The Arduous Quest For An IGFA World Record
- Catlocarpio Siamensis (Page 3)

Then beginning of October, we had our 4th opportunity to make the Catlocarpio siamensis species entering the IGFA record list. This time with another record catch landed by a UK client named Bruce Dale. I call Bruce a “lucky Caho angler”. He showed us during his 2 stays with us here in Thailand that Lady Luck has apparently a close eye on him. Look! The guy had previously the chance to have 3 carp bites on the same day during his first stay with us, landing a 20 kg Caho and losing 2 very big fish. He is back with us a few months later, asking me to fish for carps for a single day, and this time lands a huge Caho specimen of 45 kg. You need believe me a bit of good luck to experience such things. Same scenario again! Fighting that kind of big size specimen took some time. The carp looked tired and Bruce a dedicated carp angler and a gentleman decided himself to release the fish promptly rather than going for a record. We didn’t even weight the catch. By experience we estimated his catch weighting around 45 kg.

On the 4th November, we had to guide for a day a Singaporean angler by the name of Francis Chia Hung Meng. When I arrived at the lake with him, Kik was already waiting us. I noticed he had brought one of his custom built rods. A thing he has never done before.  While guiding Kik would only take care of our guests but never fished. Curious I asked him:

"Hey luk pee wan nee koon yak tok pla la?" (Hey brother, are you going to fish today?). 
Giving me a big smile he answered: 

"Kap! Pom may day tok pla caho nan" (Yes! I haven't done any fishing for the giant carp for a long time). And smiling even more, he added on a joking tone: 

"Wan nee pom tja dai toa yai" (And today, I'm going to get a big one). 

I knew he was teasing. But a couple of hours later I could have said then he had been in fact deadly serious if he hadn’t admitted himself what happen that day was just pure luck. That day Francis, the Singaporean angler, was fishing only for the Pla Buk and was having a ball fighting these mean Cats. While taking care of him, Kik and myself set up our rods for the giant carp next to each other on the side of our bungalow, a part of Francis’ Catfish battlefield. Who knows? Any of us could get lucky anytime again today. Like for any other attempt, I always felt giving it a try has never been a waste of time. I don’t care anymore about the caho not being an easy fish to make bite. To me, to succeed the chances in favor of the angler can be described this way: to know the right spot to be angled is already 25 % chances, the right rig and a good bait are another 50 % chances, and the last 25 % is only sheer luck. That day, the one who got that always needed 25 % luck was Kik. A Caho took his bait. And I really wish you could have witnessed the fight that followed that bite. Playing that fish on light tackle was a pure lesson of angling skills. Kik was using a custom built rod of 7 ft he built himself for Snakeheads fishing with surface lures. The rod was coupled to a small reel loaded with 20 lb braided line. Of course it is not really the best fishing gear to fight those giant carps…

On the first run, the carp was already far away on the other side of the lake. It took him 20 long minutes to bring the fish close to our pontoon. And once the giant carp came up for the first time to the surface level in a huge boil, we knew immediately that fish was much bigger than any other fish we fought before. We even had to use 2 nets to land that giant fish. Lucky catch, unlucky day! We had the record fish but we didn't have the scales.  Except for my 50 kg portable scales that would have not been of any help for that kind of monster fish anyways. I had purchased from England a few months before 100 kg portable scales. Too bad! We didn’t have them with us. I couldn’t find in Thailand a calibration institute that could certify them. The former institute where I brought all of my various portable scales in the past to get the certificates of calibration required by the IGFA had only machines able to test scales to 60 kg maximum. 

Being always too busy guiding daily, we had no time at all to look any faster for an institute able to certify these brand new 100 kg scales. Nat, one of my team guides, found finally a place having bigger test machines. He just brought them to the institute the day before to be tested and we had to wait about a week before to get them back certified. Wrong timing for that catch! Unluckily, on that day those scales had not been returned to us yet. Hon, one of the lake employees was there to witness the catch. He has seen it all after so many years working there and can guess quite accurately the weight of any fish without using scales. He looked at the netted fish and said it was over 80 kg but couldn't be 90 kg. To be fair, Kik and myself agreed to give that carp an estimated weight of over 80 kg. (~176 lbs.)

Fishing Adventures Thailand pro guide Kik and his 80.00 Kg carp

What a frustration! His catch was the biggest carp caught at the lake during the 2 past years. It would have been as well such a hell of a giant carp to make a first entry with the IGFA! I guess that record would have last for some years before being broken by any other angler. What a pity! I would have loved so much that Kik, a gifted angler, skillful guide and my fishing soulmate, could hold for the Siamese giant carp species such a well deserved IGFA world record.

The 11th November, I landed a 22 kg and lost a much bigger one. The biting has been really good in the beginning of November. We had caught a few carps and had several more bites not finalized.  It looked like the giant carps were in a frenzy mood again. Luckily at that period, we had to guide clients daily at the lake so we had more opportunities to wet lines for them. But it was the 12th that was going to be at last our lucky day. Should I say a double lucky day? I should. First because Nat went that day in the morning to the calibration institute to take back my 100 kg portable scales with its certificate of calibration. He called me on the phone to tell me he had the scales with him. He was not supposed to meet us but I asked him to bring them at the lake in case we would hook another biggie that day. Did I feel it was going to happen? I don’t really know. But I’m glad I asked him to come with the scales as quickly as possible. Cause a few hours later I was going to land, in the beginning of the afternoon, the 6th record carp that will end our long quest for an IGFA record.

We were guiding that day 4 nice Singaporean anglers who had the chance to assist for the very first time to the catch of a Catlocarpio siamensis. Then I had a bite. It is impossible to estimate an approximate weight of a fish while fighting it but I had no doubt the carp I was playing was without another good size fish. Using Kik’s custom rod, the same light tackle gear he had fought his 80 kg carp with, I knew I had really to play it smart or I would lose it. On 20 lb line I couldn’t afford to do a single mistake.  At the last moments of the fight, I was tense when the fish close to our pontoon played on me the usual dirty tricks, trying several times to snag me.  I remember motivating myself, staying in focus and thinking to myself:  "That one will be the one for sure to enter the IGFA list. There is no way I am going to let that potential record go away this time!"

The 45.00 Kg (~99 lbs.) Siamese giant carp, current IGFA All Tackle World Record

We had everything ready: cameras, scales and meter, to proceed to the required weighting and measurements session. At last we had done it. The fish was weighted exactly at 45 kg. One kilo less than my best personal catch but still good enough to me to end that long wait of several months for a first record with the IGFA. That carp had a length of 117 cm, 99 cm from its mouth to the beginning of its tail, and a girth of 96 cm.

During those long months I was having a frequent exchange of mail with European carp fanatics keeping them posted about our experiences with the giant carp. One guy in particular was a real Caho lover:  my Dutch angling globetrotter friend Arnout Terlouw, himself an experienced carp angler.  Being in charge of Karper, a magazine dedicated to carp fishing, Arnout was of course very attentive to any information about Siamese carp fishing. He had heard of our very good results not only from my mail but at the same time from other well known European carpers.  Apparently, through mouth to ear, our reputation was already spreading fast in the European carp angling world.  I already spent a week in December 2000 guiding him and 8 other European legendary anglers for the shooting of a movie.  That film was done for “Season’s”, a European TV fishing program, and was about the Mekong Giant Catfish and Bung Sam Lan Lake. 

Of course, a part of the pla buk, Arnout and two others legendary European carpers, Belgium Ronnie De Groote and Danish Doctor Jens Bursell, gave a try at the Siamese Giant Carp too during their stay.  I know how much they would have loved to add the Caho to the long list of their personal numerous fish species catches around the world, especially in front of the camera. Unfortunately fishing conditions for the carp were difficult.  December in Thailand is the fresh season. On some days, the water temperature at that period is too cold. Carps still bite sometimes but only on very sunny days, once the water had been warmed.

They didn’t succeed. They had a few bites but missed. It was impossible anyways to be certain those had been carp bites. It could have been any other fish species, pla buk or pla sawai.  A part of the difficult conditions, I believe we had another handicap.  We were not using yet the bait formula we use today for the carp.  We were using at that time the usual based rice husk bait called here “lam” that the best local carp anglers still use nowadays. It works OK on the carp, and even better on big size pla buk with the bottom fishing method.  They were catching carps of course... but too few.  And their average of bites was not good enough in my opinion to say it is the best bait to be used for that species.  Arnout didn’t catch a carp but did so much better.  I wanted him to try the Arapaima and he landed one in front of the camera.  An estimated 110 kg Arapaima gigas that made him the first foreign angler to have landed one of the 5 specimens ever caught at Bung Sam Lan Lake.

Arnout wanted to be back in Thailand. He was still very much interested in a giant carp catch but there was another fish that was even more important to him.  He had been researching about the Jullien’s Golden Price Carp or Probarbus jullieni for 4 years and wanted me to organize for him an expedition in the wild for that rare fish. 

Jullien’s Golden Price Carp or Probarbus jullieni

Arnout accepted the offer.  He had a week vacation and wanted now to experience a 5 days jungle fishing expedition. He had heard how exciting was “Snakehead hunting” with surface lures from fellow writers and had to give it a try. Before leaving upcountry, as a carp fanatic, he couldn’t resist to ask me to pay a visit to Bung Sam Lan Lake. I knew how much a Catlocarpio catch was important to him and both of us knew too that fishing for the giant carp for a single day was going to be pure gambling. It was going to be again all or nothing. The night before our fishing day I told Arnout I was very confident. I had caught a 22.00 Kg two days before his arrival and got snagged the next day by a fish well over 40.00 kg. The carp were biting well. He just had to cross his fingers. 

Here we are again by the water on that 19th November.  We are using only one rod each, fishing together the very same spot.  Will “sweet Lady Luck” show up again today?  Yes!  It doesn’t take long.  Arnout had a first bite around 11.00 am. Unfortunately he will lose the very first Caho he had the chance to hook.  There was absolutely nothing he could do about it.  The way that carp was moving in the water meant without a doubt he had at the other end of his line a very serious big "submarine with fins".  60.00 Kg?  70.00 Kg?  80.00 Kg?  Who knows?  It is often impossible to estimate the weight of a fish while fighting it.  But it was huge.  At that weight, there is no way you can stop such a fish when it has decided to run to an obstacle for cover. 

Often, carp act the same way, escaping through the same pattern. Arnout’s line got snagged several times around the wooden bridge pillars as the tricky carp had run all along the inside of the bridge.  Once again we had to do some team work to eventually save the catch.  Kik and myself swam to retrieve the line underwater, found it, and as usual started to cut, tie again, repeating many times the operation to free it from snags. Too late! We had worked hard for nothing. When we reached the last piece of snagged line we found out it has already been broken. We were of course a bit frustrated and disappointed but that is what fishing is about, isn’t it?  I could only repeat to cheer Arnout’s mood a few words I heard many times from Joe Taylor who would say in that kind of situation:

"At the end of the day, it is only a fish!". 

The funny thing about it was everyone on the two fishing pontoons had been shouting, screaming and cheering like crazy once Arnout had taken his rod in his hands to start playing the fish. Most people would wait for the fish to be surely landed before expressing their joy; never before a fight as superstitious anglers would hate that. It could bring bad luck and disappointment next. But Arnout’s friends were of course so happy for him and very excited too to have the chance to see for the first time a Siamese giant carp. I still wonder today why Kik, Lek and myself joined in the cheering too.  Maybe we should have kept quiet.  But at least we had a bite.  For Arnout who has seen so much through his fishing years that miss was no big deal anyways.  I told him the day was not over yet.  We had already experienced in the past a few “crazy days” with 2/3 carp bites.  We only had now to cast our baits again… and to wait to see if it could happen again.

Arnout Terlouw’s 47.00 Kg (~103 lbs.) carp pending new IGFA world record

It happened. Beginning of the afternoon it came, again on Arnout's rod. This time was the good one. The Siamese Giant Carp was landed after a long 20 minutes tough fight observed by 8 witnesses.  Eight “very mute” people who didn’t dare to speak a single world this time, until the carp reached the landing net. Each of us helped to organize the weighing and measurements session on land.  That Caho was weighed exactly at 47 kg.  The fish had a total length of 137 cm and a girth of 106 cm.  We went into the water again for a short photo session before releasing the carp. The day was still not over. I had myself a bite a couple of hours later but the carp didn't get hooked properly.  She runs a few meters and then a heavy silence took over the sweet screeching sound of my reel. The carp got unhooked before I could even take the rod in my hands. I didn’t care. We were glad to have experience again 3 carp bites in a single day. It made that day such a very successful one. 

Just 7 days after my 45 kg Caho catch, Arnout had already broken my pending IGFA All Tackle World Record with a bigger catch. I was delighted “to have my ass friendly kicked” by not only a legendary angler but also a lovable buddy too.  I knew Arnout was not going to submit his catch with the IGFA.  He is not the kind of angler interested in any record.  But I advised him to do a special exception this time.  To submit his 47 kg giant carp as a new IGFA record would certainly help revealing better the Catlocarpio siamensis to anglers worldwide.  Arnout was kind to accept.  I know he did it mostly for me as a token of his friendship and coming from him I sincerely appreciate his gesture.

A happy UK angler:  Patrick Lawn holding his 32.00 Kg carp catch

ON TO 2002...
Now we have entered a new carp fishing season for this year 2002.  We already had a good start, experiencing 9 bites and landing 5 fish. It started beginning of January with a first catch, a lovely 36.00 kg caught by Tony Moreton, a UK angler. Mid-January to mid-February, we didn’t do well at all. We were in the fresh season and the water was too cold. There were often not too many sunny days as well to warm it. Then the giant carp started to bite better. Four more carp have been landed since. Respectively a 26 kg caught by Austrian Joseph Engl, a 44.00 kg caught by French Guy Fenech, a 39.00 Kg caught by Doctor John Chester from the UK, and a few days ago, the 14th March, a 32.00 Kg landed by UK Patrick Lawn.
Records are made to be broken! I firmly believe it is only a matter of luck and time now before we break Arnout’s IGFA record. Of course it would be a kind of miracle if we could land a fish the size of Lung Dam’s super biggie. I am not asking for that much. Any “smaller” one (70/80 kg) of those giant fish will do! 

Jean-Francois Helias