A whole new event started this month. Even though tourism is picking up, TopCats is keen to support the ex-pats and what’s more the events are great fun full of camaraderie and banter.

The rules were the same, 4 hours fishing, 6 teams, 2 rods, one bait pack and the teams must at least cast for themselves. The guides always look after and land the fish and decide the estimated weight which yours truly records.

The winners of each event always get 4000 baht and occasionally there’s a prize from our sponsors. There will be one match per month and in a new twist this year each team will have to fish each of the swims twice to make sure they all het an equal crack on the lake over the whole series.

Sadly, the American dream team from the Boat Bar dropped out, but Bangrak is a fair old trot, and I am sure Foster will organise a few “bashes” in the next few months. The new team will be the Login Bar, this is a friendly bar in Na Muang located on the south of the island, a few kilometres from TopCats. It’s even closer to the Coco Beach Bar so why not try both when you are here!

The teams had a fresh look to them with a few people fishing for the first time as some of the regulars were busy. Larry Harman, the new lake record holder, stepped in to help Marc from SWS and Elliot was without Graham or Brian, so enlisted help of Rene and John.

The French Kiss also were short, so Tom Wright (son of Steve Wright, Radio 2 DJ) and Ondrej stepped in.

I always use this term, but this was another EPIC event fished in hot conditions, my red nose can vouch for that!

SWS were racing away on the Deep Water employing the Larry method with carp up to 70lb. In fact, he lost a 100lb+ monster at the net. Elsewhere everyone else was catching steadily as again the carp were on the feed. That was everyone except Drew who took a ribbing for practicing earlier in the week, in fairness when the carp are on the go the predator peg can be hard. He had his lovely lady, Rose with him and she landed a carp that must have  weighed nearly as much as her.

Meanwhile the Larry method suddenly stopped working and the boys from Summerhouse, in the Coconut, were clearly beginning to catch up. In the second last hour they had 4 carp, including monsters of 70, 80 and 90lb.

We knew it was close but when SWS had a double hook up in the last 5 minutes (60lb Amazon Redtail for Marc and 50lb Carp for Larry) we thought that was it even though Summer House were playing a final 35lb carp after the whistle.

In the final reckoning it turned out that last carp gave the victory to Summerhouse.

This was an amazing match, very busy, I walked 3900 steps just recording weights, with 55 fish for 2680lbs in weight. That’s an average of 48lbs. If you want any proof that TopCats is THE best carp fishery in the world, out of the 55 fish caught 46 were carp.

Well done to the Summer House (Eliot tells me you have to try the Sunday Roasts there) on their first win and as a footnote , the two lads with Eliot had a great afternoon, John caught his first fist since a 4oz perch caught when he was 11 and Rene has been on holiday for 3 months in Koh Samui and was due to return home the day after the match . He said it was “THE BEST DAY OF MY WHOLE HOLIDAY”

Match Result:

2022 League Table :