Valenzuela Fishing

Below is a trip report from Aling Nene, one of Filipino Anglers favorite pond owners.
http://www.filipinoanglers.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=2995

Emil, as usual after arriving home from work, went fishing at “the spot”

After his first cast, he noticed his lure tangled with his line.

After fixing the problem, tried his first (again) cast… After a few seconds….

ZZzziiiittt!!! He fought for about 10 minutes and landed a 3.8KG Barramundi!

3.8KG BARRAMUNDI caught by Emil

Emil with me

Emil was saying “Baka ito yung nakawala dati na nahuli ko ahh… Bumigat lang ng konti.”

The following is a trip report from Obetrj, posted in http://www.filipinoanglers.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=2957

Since Aling Nene’s pond were always crowded with apahap anglers almost everyday (specially weekends) , me and Alex planned to target dalag on our next visit to Coloong.

I arrived there first with one of my newly recruited angler, we met Dowie and Rechelle just before they left. Rigged our gears targeting for tilapia and bangus. Then Alex arrived, rigged with a spinner courtesy of Bong, after a few casts, Bam! he landed a dalag (pic is on Alex’s fone)

Getting envy with Alex’s catch , I started casting (rigged with the same spinner ), after a dozen or more casts, the water literally explodes right in front of me!, Bam! My first dalag! 1.35 kilos:

Sadly, Alex’s catch somehow find it’s way out of my holding net, I brought mine home and gave it as a gift for a friend.

Master Bong, your killer spinners truly are Haruan Hunters! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

Another 3.1kg trophy for Ruben…but where’s Aling Nene in the picture?

Below are some pics shared by Aling Nene herself at the filipino anglers forum.

Mr. Nonoy Villapando caught this 14kg barramundi this afternoon at around 4:30.

It seems like the barramundi bite is on at Aling Nene’s. It reminds me of the glory days of lure casting at Kapitan’s pond last year. Unfortunately, all fishes were kept. Lets just hope there are still more sizeable barras left to be caught…. =( I dream that someday, catch and release will be an accepted norm and anglers, pond owners and the mighty fishes will all be happy with the symbiotic setup.

Fishing buddy and motorcycle enthusiast Obetrj of the Filipino Anglers and Motorcycle Philippines forum caught his second barra yesterday. Here’s a blow by blow of his report, mirrored from www.filipinoanglers.org.

After the 7.73 kilo apahap of Alex and the 3 kilo apahap of mine last week, we decided to go back today at Aline Nene’s pond to hunt for the bigger ones. Alex and I arrived almost the same time at the pond around 1pm, started casting here and there, but because of the wind blowing like crazy, casting properly is difficult. time passed, still nothing, at around 5pm, we decided to call it quits, just before packing, we saw another angler reeling in an apahap, but maybe because the hook is not properly set, it got away, so we decided to give another try before packing up, Alex facing the main pond, while i tried my luck on the right side, after a dozen casts, BAM! FISH ON!

When we saw the fish jumped out of the water, we almost realized it’s size, so i fought it nice and slowly, it ran i think 6-10 times, causing the calcutta’s drag so scream silently (music to my ears), after fighting it for 5+ minutes, landed! 8-kilo apahap!

@Alex - we’ll get the bigger ones next time!

Below is a trip report from two fellow forumers at FilipinoAnglers.org, obetrj at hibiki: The day was not planned for a fishing trip for me cause my son is going on a camping trip, and must be accompanied by my wife. Wifey texted me at 12:00 to fetch them because my son is not feeling well. An idea came up on my mind, hehe, immediately texted Alex and Bien if they’re going to Coloong, Alex responded, so i packed my gears and went there. Rigged my other rod for bangus and tilapia….. nothing. Then Alex went to “the spot” and started casting, after a few casts, BAM! fish on! immediately picked up my “salok” then took video and pics of the fight, after a few minutes of playing and fighting, landed, 7.3 kilos apahap.: Alex’s gear are almost new, new rod, reel and lure! Alex in Action:

The bent treble hook on his lure:

After his catch, he was repeatedly telling me “batuhan mo na, andyan pa mga apahap! So i casted repeatedly with a rattle trap where Alex caught his fish , after a few casts, BAM! fish on! after a minute or so, landed, 3 kilos apahap!, my very first fish on lure! using the Calcutta from Bong.

My catch:

The lure:

Will definitely come back next time and hunt for the bigger ones!

Big ones have been recently caught at Aling Nene’s pond, rivaling the catches from Kap Larry’s. 16.5 kg and 13 kg respectively. I imagine that these specimens must have been the local elders and thugs in the pond waters.

Windy and cold day yesterday but the group still pushed through with the mini tourney and cookout. Although there were several “indyans” in the sign up sheet (raise your hands gentlemen ), we still shared good company . First to arrive were hibiki, me and obetrj. We occupied the prime tilapia spot and used obets doughbait which looked like maja blanca. It was difficult watching for bites and casting against the wind. Later on, hibiki and me decided to row the boat to one of the lily clumps in the middle of the pond. Its was a feat that could rival fear factor. The wind was howling like crazy and we were having a hard time to get the boat to move forward. I was rowing with the oversized paddle and hibiki used the smaller one to steer to boat. Patience, some lean muscle and stored fat around my waist line eventually paid and we finally made it to the clump of lilies. I tied the boat to one of the bamboo poles and hibiki and I started to cast with the wind on our back…

I first tied on a Berkeley swimbait and casted towards to corner of the pond. It seemed that the pond in the middle is deeper than I imagined, perhaps, 15-20 feet so I experimented with depth. I retrieved the lure in close to the bottom and in midwater. Got a short strike which caused my reel and myself to scream some bad words…Changed out the lure since from experience, the swimbait with its hook in the middle of the meaty body has a lower hookup percentage. I then tied on a modified rattle trap (trebles replaced with double hooks) and also got another short tsug tsug strike. Downsized further to a spinnerbait and again got a short strike. It was frustrating indeed to get strikes with no hookups. It was lunchtime already so Hibiki and I decided to go back to the cottage where Obet has been trying his luck.

We waited for Apostle and built up an appetite. I brought bicol express and laing, obet his kaldereta (he cooked this himself, yum) and hibiki brought the drinks. As soon as Apostle arrived with is barbeque, we cleared the table to finally get to eat the food we brought. Apostle and rechelle made up for lost time and started casting so we, the original 3, decided to go ahead and feed! The fish weren’t on feeding mode, we were.

After lunch, we chilled out, drank some beer and tried to get some tilapia instead. Just in time, Camote with his kids arrived. I was concentrating on my line and was interviewing Camote on what his tilapia tricks were when BONG arrived. I then tied on a spinnerbait which camots gave me that day and tried my luck casting around the pond. No bites still. I asked Hibiki if he fancied getting on the stainless canoe so we can check the barra pond, but since it was too windy, we scrapped the idea. After a million casts, one by one, we eventually called it quits and headed back to the cottage. Over beer and coffee, we exchanged stories of dalag hunts, trolling expeditions, threadfin salmon, Manila Bay in the early 90s and showbiz chikka.

It was a cold, windy and unproductive day. The elusive barra stayed true to its name… but the company of fellow filang forumers was all good… and they lived happily ever after.

THE END…

We went to Coloong last Saturday. First, we went to Aling Nenes to try the barra pond. However, since the wind was blowing really hard, Jaime and I struggled in paddling the boat with just one oar. Midway through the pond, we called it quits and casted from the boat and then from one of the nearby planks. I got about 3 tentative strikes as I reeled my spinnerbaits in midwater. It seems that the fishes were just bumping my lure. We then decided to head to kapitans since Arnold was going to meet earl there. I casted my swimbaits to the usual hot spots but no bites. I noticed that there were lots of dead bangus, almost 3/4 to 1 Kg each, floating. It was an ominous sign. Fish kill? (I later talked to Kaps and he said that the pond was recently harvested, which explains why some of the fishes turned up dead)

Arnold, Cris, Jaime and later Earl went around the pond and the kalawaan to try their luck. Nada. I walked around the pond too and there was minimal activity. I saw a fish making a huge splash a few meters from me, perhaps feeding on the small fishes near the bank… and that was it. No one got a hookup casting for barra and haruan. Even those that were targetting tilapia were having a hard time too, some even got zero. It was a hard fishing day to say the least. And as Dowie puts it, we hoped to be heroes and came home zero.

Ahh fishing. Its a hobby for those who persist on getting even or getting even better.

Posted by Apostle on Wed Dec 24, 2008 7:45 pm at http://www.filipinoanglers.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=2477&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=60

2.5 Kg

2 Kg

Her able fishing guide (aka Apostle at filipinoanglers.org) had
3 Strikes, 3 Fights, Zero Landed, One straightened treble due to faulty/corroded ambassadeur drag plate, one bad hook set, & one frustrated Fishing Guide. . . . himself!