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:

Cebu, Philippines

Ok, so I thought I'd try the inshore fishing thing again, but this time I was gonna request deeper waters. Well, we fished for about 4 hours in the morning and I did 100% better--2 fish, LOL. They were slightly bigger than what we caught the day before, but not by much. I asked the captain where all the bigger fish were and he said "the market". I asked him to explain and he said they use huge nets to scoop all the fish up. That coupled with blasting, overfishing, etc. The fisheries here are obviously depleted and that's very sad. It reminded me of that "Tiny Fish" PSA with Cedric Yarbrough (of Reno 911 fame). Guys, it's really no joke. There are very few fish left outside the sanctuaries here. Otherwise you have to go way, way offshore.

Cebu, Philippines

Got on a boat around 8am with my co-worker to try out some inshore fishing. Our guide explained that the fish were gonna be small--no serious fishing. Alright, I guess I can live with that. It turns out they're all about the size of my hand, LOL. After about an hour I ended up with 1 tiny little fish. We used shrimp on what seemed like trout hooks. There I am standing with my relatively big ass boat road while these guys are jigging with handlines. Decided to give up on fishing because it obviously wasn't gonna get any better and headed back into the marine sanctuary to do some snorkeling. I think the sanctuary's been around for 20 years so it's had a decent amount of time for the coral to grow back.

Cebu, Philippines

Report from Pierfishing.com and Baytubers.com:

Guys, this picture sums up my fishing in the Philippines.



Check out my fishing website for the entire uneventful, disturbing report, or if you've got some time to kill take a look at some general pics from my trip.

Made sure to get the BIG fishing charter out of the way first so I hopped on a private charter at 9am. Met up with Captain Steve (an englishman) and his deckhand Mar on the boat Blue Sky. We rigged up flying fish and skirts on 4 rods and trolled for dorado, tanguigue (spanish mac), barracuda, and whatever else might be around. Also tried throwing out krocs and butterfly jigging around some man-made FADs--Fish Attracting Devices. FADs are bouys tied down by a weight with palm leaves tied to the rope to provide fish shelter. To make a long story short... We caught nada over 5 hours. :( But I was able to take a bunch of pictures of the nice scenery. :)

Fortunately and unfortunately, the waters around the resort are a marine sanctuary so I couldn't just fish from the surf.

Chart House, Malibu

Report from Pierfishing.com:

Apparently, the party didn't start until I got there so I'll let Mike and Hashem fill in what happened before and after... :))) Arrived around 9pm and threw out some squid on a #4 circle hook. The surf was very gentle this night so I opted for a lighter 2oz pyramid sinker. Second cast in and I hook up with a small shovelnose. Next up was Hashem with a real nice spiny dogfish--we thought it was around 3ft, but looking at the pictures now it looks closer to 4? Mike wasn't going to leave skunked and picked up a juvy leopard. I ended up 2 more short bites for the evening and called it a night at 11.

Very nice to meet you Mike--hope to see you at Ventura!

Spiny dogfish


Leopard shark

Redondo Beach

Report from Baytubers.com:

Had only about an hour-and-a-half to fish today, but just got the Shimano Trevala rod and I really wanted to try out their butterfly jigging system. Paired it with my Curado 300DSV (30 lb. spectra) and used a 55g (2 oz.) pink/silver jig. Paddled out to the Redondo reef and hooked up with a nice sandie on the second drop. Drifted back and picked up another sandie and a mac on the way back into the harbor. Both sandies were around 15-16". It wasn't the smoothest to do from a kayak because there's not much leverage when you're sitting, but I think I was able to do a decent job of it. Has anyone else tried this?

Sandie


Wasted fish from party boaters

Redondo Sportfishing Pier

Report from Pierfishing.com:

Fished the Redondo Sportfishing pier for just a short while today (was actually there to do some kayak fishing). Saw a small barred sand bass pulled over the rail--looked to be maybe 6 or 7". I think he was using frozen anchovies.

Also got to see the recycling bin Hashem installed recently... Looks like it's getting some good use already.

Line recycling bin at Redondo Sportfishing Pier

Glass Action, Southeast Florida

Report from Pierfishing.com and Baytubers.com:

We met up with Jeff around 7am and hopped on his boat Glass Action. We didn't know what kind of species we'd be targeting and, honestly, we didn't care. He informs us that we're gonna try some kite fishing for marlin. Awesome! Before meeting up with us, he was trying to use his castnet for some bait but he didn't have any luck. So he provided us with some sabikis and we started jigging. We ended up with probably a dozen "greenies" (Atlantic herring, I think) and we ponied up $80 for a dozen "goggle-eyes" (Blue runners?) from the bait boat. Left the harbor and probably went out about a mile or 2. He set up a kite, threaded a couple goggle-eyes, set them up on their own rigs, and hooked those to the kite. In the meantime, we flylined some bait for possible king mackerel and dolphin bites. Just about 20 minutes into it I get a really nice hit on my rod (Penn 760 prototype with 20# mono--he said we were one of the first ones to try this reel, not that I'd be able to discern any of it's nuances.) I get the belt strapped on and start reeling in. Whatever it was pulled line twice before we got it to the surface... LOL, a triggerfish and the biggest Jeff's ever seen. But that's not what we're targeting so a quick picture and back in he goes. Next up was Matt with his second remora shark for the week (forgot to take a picture--again). Again, that's not what we're looking for... I got a good-sized great barracuda (maybe 30"?), and Matt caught a smaller triggerfish. We got a couple short bites on the kite rigs and we were able to spot one following the bait, but there were no takers. Listening to the radio chatter, it sounded like today just wasn't the day for sailfish.

Phew, what a trip! We didn't get any of the species that Florida is well-known for (snook, tarpon, sailfish, etc.) but we still had a good time.

Waiting at the docks


Underwater shot of baitfish


Jeff's boat Glass Action


Cast netting


Looking back at West Palm Beach


Jeff getting the kite ready (note Penn Senator in foreground--120# braid to hold kite)


Fish on


Big triggerfish


Kite


Other boats in the background


Great barracuda


Prototype Penn 760


Entire kite rig


Fish on


Another triggerfish