All Souls' Haruans and Mangrove Jacks

Last Summer of 2010 was probably the hottest dry season that Zambales has encountered.  It was so dry that my favorite Haruan spot had dried up and the Haruan population was literally decimated. The once wide expanse of marsh land was reduced to an arid grassland. When the rains came last June and the months after that, the marsh slowly began to fill with water.

The long weekend of All Soul's Holiday last weekend was a perfect time to test the marsh once more. We left Friday night and arrived there at around 2AM Saturday. The original plan was to fish the estuaries using my kayak during early mornings and late afternoons and in-between, fish for Haruans and on my last day, go trolling. Unfortunately, high tide occurs late at night and I am not so keen spending the night on an isolated estuary all by my self at night, on All Soul's day :-). I don't want to meet a real Mamaw at a time like that.

I did try kayak fishing for Jacks on the first day during daytime but after catching only a couple of MJs, I abandoned kayak fishing. Paddling during outgoing tide is too much work for just a few takers. Instead, I decided to concentrate on Haruans. I am actually glad I did. From an arid grassland, the rains helped transform the area into a recovering marshland. Water triggered the recovery of small baitfishes --- tilapias, walo-walo, gurame, etc. With the spread of baitfishes, Haruans seemed  to have bloomed out of nowhere. After days of fishing (2 hours in the morning and 2.5 hours in the afternoon), I managed to catch, photograph, and release 21 Haruans. In addition, I was also fortunate enough to land 3 table-sized mangrove jacks (1pc 500grams and 2 pcs 750grams).


Undas 2011 from Hibiki on Vimeo.



The arid grassland slowly turned into an aquatic heaven. It still has a long way to go before returning to its former state but it's getting there. I sure hope it would. The only hurdle that it needs to go through is the coming dry season. I hope it wouldn't dry up again like what happened last year.

One thing I also realized during the Undas (All Soul's Day) fishing is the use of a Heavy topwater rod or frog rod. I always notice that American anglers have these stout, stiff, and long frog rods when they are fishing for bass using frog lures. I always thought that they are overdoing it. Before, my rod of choice for haruan fishing was just an 8-17 or max of 10-20lb 6ft to 6'6" Medium rod. I always thought that it was the perfect frog rod. I was completely wrong. For the first time, I tried my Majorcraft Slicer 12-25lb Heavy rod (almost 7ft) in Haruan fishing using frog lures. Boy, it was revelation. That was the perfect Heavy-cover frog rod that I should use. The American anglers were right on the money when frog fishing. The powerful, long, and light rod was perfect for the needed hook sets and the power to pull the fish out of heavy weeds. Before, when I was using lighter rods, I always lose fish due to poor hooksets and if I did manage to hook one, I almost always wade to where the fish is for fear of breaking the rod if I muscle it away from the weeds.

When I started using the Slicer 12-25lbs, I was always 100% on hooksets and I can easily pull fish and weeds out to shore no matter how far they are. No more wading.

To top it off, the Heavy but light rod was also a perfect rod for topwater saltwater fishing. So, the next time you buy a frog rod or a top water salt rod, get a 7ft or longer rod and leave those light rods for jerkbaits and spinners. You will feel the difference.

Team Daiwa Advantage 4000A Upgrades

It took me a while to get the needed upgrades for my recently acquired Team Daiwa Advantage 4000A. It's not yet completely upgraded but it's almost done. 3 upgrades out of possible 5 is good enough for now.

I upgraded the Drag Washer to Smoothdrag's Carbontex. The set I ordered is Carbontex F62-7101 which cost me $9 per set excluding the shipping -- which is very minimal (around $2-3). The stock washer is some sort of oil impregnated felt fabric which is good, relatively smooth and strong. Because of the oil, it resists water from reaching the bottom of the spool. But after upgrading to Carbontex, you can feel the improvement in smoothness. Right now, I installed the washers dry and later on, I will put some Cal's drag grease to improve smoothness and water resistance.

After the drag washer, I replaced the plastic bushing in the spool shaft. High end Daiwa reels have ball bearings as stock component. TDA, Caldia, Freams, and other Real Four entry level reels all have plastic or aluminum washers instead of bearings. I got a bearing from a fellow angler. It's an SARB bearing from Shimano and fits the TDA spool bushing perfectly. The bearing in the spool really improved the smoothness of the drag. The Carbontex washer increased the drag range and the spool bearing will help in this increase in drag. The bearing is 12x8x2.5.

After the spool bearing upgrade, I also upgraded the lame knob to an all aluminum round power knob (Size M). I initially wanted the Tuna Max knob (Size S) but when we tried installing it, it would not fit. The screw was not able to reach the tip of the shaft. I visited Alex's Tackle and saw a couple of Sea Hawk knobs Size M. Matt, the owner of the store, convinced me to take the Sea Hawk knob to test fit it. It's a good thing I did. The knob has a replacement shaft and two stainless steel bearings and the price is less than half of the Tuna Max knob (no shaft or bearings included). The Sea Hawk knob was a perfect fit although I was only able to use 1 ball bearing because the TDA stock handle is designed for single bearing knobs only.

And here is what the reel looks like after the upgrade. The only noticeable difference is the cool round power knob.

In terms of appearance, it looks like a true light jigging and light popping reel because of the knob. The internals (drag washer and spool bearing) supports that look. I matched this reel with my DIY Okuma Sentara popping rod.

 

Next step is to upgrade the handle. I wanted a Caldia KIX custom handle so I can use an additional bearing on the knob (2 bearing knob). After that, I want to replace the bushing in the end of the main shaft. This will make the reel a double-bearing supported shaft. This will increase the smoothness even further.

The total cost of the three upgrades, around P1,800. The cost of absolutely manhandling a 2kg Mangrove Jack, priceless.

I can't wait to try it again this coming weekend. Hopefully, there are some GTs playing somewhere in Zambales. Who knows, maybe I will get lucky.

Fishing Before the Storm

Typhoon Pedring (Nesat) entered the Philippines last Sunday afternoon and made landfall the following day Monday. It was really annoying when you have a fishing trip planned and then a storm will appear all of a sudden. It was also odd that in the past weeks, a storm always appear every weekend. We could not fish on weekdays because of work and for the past weeks, we couldn't even fish on weekends because of these typhoons. That Sunday, myself, my cousin JB, and Miko just can't accept that and we decided to push through even when there's a storm coming.

We decided to leave early to make the most of the clear weather. The plan was to bolt when the storm arrives -- and we expected that to happen in the afternoon. We got to the spot 6am and immediately rigged as soon as we parked the car. We were so pumped because we really need to maximize the short time to fish. But even though we got there early, the swell started to appear and the dirty water has mixed with the clean water on our fishing spot. From those signs, we feared that fishing would be tough.

And tough it was. We casted almost all imaginable lures we had and caught nothing. I lost 2 brand new madai jigs, one brand new squid jig, and another casting jig from rocky snags. Not a single bite for the most part of the morning until around 2pm.

Then past 2pm, the tide came in, and it cleared the water for a short while. The clear water triggered feeding, and we decided to use baits instead of lures. The change in tactics proved successful and we were rewarded with an almost-1kg grouper and two of these 2kg+ Mangrove Jacks.

Even when the typhoon appeared over the horizon, we continued to fish with baits but unfortunately, no bites after that. At around 5pm, heavy rains and strong wind battered the spot we were on and after a few minutes, we were soaking wet. We decided to call it quits while the roads going back to Manila are still passable.

Because of the rain and traffic, we arrived in Manila past 9pm. The trip was worth it and we will be coming back. The next time, I will be bringing my kayak with me.