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.

Going light with Majorcraft Skyroad AJI Rod

The Majorcraft Skyroad AJI rod from Japan has arrived! I paired it with a Certate Ize Custom Red 2506 with PE0.6 Sunline braid. Getting ready for Christmas and New year break.

I will use it for casting micro pencils and jigs for saltwater and for drop shot and finesse fishing for bass.

Last Sunday, I was able to test it on a juvenile threadfin salmon. It can cast very small lures (4grams or less) with ease and handled the fish without effort.

Half Day Fishing Lesson at Irving's School of Fish

I begged my wife for a quick fishing trip today to ease the stress that I experienced this week. Damn that Shellshock GNU BASH vulnerability. What a pain.

Anyway, I had a blast last week at Irving Sih's School of Fish Pond so I decided to give it another shot. My plan was to be at the pond at around 7am so I left the house at 6am. Sadly, the Mindanao exit of NLEX was clogged so it took me an almost half an hour just to enter the expressway.

When I reached McArthur highway, I realized that I have not eaten breakfast. I went to McDo's drive through hoping to get a packed breakfast. Somehow, there were a lot of drivers with the same idea and the line was up to the parking lot. I backed out and went to another fast food restaurant for a quick breakfast. Long story short, the breakfast wasn't quick as it took me a good half hour to get my food.

I arrived at the pond at past 8:30am. An absolute bummer. I thought to myself that I have completely missed the morning bite. Tried all my favorite baits and had no luck. I switched to an old soft plastic and was able to land a couple.

After two fishes, the lure was mangled beyond repair. I checked my box and I only had one left and that one lure already had it share of battles. The lip is slipping out of the hook every time I cast. I quickly tied the lip using a strand of a spro frog's rubber legs. It held well and got three more barramundis. The last fish was over a kilo and it splits the lure's body wide open.

I casted the lure and checked the swimming action. It was still ok. I casted in between the holding nets and I had a solid take. It made a couple of jumps and the hook held. I tried to lift fish but the leader broke. I did not change my 17lb flouro leader even after it already landed 5 barras so it was probably nicked really bad. Oh well, 5 was more than ok for half a day's fishing.