he Arapaima Gigas, or Pirarucu

It was around 1:00 am that night of the 26th August 2001 when that 185 kg monster Arapaima gigas decided to take our fish filet bait. As usual, powerful and unstoppable, once hooked the huge predator fish rushed through all the obstacles it could find underwater. The Arapaima went absolutely everywhere, snagging the line several times around pillars of a wooden bridge and stilts of near by bungalows. Its unique strength and speed was amazing to observe. It ran non-stop for a while, then stopped, showing itself later several times at surface level, far at the other end of the lake. Two of my guides had then to proceed to the strategy we use in that case, when the angler's line is snagged in obstacles, to save his catch. One of them spent an hour swimming, often underwater, to find out where the snagged line was. Meanwhile the second one, each time it was necessary, was spooling out the line from the reel, cutting it, getting it free from the snags, tying promptly the two line pieces. The angler, Joe Taylor, would then take contact again with the monster fish and fight it until he got snagged again. It took a total of 2 very long hours before the fight could be ended. One hour spent working on the snagged line, and another 60 minutes for the tug of war with the giant fish. Under IGFA rules, you can guess fighting the fish that way wouldn't have been sanctioned by an All Tackle World Record. Too bad, that Arapaima was almost 3 times bigger than the fish of the present record: a fish of "only" 67.13 kg caught in the Rupununi River, Guyana, by a certain Ed Migdalski, in April 1953. That monster fish is currently the Asian’s biggest freshwater fish ever caught with a rod. Thirty-five of those Amazonian Arapaima gigas have been introduced in Thailand 17 years ago. So far, only 6 specimens have ever been caught. The 2 last fish landed were hooked by legendary European angler friends whom we had the privilege to guide during their stays. In December 2000, Arnout Terlouw, a wellknown Dutch globetrotter angler, fishing writer and editor of the prestigious magazine Karper, was the very first foreign angler to catch an Arapaima gigas in the Kingdom of Siam. We estimated that fish at 110 kg but I believe now it was certainly much heavier. After that catch, we experienced around 30 more Arapaima bites. Unfortunately, none of those fish that took our baits were landed. We just couldn't finalize. Those fish either spit the bait, got unhooked, or broke our visiting anglers' lines in obstacles. That second fish landed in August 2001 by our UK angling friend Joe Taylor was much bigger. That monster was weighting an impressive 185 kg, had a length of 263 cm and a girth of 185 cm. That catch of a lifetime was more than well deserved. Before landing this fish, Joe had previously experienced with us a total of 7 Arapaima takes during his 2 previous Thailand fishing trips. It was on a Saturday night and about 50 Thai people stopped fishing and came to watch the action. Once the fish was netted, a huge ovation from the Thai crowd congratulated all of us. Joe, as the "hero" of the day, and us the Fishing Adventures Team as his accomplices. Every one was clapping loudly his hands. It was a very amazing and emotional moment and a few tears came out of Joe's eyes. Jean-Francois Helias