Mikko the bandit strikes again!

I asked anyone who would go to the Central Market to get me a few hooks and a bundle or two of line….

Sticky Drags and some surprises
I was working on one of me reels last night. It’s the post that you see on the sidebar – the sticky drag on the affinity 4000 was driving me nuts (it wasn’t REALLY that sticky, but I’m using it for light line, so everything matters to me…) It never really occurred to me how long it has been with me and that it was the first time I’m opening the reel that Penn describes as the first spinning reel that “doesn’t follow the tradition of looks of their usual line”.

If you don’t crack your reels open, then this wouldn’t really make sense to you…you see gears; big gears and cogs that drive the line winding machine that subdue piscatorial prey.

Not with this little devil though! In fact, its the first time I took the rotor off a reel and out came the worm shaft!

It suddenly occurred to me how it was able to muster a 21kg barramundi, The gears are small and precise, the anti reverse roller bearing is in the base of the rotor shaft; bearings pretty much floated the shaft just like the Shimano Stella, but the bearings were HUGE for such a small reel! It is way over engineered, the gears were made of Alloy and Stainless steel, something you find in most top end reels. Penn says that this reel targets the light tackle angler and IS braid ready. The price? about 7000 Pesos or so. Compare that to a Stella of the same size!

The technology that we have with us while fishing nowadays is mind boggling. Super braids as thin as our hair, reels that have drags rated for much higher tensile strength lines, rods that weigh nothing more than a sheet of bond paper – all of this give us an advantage. Are we really still fishing?

All this hardware bling gives us the technological advantage to subdue fish; it gives us the edge to subdue monsters with nothing more than a thin thread with rod tips the size of halved toothpicks, reels and terminal tackle that are overly engineered to a point where the only errors left are human errors and bad angler judgment – what strikes me as odd is the fact that new anglers are still finding a lot of excuses and they constantly blame their gear for lost fish.

Now is the time more than ever to start catching and releasing. If you realized how technology has improved our fish catching chances, then you should also realize that there is very little the fish can do to fight for it’s life.

…I really didn’t know the right knots to tie the hooks on the line with or how to attach the lines to the poles. It really didn’t matter that much – I was having the time of my life each and every single time I went to those streams. Later on, I discovered I could put cut up flip-flop sandal floats on my line to detect bites – A long and dry piece of bamboo was far more superior than the split bamboo that I was taking from our fence line. Later still, I learned to tie knots, had my first rod and reel, fished saltwater for the first time and the smile on my face when I first fired my 100 meter cast – The Daiwa long cast spool reels have finally come.

After a couple or so years with me; it had it, sticky drag.

It’s really a nice solid reel and in my opinion, well worth the money. Picture above is the UK version which is what I have, the US version has a different handle.

The whole thing didn’t really take me a long time, from start to finish, I think it only took me 15-20 mins.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

The Filipino Angler’s Group stared with a handful of anglers that managed to find their way to the isda.net forum that was left active after its demise. With the addition of other angler wannabes, like me, joining the forum, the group was soon called “The Filipino Anglers Group.”

Call time was 2:30am at the Shell station in The Fort. Everyone was so excited that everyone was there before 2:30am. I arrived last and just shortly after, 3 cars set out and convoyed to Lipa, Batangas was we will be meeting other anglers.

We arrived too early at Lipa, we were expecting to reach Lipa by 5:00am but we were there by 4:00. It was a good time to stop over and have breakfast. I filled myself with a Tocilog and two cups of Barako Coffee

Arriving at Laiya by 6:00am, we were able to catch a good glimpse of the sunrise.

Without wasting time, all thirteen of us were getting ready. After a quick pause for a photo op, we all set sail for a day of great offshore fishing. I was lucky enough to be a boat buddy with JR (1st person on the left). He is an experienced angler, fishing the deep sea for a couple of years already and has joined several fishing competitions. His expertise is a welcome help to a newbie angler like me.

Our charter guide, or should I say boatman, was Mang Gilbert. Initially, we were telling him what we wanted to do but he had this attitude of wanting to do things his way. We only had 6-inch ballyhoos as bait, but he insisted that we get fresh squid as bait. After getting half a kilo of squid (actually if looked more like 1/3 kilo), we set out to the open sea.

Mang Gilbert’s Dorado Fishing Technique:

On the way to our fishing spot, Mang Gilbert looked at our terminal tackle, we were basically armed with wire leaders and plugs but he quickly told us to bring out 1/0 or 3/0 hooks, swivels and thin mono. I handed over a 1/0 pioneer stainless steel hook, a 25lb mono and a 60lb swivel to Mang Gilbert and he rigged out a meter long line with a hook on one end and a swivel on the other and hooked a fresh squid on the body. He told us that he will do a slow troll around buoys and we should troll our line around 10-15 meters out, with open spool and the line resting on our fore fingers. Once we feel a bite (the line would literally slide itself from your finger), wait for 3-5 seconds then close the spool and jerk the rod to set the hook. This is to be known as the Dorado drop back technique.

The Dorado’s bite:

JR had the first bite but he was over eager and closed the spool too early and failed to set the hook. But on the second bite, he was able to set the hook! The water splashed and there it was, a good sized Dorado dancing on top of the water. A short 5-10 minute fight and we landed our first catch for the day.

We went from buoy after buoy; JR landed another but no luck for me.There was this one buoy that we had so much luck. JR set a Dorado and shortly after, I felt a bite! We landed two fish and circled the buoy again and again, both JR and I got a bite. I think we chanced upon a school of Dorado. Cast… bite… set… fight… land… cast… bite… set… fight… land… DAMN, it was Dorado frenzy! There were a couple of times that I would feel a bite… set the hook and after the initial dance of the fish, the line would go slack… buggers! : It was almost noon time when the Dorado frenzy ended; we headed back to shore for lunch. I opened the cooler and counted 9 Dorado all in all. I was pondering why I lost a couple of strikes and then I noticed that JR was using bigger sized hooks. Lesson of the day: use 3/0 hooks to ensure a good set.

On the way back to shore, JR was telling me that he was intrigued on how the others fared. Arriving at the shore, we were too proud to show the group our catch. It was quite unfortunate that some weren’t able to catch any but no need to despair; we still have a half day to go fishing. Upon reaching our cottage for lunch, we were stunned to see a monster grouper on the sink. It must have weighed more than 4.45kg! It was apparently caught by Bien and everyone was so excited and asking him where and how he caught it, but he simply smiled and gave short answers.

After a hearty lunch, everyone was eager to set out again. Others went to hunt for Dorado, following the good catch that we had. But JR decided that we go trolling, which Mang Gilbert agreed to. From the boat dock, we set up our trolling lure with wire leaders. JR had a CD15 Rapala and I had a Storm Deep Thunder 15. We trolled towards Locoloco Pt and beyond… admiring the great view of the wide stretch beach front while waiting for a bite. I was telling JR that I’m happy even to watch an experienced angler fight it out with a real game fish. Past Locoloco Pt., JR’s reel started to scream. Mang Gilbert shouted.. ISDA! ISDA! JR immediately pulled out his rod from the holder and reeled it in. The lure was running deep into the water and we couldn’t see it nor a fish. When the lure eventually appeared, there was no fish. It could have been just a snag or a big one that got away. Mang Gilbert steered the bangka and trolled the other way around. I was wary that my line or my rod will break because even while trolling, my 7-ft Pioneer ULUA rod was really bent over and my Tica Streamstar LT4500 reel was set at 1 click below 100% drag and it was a great time to change lures. I rigged two plastic squids with 3oz diving sinkers. I can almost hear my tackle say thank you to me… hehehe. We trolled towards the other side of Siguyan bay and still no luck. On our third pass, I changed lures again and used a smaller plug, a “Sucker” Storm Deep Thunder 11.

Landing the Trevally:

Trolling is a very restless way of fishing; you can troll for hours and not get any bite. After getting bored and it seemed that trolling was not in any way productive, I was tempted to tell JR that we better try jigging or bottom fishing instead. The humming of the bangka’s motor and the up-down motion of the sea is very conducive to sleep. I was dozing off in the bangka, near Malagundi Pt, when I was awakened with the voice of Mang Gilbert and JR shouting “ISDA, ISDA!” At first, I looked at JR’s reel to see if it was running. It wasn’t and when I looked at my reel, it was the one screaming. I took hold of the rod and I didn’t know what to do… do I reel it in? Increase the drag? What? Instinct told me to let it run a little while slowly pulling the rod back and see if I can reel it in. I was too eager to land the fish and few minutes later, I decided to increase the drag and slowly reel it in. The rod was heavy when I pulled it back, pushed forward while reeling in, pull back, push forward reel in. After several push-pull-reels, the fish surfaced and it was a trevally! Mang Gilbert exclaimed “talakitok… talakitok!” When he landed the fish, it was a good sized one and my grin was bigger than ever.

After that adrenalin rush, we went back trolling again and JR changed his lure to smaller one, a Rapala CD11. It was again, a long troll… The sun was already near the horizon when my reel screamed again. I had a hard time getting the rod off the holder and as it was really heavy, I almost lost my footing in doing so. Again, I let it run for while then pulled-pushed-reel in. A few meters from the boat, it appeared… A HUGE WAHOO! (Actually it was not that huge, an 8lb one, but to me it was… hehehe). I had a hard time controlling the fish; it was moving left and right of the boat and under it. Mang Gilbert was looking after the line so that it doesn’t get snagged at the propeller and cause us to lose the fish. The fish suddenly swam towards the front of the boat. JR who was nearer to the rear of the boat asked for the rod. He literally dunked the rod underwater to control the fish. Many thanks to JR for the help, if not for his instinct; I would have lost the fish. Finally we landed the fish… hehehe… My biggest catch ever, an 8lb WAHOO (ok, I mentioned it already earlier… sorry) or should I say our biggest catch since it took a lot help from JR.

Thanks again Bro!

There was a lot of commotion on the beach as the anglers went ashore. Everyone was busy, proudly showing his catch to everyone else or merely looking at someone else’s catch. Here are some photos of everyone’s haul.

Arnold’s first Dorado: