Cebu, Philippines

Even though I wasn't really feeling up to it since I'd learned how the fishing was and I was tired from working during the night, I'd promised the taxi driver from Sunday that I'd go fishing with him. I forgot my camera so I had to buy a disposable one (hence, the sometimes bad quality pictures). We jumped on the back of a Jeepney (public transportation via heavily modified jeeps leftover from WWII) and took a short ride to the harbor. There were people washing themselves in the water, an old grandma swimming around... Guys towing small row boats around to transport you from the pier to the boat, requesting a couple pesos in return. We didn't have any bait so one of the guys was going to dive for hermit crabs. We rented the boat for about $40 and a fishing rod for $4. Unfortuantely, the spinning rod was so rusted that it only let line out--you could hardly open the bail and winding line in was impossible. We made handlines from some leader material I had with me, which consisted of a simple hook and probably a 1/2 oz. sinker. The guys were curious about the gear I brought with me so I did a little show and tell. Put together my Greys Excursion boat road, paired it with my Curado 300, and tied on a 3/4 oz. Big Hammer swimbait. As I reeled the lure back in they were pretty amazed at the tail action of the swimbait. After that we decided to troll around for nothing.





















The local fisheries are in really bad shape and from what I gathered there are a lot of factors that have contributed to this... greed, lack of education, poaching, poverty... But on the bright side, I was able to witness the good being done within the marine sanctuaries. Coral thriving and the waters teeming with colorful, tropical fish. Still... I couldn't help but feel that it was already a losing battle. The contrast was so stark--as soon as you crossed the line the waters were empty. Here's a picture of the marine sanctuary sign at the Shangri-La: