Downsizing Leaders at Aling Nene's Pond

Last weekend, I took my wife and kids to ANP for a half day of fun fishing. Because crispy fried tilapia are my kids' favorite (next to KFC's Snack box), my diabolic plan was to coax my kids to join me fishing so I can also fish myself. I told them that they can catch all the tilapia they want. They fell for it and nagged my wife until she wasn't able to refuse. Little that they know that the real plan was for me to try my three-hundred-peso Eagle Claw fly rod (from HMR) on a few famous ANP bangus.

My wife and kids had a blast. They caught more than three kilos of tilapia. They also consumed a ton of chichiria and week's worth of food from the ANP canteen. Unfortunately for me, the plan backfired. Not only did I pay for all they caught and ate, I also got zero bangus, zero dalag, and not even a nibble from a hungry apahap.

My only catch that day was a scrawny tilapia on an DIY bread fly.



Like all self-respecting anglers out there, I scheduled another trip --- this time I came prepared. I got a few batches of bread fly using the cosmetic foam as the imitation bread. I was convinced that the bangus would fall for it instead of the hard foam that I used the last time. Not only that, I also came alone. This is to maximize my fishing time and minimize my expense. :-)

Like almost all evil plans, things do not turn out as you would expect. The bangus fly was a bust. Not a single bangus paid attention to it. It was complete waste of time. Although I threw more than 10 kg of stale bread as chum, not a single bangus came even close to taking a look at my immitation bread fly. Even tilapias did not pay attention to my new fly.

So, instead of wasting my time on fly fishing for bangus, I took out my trusted BC rod and reel and casted lures after lures after lures and like the weekend before NADA! Not even a fish following my lure.

So I became bold and downsized my leader from a 30lb mono to an 8lb flouro. On almost all my trips at ANP, I was always using heavier leaders -- from 15-30lbs. But this time, and probably out of desperation, I was convinced that the fishes in ANP have become smarter and can see better. They are also better fed nowadays as almost all the ponds in ANP were recently seeded by tilapia fries. And under those situations, I was convinced that going light would be the best option.

So, I took out my Momoi flouro which was originally for eging and tied on a meter or a meter and a half of it into my 15lb main line. I tied on my favorite lure and casted parallel to the banks of the ponds. Not long after that I got a massive strike. I was instantly worried that my leader would not hold. It was a good thing that I was using a light reel with a light drag to play the fish better. After around 10 minutes, I was able to land this fat 2.3kg Snakehead.

My spirit got a jump start after the catch and went back to try for some more. Unfortunately, the weather turned and rain poured non stop. I tried to wait it out but the rain wouldn't stop. When lightning came with the rain, I decided to called it a day.