Siamese giant carp
trick which is to play tamed, and all of a sudden doing a last and
unexpected rush towards the angler, passing just under his rod and
his feet, and escaping under the bungalow by running through
its wooden stilts. Next the line is entangled around the stilts. The
carp got free by either getting unhooked or breaking the line....
Nick had lost in a split second a catch of a lifetime, his rights to
be proud of his achievement, to deserve fame and exposure in the
angling press media. Sad, very sad situation. We were all sad about
it. Having someone you like losing an exceptional fish is not
only mentally painful for the angler but for us guides too. It was
the kind of day you wish everything you had just experienced did not
happen....
Though Kik had no problem to land successfully the grandma carp, we
had to cope next with a bunch of difficulties to manage a proper
photo session before releasing the fish safely. For such a catch of
a lifetime, no need to say how important is for the angler to have
both his catch and that unforgettable moment of life immortalized on
photo. We had to be fast. Being into the monsoon season, it had
already start to rain and a heavy storm was coming. Also
being totally into conservation and catch and release we did not
want to keep that exceptional fish too long, but only to take a few
good pics, and to release it in the very best conditions to assure
its survival.
Let me tell you the task did not go easy. We asked an employee
working at the lake to help Kik handling the mammoth carp for the
photo session. The two of them were not enough strong to lift and to
keep the carp out of the water enough long for my wife Lek and Kik's
wife Pim to take pictures. The boys were struggling in the water to
handle the powerful grandma carp, getting slapped a few times by her
powerful tail. Almost all the pics taken by Lek & Pim sadly turned
out bad. A pity for such a catch of a lifetime! I had to delete
almost all of them except for a dozen or so of almost decent ones I
saved.
Our Fishing Adventures Thailand team has now three non-official
records: a 185 Kg Arapaima catch which is still today the Southeast
Asian biggest fish ever caught on rod and line; that 120 kg Siamese
Giant Carp, the world's biggest carp caught also on rod and line;
and a 100 kg freshwater giant stingray we fought for 6 hours which
is from my knowledge the biggest of its kind ever caught in Thailand
on rod and line.
Do not be surprised if in a near future you read that the
Jean-Francois Helias' Fishing Adventures Thailand team has finally
succeeded to land a Mekong giant catfish over the 100 kg mark. We
have already caught and released 4 Mekong giant catfish above the 80
kg mark. To catch one over the 90 kg or the 100 kg mark seems to
be just a matter of time!
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