My New Favorite Fishing Style - Light Tackle Fishing

A few weeks back, I decided to acquire a light tackle setup to expand my target species. As you all know, fishing recently has been very tough in the Philippines -- weather, overfishing, too many competition with too little spots. There are a lot of barra, haruan, bass, threadfin, toman, and what have you and the problem is, local anglers competing for the same thing on the same spot.

I think this was caused by increased popularity of fishing through the Internet. As more and more people are taking on the hobby, coupled with the fact that our local waters are continually being neglected, the competition has become really tough for a declining number of usual targets.

The first time I noticed light tackle fishing was through the exploits of Joseph Gueco and company. Their style was an adaptation from Japanese finesse fishing techniques that is slowly getting noticed in the Philippines. Our avid Japanese angler-mentor Naks Nakamura is partly responsible for this increasing popularity of the style.

Finesse fishing or light rock fishing, AJI, or Mebaru style in saltwater, are some of the names that are associated with this technique. The principle is very simple, everything gets miniaturized. The line, rod, reel, and most specially the lures are shrinked. PE 0.6 max line (that's around 6lbs braid that is thinner than a human hair), 0,5-7gm lure max, shallow spools that holds 200m of that thin stuff.

Contrary to my old belief (and I honestly think that majority of local anglers are thinking the same), light tackle does not necessarily mean small fish. The range is wide. from the smallest juvenile grouper up to an almost 3kg Queenfish or Jack Crevalle. This flimsy rod and almost invisible line can take it. To be honest, I was worried at first. I had this feeling that I will lose the fish, beit small, because the line will break, the rod will snap and whathaveyou.  But this belief was blown to bits from what I recently observed. Light tackle can handle small fish and also big ones. And the best part is, you will feel the same excitement similar to handling a monster. It doesn't matter if it is a small juvie grouper or bagaong or even a 2kg+ queenfish. The excitement is multiplied 4 times over.

I can say for certain that this is my new favorite style of fishing. Yes, I still like dalag or toman or pargo. But light tackle is pretty awesome and because of my recent battles using this technique, I might skip my dalag or pargo sessions for a while.

My last catch for 2014. Over 2kg. It completely mangled one of the treble hooks. Only one barb was holding on. The light drag on a finesse reel made sure that it gave line before the barb gives out.

Mid-sized Queenies. I lost a lot more because of drags that were too tight. I realized also that these small ones prefer a certain brand of micro stick baits.

A couple of over-2kg Queenies. The fight was absolutely fantastic. 

When the queenfish bites are off. I swithched to small jigheads tipped with 1-inch minnows. The bites from juvie groupers were instant and exciting. I lost count of how many I landed.

Hopping a 3-gram jighead is a killer for groupers.

The only problem is you have to be alert and keep them from dragging your line under the rocks.

A medium-sized black spotted grouper that also fell for a hopped jighead.

My first fish on light tackle and from my kayak. The queen fish is almost 3kg. What a fight. I almost lost this when it dragged the kayak near the buoy.