Before I leave tomorrow morning for the Burmese border, here is the latest news from Thailand: My client John Mitchell, a UK angler living & working in Hong Kong for 13 years now, has just set here in Thailand 2 new IGFA records for the freshwater fly rod.

John is a numerous times return client of mine, fishing 2-3 times a year with us, who has already caught plenty of good size Thai fish species with us in the past.
 
Knowing John is a very keen & experienced fly fisherman, I told him on his latest trip last February how much I would love to guide him to target a IGFA world record for the freshwater fly, this for the Barramundi category. He could not make it to Thailand until now, due to his work committments. He finally got a break for a short vacation and booked me recently for two days Barramundi fishing, to give a shot at the record we had talked together about.
 
Yesterday Oct. 1, 2006, the Barramundi were not much in the mood to take flies or lures. We were struggling under tough fishing conditions due to a strong depression coming from Vietnam and very heavy raining proper to the monsoon period.
 
John caught only 3 fish during that first session, all of nice size for Thai standards. His biggest catch weighted at 7.94 kg on our certified scales was anyway  good enough to break the 7.85 kg currently pending  6lb tippet freshwater fly rod record – set by another Fishing Adventures Thailand’s client, legendary fishing globetrotter Marty Arostegui, from Florida, USA. It took him around 25 minutes to tame that fish on such a light tippet.
 
We were both satisfied with that new record but agreed at the end of the fishing session to go on with our 6lb tippet quest for a record the next day. We were confident that we might catch a bigger fish with a bit of luck, setting then a second record, and setting that line class record mark higher at the same time.
 
Today Oct. 2, the biting was a bit better. John landed several Barramundi. His biggest catch of the day, landed after a 30 minutes fight, was weighted at 8.39 kg; therefore breaking the 7.94 kg record he had set the previous day.
 
Here is the data of these two latest pending records:

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Pending Freshwater Fly Rod – Tippet 6 lb

Barramundi

7.94
kg
Bang
Pakong, Thailand
Oct. 1,
 2006
John
Mitchell
England
Pending Freshwater Fly Rod – Tippet 6 lb

Barramundi

8.39
kg
Bang
Pakong, Thailand
Oct. 2,
 2006
John
Mitchell
England

 

Best regards,
 
Jean-Francois Helias
IGFA Representative – Thailand
Fishing Adventures Thailand   
94 IGFA World Records         
http://www.anglingthailand.com
      

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Jean Francois Helias

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