Lake Lumot Laguna

December is a very busy day in the Philippines. A lot of work needs to be completed before the end of the year. So many Christmas parties to get to and so many stuff to buy and prepare for the holiday season. This means fishing time gets really affected --- less and less fishing. The irony is, December is the start of the best fishing months either in fresh or in Salt but you just can't go out fishing whenever you want to. It sucks!

I heard from my angler buddies, Noel and Obet, that there was a bass fishing trip this Sunday and the bite has started. Unfortunately, I have a company party that I need to go to. But when I heard that the traffic to the party venue was a nightmare, I decided to skip the party and join the bass fishing trip instead.

I was really excited because this is practically my 2nd Bass fishing trip ever. The biggest fish that I caught was about 300 grams and that was a long time ago. My goal for this trip was to learn worm fishing and most specially practice drop shot fishing.

We  left Manila 2:30am and passed by a Goto and Arozcaldo (soup) house in Teresa Rizal. They serve the best Goto and Arozcaldo ever, specially when it's very early and very cold. After the brief early breakfast, we drove to the Lumot Lake dock. There we met Rene, Erwin, and Manny (who was going to try his brand new Yak). The problem is, it was raining--- a continuous drizzle. The sort of rain that will go on and on for the entire day. And that's what happened. It rained the entire trip. The good thing though was it wasn't scorching while fishing.

When our boat arrived, we quickly loaded our gears tied in the dinghy and Manny's kayak and went to the first spot. I joined Rene on his dinghy and tried the weedy banks of the lake. I got the first fish -- a small one using  an X-rap. No takers on top water. IT was still too early so I haven't tried worming yet.

After a while, I changed to a texas-rigged 6in worm and caught my 2nd bass which was also a small one. Pretty nice for a newbie bass angler. But after that, no catches for any of us. When we joined the other guys in the big boat, Obet caught a couple of nize sized bass on worms. Manny caught his first bass on Yak.
 
In the afternoon, I changed rigs and I tried drop shot fishing. I rigged my Daiwa Sol with 15lb braid and 12lb flouro leader and tied on a curly tail worm. I thought there wasn't any activity in the shallow areas so I targeted the deep portions of the lake. Tap and another tap then I set the hook. It was amazing, truly an exciting fishing using light line with small hook on deep water and a relatively big fish pulling. I landed my first real bass. A 1kg bass. I wanted to release it but our boatman quickly tied the fish through the gills which made the chances of survival small.

When we moved to our last fishing spot before going home, I caught another small bass. Rene, who was frogging the entire day finally caught his target Haruan. He almost broke his rod while setting.

I wished I could have taken more pics but it was always raining and its hard to do so without getting my phone cam wet.  Even though the weather was miserable, the company was excellent. The food courtesy of Obet was perfect. We were laughing the entire trip.

Right now, after waking up, I just can't get the drop shot method out of my head. I got to get some Shaky worms and Realistix minnows for saltwater. I need to go back with my Kayak. That's going to be awesome.