Father's Day My Time - Dalag (Haruan/Snakehead) Time

It has been a while since I did some Haruan fishing. I tried haruan fishing in Zambales last summer but the water had dried up and there were not much haruans anymore. We did some fishing in ANP a few days back but we only got a few bangus (milkfish) on light tackle. Although bangus was really fun on 6lb line, the feeling of a haruan strike on topwater is much more exciting.

Luckily, a few weeks ago, PAGASA declared that summer has officially ended. True enough, the rains started pouring almost every day. Ponds and marshes started to fill with water once more and haruans started to become active. On our way to ANP last Sunday – for a father’s day my-time-fish-time, we passed by a few flooded areas and did some haruan exploration. The wind was a bit strong and it was constantly raining all the time. Still, we decided to stop for a while to explore the waters. I did not bring a top water rod because the original plan was to check out ANP’s barra using jerkbaits. Instead of using frogs, I used my trusted spinner to check for haruan presence. I could not believe my luck. At my first cast and at the first crank, a smallish haruan struck my lure. I gave the rod a light hook set and landed my first fish. An old man saw me landing the fish and was about to come near me. I feared that he will ask for the fish so I released it back into the water without taking any photo.

I was convinced that haruans are already active. I took out my old battered frog and casted away using a jerkbait rod. It was really frustrating at first. So many strikes but I just can’t hook them up. The rod (a repaired Fenwick HMG) was just too soft to get a proper hook set. After the sixth fish that I lost due to poor hook set, I stopped counting. To compensate, I tightened my drag further and decided to give a couple of pump when there's a strike to ensure that the hooks would penetrate the haruan's jaw. I still lost a few fishes but I managed to land four.

The last one was above one kilo. It managed to destroy my old frog by chewing it inside out, removing the hook from the body and flipping the hook over. The hook retainer almost pulled out through the hook barb. Amazing.







Bong’s experience, on the other hand, was not so good compared to mine. His rod was softer than what I was using. He kept on getting strikes but was not able get a proper hook set. In the end, he was not able to land any.

A real frog rod or a top water rod is really important specially if the target fish have tough jaws that need strong hook sets.

After I lost my old battle-scarred frog to a tree, we decided not to proceed to ANP and called it a day instead – just in time for a father’s day treat from my kids.