An Update on the Popular Ponds near Manila

Here's some update on our popular freshwater ponds near Manila after the flooding last week.

Apalit ponds were not affected. Business as usual for those who would like to fish there. The only problem was the road from the green gate to the ponds are muddy and may be a challenge for the smaller vehicles. I am sure the management would be able to fix that road in no time.

Lakeshore is open but it appears that the Toman's are no longer worth targeting. I have been there a few times. Even the small ones are no where to be found. I scoured the lake for the entire day with my kayak and i did not even get a single strike even from the small ones. Come to think of it, I never did see any rising or feeding tomans. I am not sure but it appears that the lake overflowed and perhaps the big ones got out. Those toman's on the aquarium tank have been there for a long time so I am not sure when was the last time someone caught a big one from there.

Aling Nene's ponds are closed. They just seeded their ponds after losing most of their stocks during the floods. They don't allow anglers yet as the stocks are still being restored (The ponds literally contains small fishes for the meantime).

Kapitan Larry's pond is accessible but they don't allow fishing yet. Like Aling Nene, they are currently restocking their ponds. They lost most of their stocks as the floods reached up to the neck when you are standing in front of the kubos. The nets were not high enough to contain their stocks. Lawak's dike also collapsed and most of their stocks escaped into the river. When the tides rose, dirty water got in the ponds killing the fishes after a few days.

Most of the ponds in Coloong lost their stocks from flooding. Locals were catching them in the streets and sometimes inside the flooded houses.

According to Coloong locals, a lot of people caught Apahaps in the 20kg range. According to them, the fishes appeared weak as the water got contaminated with oil and gas. Those that did not escape the ponds eventually died due to the contamination of gasoline and oil. After a few days of flooding, the ponds were full of dead rotting fishes. It appears that Coloong will need at least 3 to six months for tilapia and bangus fishing and over a year for Apahap fishing to become productive again.