Totally Satisfied when Bataan Fell

Posted on 28. Aug, 2008 by Bien Penaranda in Trip Reports


Time: Around 9AM
Bait: Dead Shrimp
Rig: Sliding egg sinker rig, 30 lb leader
Line: 20lb mono
Rod: Modified Shakespeare Sturdy Stik
Reel: Okuma Eclipz 65
Tide: I was not able to notice
Moon Phase: 1st Quarter moon
Weight: 2.8 Kg.
Fish Specie: Sweet lips, bakoko, lip-te

I arrived at the pier with 3 rods. I wasn’t able to get live shrimp for bait but the weather was good and the water was calm. Solo flight fishing mode for me, since I wasn’t able to tag anyone along. My car was cramped and I wasn’t sure about the place yet.

So off we went, with my bankero on his screaming orange colored boat. On the way to the spot, we saw tanigue (wahoo) busting bait. I asked the bankero to make one pass to that area…chug chug chug chug went the boat as I trolled with my sturdy stik. No bites, water was murky.

Screw the blue mack, I want to catch a trevally.
The bankero brought me to his favorite spot, right in front of a well guarded pier. ”No Fishing within 50 ft from Pier“.  The bankero waved to the guard as we went a bit closer than the 50ft limit.  He said “No worries. Those guards know me“. I modified the rig on the sturdy stick with a slider egg sinker setup, with a longer than usual length of leader (a tip from Kit)  on a half ounce sinker (which I bought from another buddy, Jaime, who originally bought them from Arman) . I was confident, the force of 3 fellow FilipinoAnglers was with me. But manong boatman wasn’t encouraging. “Your baits are dead. It would be hard to get the fish to bite. You should have gotten live ones“. I said that there was none from the market. Lets still try. I casted to structure. Got a nibble but it just stole my bait. I handed over the sturdy stik to manong and asked him to put bait on it so I could set up my lighter rod. We then started talking about his 8 children. He has a daughter who married a malaysian and bought him his boat. He has a son, who’s a truck driver in Australia,  bought him 2 fishing rod combos, which have been caught him countless trevallies on the same spot we were at.

Then our conversation got interrupted. He said ” may humila a” (something pulled).  He started reeling in. The line was taut but the fish didn’t seem to be fighting. Then it started talking line slowly. Manong, quite uncertain, gave me the rod. I reeled in a few turns. Is this a stingray? I wondered. So I kept reeling in.. then dip dip dip goes my rod tip. The fight was ON! The fish drew first blood not even letting me make yank my rod to set the hook!

ZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT…says the Okuma Eclipz (which I won from our Xmas party last year)… It was doing well. Drag was decent but the reel has a very silent clicking mechanism…so it went on with a barely audible zzziiiiiiiitttttttt… Dip dip dipping the sturdy stik again, bulldoging under the boat. Is this my dream talakitok? Then another longer zzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt.. Oh no, its running to structure so I tightened the drag a little bit.  I continued to fight the fish pulling it away from structure and from the boat’s anchor line. After a few minutes I saw its silhouette but manong had no gaff nor landing net on board! Syet. So I reminded him “Careful manong, I dont want to lose that fish“.

Fortunately, my able bankero was able to get the fish on the boat….it was not a trevally. It was a sweetlip, my first catch of this kind of fish.

Wohooo! I was happy! Deym! There could be more of those under there! So I tried to rebait…my hands were trembling….that was fun.

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