It’s been years since I last fish for Dorados at Laiya Batangas.  Last Sunday I had a chance to do so.

We left Manila 12mn and arrived at Laiya around 2:30am with the weather not cooperating very well. But no matter, we had a few hours of waiting and hoping that the rain subsides when the sun comes up. We took a nap inside Alan’s Revo until around 5:30am when we decided to call our boatman, Roger. It took quite a while for us to get ready, Roger had get the squid bait from the talipapa which doesn’t arrive until 6AM. We took the opportunity to have breakfast of tuna spread, vienna sausage and bread.

7:00 am and we were all set! There was still a slight drizzle but eventually died down as we head out to sea. The last time I went went dorado fishing was about 3 years ago. that time, we were only using 20 lb line, 30 lb leader with a single 3/0 long shank hook. Now, Roger was asking for 70lb leaders and 2 x 3/0 long shank hooks. We only had 40 lb leader so we settled with that.

It was around the 3rd or 4th bouy that I felt a tug at my line, thinking that I have a dual hook rig, I flicked the rod to set the hook, reeled it in.. then silence… nothing.. I was surprised that my boatman told me that I should have dropped back the line. I had double hooks, why do I have to dropback? Nevertheless, I did what he asked me to do, opened the bail and fingered the line. In Just after a few seconds the fish took the bait! counted 1 to 5 then closed the bail and set the hook… yeah! FISH ON BRODA!! The fish did put up a fight but a sub 1kg dorado is no match for a 40lb braid and tica jigger. when the fish got closer to the boat.. wahahaha… durading!

That fish was the only thing we caught during the morning. We went back to shore for lunch and decided to sticked with hitting for dorado the whole day. We set out again around 2pm. On the second bouy, Alan had a strong strike and 20m away, a dorado tailwalked. Then, his reel was screaming like hell as the dorado hit open waters. The dorado swam for like an eternity and Alan’s spool was almost gone. The fish gave a really good fight, and adding the fact that Alan was under geared for that size of a fish did not help any. There were a couple of times that his rod was at the brink of popping. It took around half an hour to boat the fish and it was a great prize, a 7.2kg Bull Dorado!

After that adrenaline rush, we moved on to other bouys. The bankero changed the my bait to a fresh one as we neared one. A few seconds after dropping my bait in the water, I felt a tug. I dropped back the line counted to 3 and closed the spool. baahh.. no fish. Opened the bail and again felt a tug, this time I waited longer counted till 5 or 7 then set the hook… woohooo fish on! but baaahhh another durading!! damn slap me on the face and call me a big man! hehehe..

jpat will continue the story.. it’s his fish naman eh.. hehe

I got skunked when we went out fishing last November 2. It was just Bien who managed to boat a decent sized fish Filipino Anglers in Pundaquit . Oh, Alan also caught a rainbow runner, but wasnt’ able to take photos..

The next day, I went back to Pundaquit but this time it was with my family. My wife has been craving for the beach and a short vacation for some time now and the semestral break gave us an opportunity to have a getaway in Zambales.

Being and addict angler, I sneaked away to troll for a few hours. I mentioned in one of my articles before that my friend JL has a boat in Pundaquit. I rode the PELAGIC, JL’s bangka and operated by Randy aka Bodjie We left shore at around 5:00am and managed to hookup a rainbow runner ( the locals call it salmon ) It did not give any fight at all. When it struck, it was as if i was snagged by garbage or debris, the real did not scream and let the line out really slow. A similar incident happened to me before and looking at how the debris flashed, I was pretty much sure it was a fish. I reeled it in and when it was near the boat I thought it was a small fish (less than an kilo), I told randy to just lift it off and not to bother shutting down the engine or gaffing the fish (because I thought it was just a small fish). This proved to be a HUGE mistake as when Randy pulled up the leader it became evident that it was not a small fish. Just as the fish left the water, it wriggled itself free from the lure. Which was my mistake #2 as I didn’t set the hook.

So here’s a lesson for all of you. (1) Don’t forget to set the hook by yanking the rod a few times. In tagalog, “Libre naman ang saltik” (2) When boating a fish it is best to have the engine off and use a gaff.

3kg Tulingan

I just treated that hookup as an accidental catch and release. hehhe.. We trolled again for a few minutes and then STRIKE! My reel screamed for several seconds as Randy gunned the boat. When I got hold of the rod, I gave it a few yanks to set the hook and then the fight was on. It wasn’t really a strong pull but the fish did take line a few times before surrendering to the gaff. And there was my price for the day, 3kg Albacore Tuna ( or probably a little less than 3kg).

Wow, I said to myself. It’s just 8:30am and I’ve caught two fish already… hehhe.. around half and hour later, the misis texted me asking me where I was. And it was about the right time to go back to shore.

I have a Part 2 of this article, but it’s not much about fishing, maybe a little. Stay tuned!

There are a good number of boatmen in Pundqauit, San Antonio, Zambales. Most of them will approach you and ask if you want to go on island hopping to Camara or Capones Island, Anawangin Cove or Nagsasa Cove.

On one of my visits to Pundaquit, Randy approached me while I was casting from the shore and offered to bring me trolling around capones Island. His rate was pretty much enticing, P900 for a whole day troll so I went to chat with him and asked about what can be caught in the waters of Zambales. According to him, nice specimen of tuna, king mack, or even sailfish and marlin can be caught depending on the season and time of the month. That was pretty much the most honest answer I got from among several boatman I talked to in Zambales.

There were a few occasions that I wanted to get Randy as my boatman but most of the time, it was my friend, JL who was arranging the trip and he has his own “suking” boatman. There came a time when Amy, JL’s girl, wanted to go to Nagsasa Cove and JL’s contacted boatman did not arrive and I told him to try randy out, and he did. He was pretty much impressed on how Randy handled the boat and sure enough, he got Randy again on a Fishing trip. And on that trip, he caught a 12kg Yellow Fin Tuna.

JL and Amy’s love affair with Pundaquit led them to get their own bangka. Randy helped them out choosing which hull to get. It took almost a month to find the perfect bangka for them, and after a little less than P40k later, PELAGIC was born.

PELAGIC

This is now Randy’s everyday ride, PELAGIC. The boat is bigger than the common boats in Pundaquit and will hold more passengers with alot more legroom. I was it’s “Buena Mano”, the first paying customer and for a man of my size, there was still a lot more space to move around. There were a number of times that I had sit on the side of the boat and still it stability was excellent.

Randy

Randy aka Bodjie- 09093120345

By the way, JL is creating a site about that small jem of a baranggay, pundaquit, do check out http://www.pundaquit.com

November 2, 2008. Yeah, it was All Souls Day. But it was a free day for most of the FilAnglers. So we headed off to Brgy. Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales for some fishing. A few of us already caught some good sized game in Pundaquit, JL caught a 4kg King Mackarel and a 11kg Yellow Fin Tuna, Alan Caught a 12kg King Mackarel, I caught a 6kg King Mackarel and a 4.5kg Trevally. We were hopefull that the group will get a good haul.

We arrived at Canoe Island Resort a little after 2am and we had a lot of time to spare to prepare our gear, rig up or simply doze of for a power nap. At around 5am, everyone set sail. Bien was the first boat to leave, around 10 minutes earlier than the rest.

The day proved to be a hard day for fishing. The sun was up, clear skies and the sea was dead calm. Everyone didn’t have much luck except for Bien, who caught an 8kg Yellow Fin Tuna.

Here’s his narrative on how he caught the Tuna.

I first trolled a Cd 18 bluemack on my left rod and a storm deep thunder red hot perch on the right. On the middle rod, I placed a daisy chain with a purple-black jap feather lure trailing behind in shotgun position. I had to troll it way back to prevent the lines from touching. No sightings of tuna schools, no king mackerels busting bait, no sailfish finning about…no takers. The sun was already out and the day was bright. At around 7:30 AM, I changed the lures out. This time using a Rapala CD11 Black Silver and a flashy blue silver Bomber Magnum deep diver. On our 3rd pass at the back of Capones Island, I offered Mang Pidyong the hopia I brought along. If the fish don’t want to eat, we will. We were munching on our snack, when I noticed that the CD11 setup had a strike. The reel wasn’t really screaming like it would with a King Mack. It was just steadily peeling line. Mang Pidyong was quick to gun the engine and I took the rod to fight the fish. Reeling it in, I didn’t feel any abrupt runs, just line coming out. I initially thought that we ran into a snag so I asked Mang Pidyong the slowly turn the boat so I can gain back some line. I reeled in and the pressure was still there. So I continued to pump the rod and reeling in but didn’t really feel much of a bulldogging struggle nor a frantic run. After a few minutes, I started to see the line move sideways. I asked Mang Pidyong to be ready with the gaff! The fish finally surfaced and there it was, my first YFT shaking like mad as if it was having an epileptic attack. Mang Pidyong gaffed it and attempted to boat it right away. However, since he shallowly gaffed the body, the YFT broke loose as it shook more desperately. Fortunately, it was hooked to the lure on both trebles, sideways across its mouth. He gaffed it again, clubbed the fish and finally boated it.

Later in the afternoon,I saw lots of tulingan busting the surface, but no luck in hooking up any. Alan caught a Rainbow Runner around 2kg in size. Wasn’t able to take a photo though. I got skunked.. but I swore that i’ll have my day. (which could probably be the next few days.. )

Written by Paulo Pagharion:

To start with, I just want to share some background on the sportfishing scene in iloilo. Basically all the spots in iloilo are very productive. Local angling clubs there are into bottom fishing primarily. The usual catch species are Jacks, african pompano, snappers, stingrays and sweetlips – Good sized actually ranging from 1 to 6KG on any given day. Trolling produces king macks, barracudas, queenfish and you can catch dorados and mammoth tunas in hte far off payaws. The local government plays a big part on the conservation and sustainability of fishery there…dynamite fishing is almost non existent and every barangay is required to put up artificial reefs – even the 2 local angling clubs also put up artificial reefs up to 400 pieces around there hunting grounds. (Nice no? )

We had no luck on bottom fishing since the current is very strong and rigs can’t touch bottom. Current and winds go on opposite directions making it very hard for us to position the boat on the exact spots. Trolling was productive though we landed 4 fish out of 7 strikes. The boatman said that he doesnt go below 5 strikes on any given day [yabang no? ] but he proved it nonetheless hehehe. Set-up was 3 rods out trolling rapala cd-11 (redhead), cd-14 (sardine), cd-14 (pearlwhite tiger) – all three were strucked alternately.

Anyways here are the pics:

Paulo's Barracuda

My biggest barracuda so far.

and another one for Paulo

My dad’s first barracuda and his first trolling catch! He’s actually a true blue bottom fisherman but now he likes trolling hehehe. He immediately bought his own trolling reel the next day – a left hand retrieved toman 4/0 levelwind conventional. He finds it hard to use the common right hand retrieved reels.

And the highlight of the trip. Here’s the story. WE had 3 barracudas already as early as 12nn. The 3 cudas strucked the 2 reels: a tica 3/0 reel loaded with 25lb line on a standup rod and a penn 4/0 reel loaded with 50lb line also on a stand up rod. Horsing the 3 fish was a walk in the park for these setup. This is what happens when I play with small gear – This happened 2 years back when I loaded my bass baitcaster – a small abu garcia ambassadeur (now with JL hehe sisi ako) loaded with 30lb braid line on a baitcasting rod. It got hit by a small dogtooth tuna but at 3kg, it almost stripped my baitcasting outfit with screeching runs hehehe. Now i did it again on this fishing trip. My baitcasting rod with a small penn baitcaster i borrowed from a friend loaded with 20lb line. I used a cd-11 on a light drag so as not to put too much stress on the rod. It was almost 4pm and it was raining hard. Left my other bag with the camera, sunblock, weighing scale and the jacket! I was all wet and freezing and almost decided to call it a day. I was praying the whole day for my setup to get struck ‘coz i know it will be so much fun to fight a big mackerel or jack with this gear! Actually it got a couple of short strikes the whole day but nothing solid. And finally after 5 minutes when I was about to quit, this beauty mangled the cd-11 redhead.

Monster QueenFish!

Don’t know how much it weighed but this queenie is surely pretty big and you have no idea how much fun it was playing with this monster!

Now I’m a big fan of light trolling!

Subic Bay, Bravo / Riviera Pier
November 23, 2008

Registration Time: 5:30am
Fishing Time: 7:00am to 4:00pm

PRIZES:

1st Prize: 50,000.00
2nd Prize: 25,000.00
3rd Prize: 10,000.00

4th – 15th Place: Consolation Prizes

Tournament fee: P1,000.00
- Free Shirts to the first 250 paid signups
- Free Snack to all Participtants.

For Inquiries, Call or text”
0917-8338884 / 0917-8856239
492-2702 / 364-5915

Congratulations to the winners!

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