Due to Covid restrictions and the need for social distancing the May version of Battle of the Bars was split over 3 days, so instead of 6 teams of 2 fishing on one day we had 2 teams fishing over 3 separate afternoons.
We used the same 2 swims each day, the Deep Water and the Coconut. Other than that the rules were the same one rod each, 4 hours fishing ,2pm to 6pm with one
bait pack. The usual prize of 4000 baht was up for grabs to the winning team.
With Ben and Tadpole on guiding duty there was some spectacular results mainly because the
Mekong Catfish were on the munch!
Day 1:
We had the Boat Bar Boys from Bangrak up against the overall leaders,
Coco Beach Bar from Laem Sor beach. The all American dream team drew the Deep Water which meant Coco Beach fished the Coconut.
The action was non-stop, the Boat Bar had 3 fish in the first 20 minutes and raced away from Coco Beach Bar and never looked like being caught. With the help of a couple hefty Mekong and 17 other fish they shattered the 4 hour match record with an incredible 705lbs
Day 2:
The French Kiss drew the Carp Channel and Foliewadi Villas drew the Coconut Swim. They arrived for a
fun days fishing, after all no one could beat the Boat Bar weight from the day before, could they ???
Tony and Wolf made a rapid start from the Carp Channel, but Didi and Mano struggled on the Coconut and didn’t catch a fish for 30 minutes. What happen after that can only be described as explosive. In the next 3 1/2 hours they caught non-stop as again the Mekong made an appearance. They caught 16 fish including 5 Mekong, one in excess of 100lb that can be seen on a Facebook live post. Tyson made a couple of guest appearances. They had 2 fish less than 5lb, an Asian and a rarely caught Silver Barb, so without those, their average fish weight was on excess of 60lb.
After getting my abacus out and then several NASA computers the final weight was and incredible 720lbs and a new match record for Foliewadi. The French Kiss saw no Mekong Cats but still managed 470lbs from the Carp Channel.
Day 3:
We hosted
Samui Web Solutions, the amazing company behind the new TopCats Website, and Marvel Construction on Sunday for the final instalment. SWS drew the Carp Channel and the Marvels got the Coconut. The action was again thick and fast, with the Marvels having their best day ever with 19 fish for an awesome 585lbs. They had nothing huge but Drew did catch our amazing
Platinum Redtail, Casper, who for its size is a true rarity.
SWS were disappointed but they didn’t come last and still had 405lb in 4 hours .
Final Result
| Team |
Total |
| Foliewadi |
720lb |
| Boat Bar |
705lb |
| Marvel Construction |
585lb |
| French Kiss |
470lb |
| Samui Web Solutions |
405lb |
| Coco Beach Bar |
395lb |
Suffice to say with only 2 teams fishing each day and the Mekong on the feed, the catch rates were spectacular with 83 fish caught across 9 species weighing a humungous 3280lb in total.
Average weight per fish was over 39lb and the largest was the 110lb Mekong netted by Mano from Foliewadi. This action can be seen on our
Facebook Page.
Only 2 swims were used, Deepwater and Coconut. The Coconut won 2 days compared to Deep water that won just the one day. Special congrats to TopCats guide, the terrific Tadpole, who guided the winning team each day.
Again remember this is only oner 4 hours and using only 2 rods per pair of anglers.
Congratulations to Mano and Didi who fished for their own holiday villa complex, Foliewadi who just pipped Kevin and Casey from the very unlucky Boat Bar team.
Coco Beach Bar trailed in last but still lead the event overall as next month we approach the half way point in the league.
| Team |
R 10 |
Total |
| Cocoa Beach Bar |
5 |
80 |
| French Kiss |
5 |
65 |
| Samui Web Solutions |
5 |
65 |
| Boat Bar |
15 |
55 |
| Marvel Construction |
10 |
45 |
| Black Duck |
0 |
40 |
| Izzys Bar |
0 |
35 |
| Foliewadi |
20 |
30 |
