Dalag (Haruan/Snakehead) Fishing Again

My cousin Bulador and I did some fishing over the weekend. Originally, we planned to fish salt from shore. We started as early as 5:30am using lures and different live and dead baits. After almost four hours and three different spots, we did not get a single bite. It's pretty obvious that the spots were overfished.

I recalled that we passed by some flooded ponds on our way to the salt spots. Without any hope of catching anything from shore fishing, we decided to go dalag fishing instead. Lots of rains in the past weeks and I hoped that the haruans would be active. It's a good thing that I always bring haruan lures whenever I go salt fishing.You never know if there's a good dalag (haruan) infested water near by.

True enough, dalags (haruan) did not disappoint. We caught 8 in less than 2 hours. Bulador caught 2 while I got 6. The last fish I caught as over 1kg. My heavy casting rod was flawless in it's hook setting power.

An old man who was riding a bike noticed me while I was landing a fish and decided to stop to observe. When I unhooked the fish, took a picture, and released the fish back into the water, he almost fell off his bike in disbelief. "Bakit mo pinakawalan??" (Why in the world did you let it go?) screamed the old man. I politely said "Para dumani pa". (So that they will be able to reproduce.) Scratching his head, he insisted that I just give him the fish if I caught one. I said yes politely while I stealthily moved to another spot. The old man  still followed me at first. When I kept on moving and after a few cast, I think he got tired and left me alone. After he left, I caught and released two more. :-0

All fishes were released after their pictures were taken.