Cheow Lan Lake

[pharvey]

I was watching a National Geographic program this morning on ''Monster Fish'' which was visiting Cheow Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park, around 2hrs drive north of Phuket.

Some quite amazing fish - Giant Mekong River Catfish.. apparently growing up to some 250 plus Kg! Rare creatures which it's good to see Thailand is taking steps to protect - Nat Geo also showed a section on Chiang Mai Zoo Aquarium which I have to say looked well worth a visit and which had programs to protect rare and endangered species.

Getting back to Cheow Lan Lake, another species was the freshwater Stingray - I'd not even realised there was a freshwater species These apparently growing to around 5 meters Again on the conservation side, apparently a 17 year old lad based at the Chiang Mai Zoo Aquarium is one of the world's top breeders of the freshwater stingray.

Certainly one of the top destinations for a fishing holiday it seems, but also looks like there's a lot more aside. I wouldn't say I'm one for the ''Eco-holidays'', but this place certainly looks like well worth visiting for a couple of days.

[Terry]

Thailand is blessed with some of the largest species of Freswater fish in the world.

The Giant Mekong Catfish and the Freshwater Giant Stingray being prime examples. It is sad that these have been all but fished to extinction in the wild and there are few places that they can be found.

We have plenty of the catfish at the lodge between 10 - 60 Kg - often sighted and caught once or twice a week. We also have one specimen Ray probably around 15 Kg or so now, and seen only once since it was placed in our bottom pond almost two years ago.