Can anyone tell what his or her favorite hobby is? Is it a hobby that relaxes, revives and reenergizes you…. AND puts healthy, low cholesterol food on the table?
Mine does. I’m into fishing.
I play tug o war, with beautiful beasts from the depths of the ocean. Our battleground is the blue sea and my charging chariot is the banka. My primary weapons of choice are rods, reels and fishing lures.
Rods are more commonly known as fishing poles. They are usually made out of fiberglass or composite graphite, the same material used on your badminton rackets or snow skis. It is shaped the same way as your telescopic TV Antenna. One end is stout and strong enough to serve as the handle, slowly tapering off to the other end to form the flexible tip. The rod is usually between 5 feet to 7 feet long for normal applications and flexes and bends to almost a U shape to give you that leverage when fighting the fish. It therefore provides you the muscle to haul in your catch..
The reel is the machine that holds the fishing line and allows you to control the amount of tension on the line when the fish pulls. It has a braking mechanism called the drag, which you can adjust so that the reel gives out line when the fish is pulling hard. This prevents the line from snapping or the rod from bending too much.
Lures are what I use to entice the fish to bite. The type of fishing I do is called trolling where an artificial lure is dragged behind the boat. These lures are made of wood or plastic shaped to mimic the profile of a baitfish. It has a protruding lip from under its chin which allows it to dance and dive when dragged under water. This wiggling, wobbling action gives it the lifelike appearance of a baitfish in distress which triggers the predatory instincts of bigger fishes.
With the rod, reel and lure as my muscle, machine and meat, I was able to once again wage war with the fishes last Sunday. I went with my fishing buddies to the sleepy town of Pundakit, Zambales. Excited as we were, we left Manila really early, with our arsenal of rod and reels, tackleboxes, and coolers in tow. We got there while it was still dark so we just watched the stars while waiting for the sun’s first light. The evening sky in the provinces seem to always have more stars than Metro Manila and my friends were seeing shooting stars left and right. For some reason, I only caught one falling star in the corner of my eye and made a quick wish before it disappeared. Just one decent fish please.
When my bankero Mang Pidyong arrived, I quickly boarded his banca. He was a burly old man around 50 years old, but he was still quick and nimble as a bull. We were one of the first boats to head out to the rich fishing grounds around Capones Island. He seemed to be as excited as me.
I asked him if he has gone trolling before. It turns out that it was his first time to troll lures on rod and reel! So I briefed him on our SOP. When the fish bites, don’t stop the boat but instead give the boat a 3 second sprint to solidly set the hook and continue with throttling speed. He also needs to help me clear the other lines when I start fighting the fish.
There were no sightings of tuna schools, no king mackerels busting bait, no seabirds circling the skies, no sailfishes showing their majestic fins…. just the calmness and serenity of the sea, which was so flat it was mirror like. The sun was already out, the oceans breeze was soothing and the day was bright. I proceeded to set up my two rods. The one on the left, I tied on an 11 cm lure, which had a Black colored back and a silver body. The one on the right had a similar lure but it had a blue back and dives deeper.
On our 3rd pass at the back of Capones Island, I offered Mang Pidyong the hopiang baboy I brought along. If the fish don’t want to eat, we will. We were merrily munching on our snack, when I noticed that the left rod was bent and the reel was making an audible sound. ZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIT went the drag. Mang Pidyong was quick to rev up the engine and I immediately took the rod to fight the fish. I was happy that Mang Pidiong remembered the instructions I earlier gave him. We were so orchestrated, our moves seemed like clockwork! I continued reeling in the fish, enjoying every breath taking second of it. I didn’t know yet what was on the other end of the line but based on its bulldogging headshakes and blistering runs, I could tell it was a big one.
After a few minutes of pumping the rod and reeling in, I started to see the line move sideways. To the left and then to the right, at times circling. A dark silhouette was slowly forming against the aquamarine water. As the fish drew nearer, I started to see flashes of silver and some specks of yellow. The fish finally surfaced and there it was, my first Yellow Fin Tuna shaking like mad as if it was having an epileptic attack. The macho Mang Pidyong was not able to contain his excitement as he gave out a high pitched scream of celebration. Yehey! Bondying to bossing he exclaimed! When the fish was within striking distance, Mang Pidyong ably gaffed the fish, clubbed it between the eyes and finally boated it. 7.5 Kilograms of pure adrenaline rush, about this long, this fat around the shoulders and it did not fit into my cooler.
I wished upon a star and it was generously granted. I came home relaxed, revived and reenergized.
