07.01.15

Dean Macey catches giant pacu

I try my best to make my annual pilgrimage out to Gillham's Fishing Resorts in Thailand every year with the mrs. It's a stunning venue to fish, full of creatures you would have to win the lottery to target in the wild. But most of all, it's set in the perfect location to enjoy the best the country has to offer, which keeps the family happy on the days I'm not fishing.

This trip was more a family vacation than a hardcore two weeks chasing down monsters. I still managed to get a few hours in every morning but after my recent trips where I was lucky enough to achieve some very memorable targets, I was a lot more laid back about the angling side of the holiday.

That said, my biggest goal for the trip was to try to get my little brother, Adam, into our great sport and I couldn't think of a better place to get him started. The first morning was a wash out as we went a little too far with the welcome drinks on arrival. So, once we had chilled in the pool for an hour as the headache pills kicked in, we got the rods out.

I was the first to hook one of the unstoppable Mekongs just after lunch and after 40 minutes of hard fought tug of war, loosing 100 yards of line multiple times throughout the battle, I managed to net a short but extremely deep and wide 180lb stunner.

With limited time it's tough to target different species anywhere but I was desperate to catch a big pacu, which is basically a giant vegetarian piranha and a member of the same family. With that in mind I took out 5 kg of Mainline High Impact Banoffee boilies and a tub of the matching wafters as hookbaits. I was sure this edge would give me an advantage.

And so it proved as over the holiday I managed to hook nine pacu, landing
seven up to a whopping 35lb. I caught many other fish and a few other species whilst there both on the main lake and the little lake, but my biggest achievement had to be the success of my brother.

He only had three fish off the main lake, which isn't a lot, but they were Mekongs of 160lb and 220lb and an Arapaima of 350lb, which isn't a bad average size! I think it's safe to say he has been hooked. Rigs were kept very simple but extremely strong with a size 1 Wide Gape B on the business end and the new 65lb Kamo hook link.

All in all it was a great holiday with some awesome short session fishing in between. There are so many more species I want to catch and all grow to astonishing weights at Gillham's - I think I'll be visiting it for many years to come!

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