Gillhams Fishing Resorts have quite a reputation when it comes to Giant Mekong Catfish. In fact, if you CLICK HERE, you’ll see that they hold the current IGFA record for the species, at just over 191lb. That’s enormous!
However, when I heard that they’d SMASHED this record right out of sight, I just had to find out more. Here’s what the top man, Stuart Gillham, had to say:
“We first broke the Mekong record here in May 2008 when Rob Maylin had one at 184lb, and then we broke our own record with a different fish to Joe Ball at 191lb in December 2009.
This latest Mekong catfish, pictured below, weighed exactly 260lb. It was caught on a Free Spirit Catamer 10ft 6lb tc rod, Penn 760 Liveliner reel, 80lb Berkley whiplash braid, Richworth feeder with a Richworth Tutti and Scopex boilie on a Gold Label Tackle Gillhams Penetrator 1/0 hook and Kryston ton up braid hook link.
The Mekong was landed by Martin David Kent from Tenby in Wales. Martin is a retired Commander in the British Royal Navy. He is on a retirement trip with his wife, also a royal navy Lieutenant Commander. Martin now runs a bass fishing charter boat out of Tenby, Wales – the M/V Illusion. The fish was landed in front of 12 witnesses and filmed on video and stills, weighed on certified scales and measured from its nose to tip of tail 87 inches with a 46 inch girth.
We have 44 species of fish in our lake with six species that are over 100lb, top six are arapaima to 400lb, Mekong catfish at 260lb but known bigger fish, Siamese carp to 170lb, Freshwater Stingray to 200lb+, Wallago Leeri to 110lb and Chao Phraya catfish to130lb, we also hold the world record Chao Phraya at 91lb. We have at least 16 species of fish that will break existing IGFA world records!”
Like any other record claim, forms have to be filled out and everything checked, but it sounds like Stuart has all the bases covered – congratulations to him and his team, as well as the lucky captor!
If you fancy a crack at fishing in Thailand, or even just like looking at some fantastic fishing photos, visit the Gillham’s site at http://www.gillhamsfishingresorts.com/
