Another good day at Castaway. While I was there someone caught a nice arapaima and another fisherman caught an alligator gar. As usual John the owner was a jovial host. I ended the day with 2 striped catfish and 8 Amazon red tailed catfish, the largest around 7kg.
I started the day about 10am and using my own tackle fished 2 predator rods. Using chicken hearts for bait I quickly hooked and landed a pacu of around 2kg. The fish kept coming in steadily, Amazon red tails, then an alligator gar and striped catfish. With its comfy seating and shaded areas under the trees this park is a very pleasant and comfortable place to spend the day. With many fish heading straight for cover I lost 3 fish to the water hyacinth. Total for the day, 3 striped catfish (largest around 3kg), 6 Amazon red tail catfish (3kg), 4 alligator gar (1.5kg) and 3 pacu (2kg). The arapaima remained elusive despite by best efforts. A friend who was also fishing landed a Siamese carp of around 15kg. The fishing may have been slowed due to the cold weather, the temperature dropped below 20 deg C the night before I visited.
Gary arrived at the lake and fished the full Castaway package of carp rod and predator rod. Starting at 9am he caught consistently through the day netting 8 species and on a couple of occasions was into two fish at the same time needing assistance from the Castaway staff.
Beginning with Amazon red tail catfish and alligator gar in the morning before landing a beautiful lake record giant Siamese carp of 37lb 7oz (pictured below). The fish was caught using a Castaway boillie under a large foam float and ground bait ball. After this a bottle of San Miguel was sunk in celebration and he continued catching pacu, rohu, tilapia and a small Asian red tail catfish. At 4pm his fish dead bait was picked up and a 20 minute battle had begun. The result was another lake record 1.35m arapaima (pictured above). Another San Miguel beer was sunk and a few more fish caught into the evening.
Total catch 8 different species:
10 Amazon red tail catfish between 7lb and 9lb
5 pacu to 6lb
4 alligator gar to 3lb
3 tilapia to 2lb
2 rohu to 3lb
1 Siamese carp 37lb 7oz
1 arapaima 1.35 meters
1 small Asian red tail catfish
