FISHING IN THE PHILIPPINES

Good day everyone. Let me introduce myself to you that may not know me. I am a guide that makes my entire living in the out of doors in northern New Hampshire. I did some writing for the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation before they decided that when they changed formats, that they did not want me write for them anymore and the new editor rather unceremoniously and rudely let me know I was not needed there. So it has been awhile since I have written any articles. This article in particular and perhaps some in the future are aimed at two audiences. Not only will it be posted On the Hook and Bullet Girls web site, but it will also be submitted to a gentleman I have met on-line that has a Philippine adventure web page, Julius Bantigue. Julius has kindly and persistently requested me to submit some of my outdoor writings for him to post on his website http://www.philippinevoyager.com/.   Ken Kreis was the person who approached me as my wife and I was exhibiting at the Pelham fly fishing show and asked me to write articles for the NHWF. That is how I got started on this and how I met Ken. He has been patiently persistent in asking me to again write article for this new site that he has helped along, Hook and Bullet Girls http://www.hookandbulletgirls.com/, which as you all know was started by Kim Pratt.

Recently my wife, who is the most beautiful and wonderful woman to ever grace my life, (I am SSSSOOOO lucky) and I went to visit her family in the Philippines. Which makes sense since she is a Filipina? We took with us my two children from my first marriage, Zack, my 25yr old son and Miranda, my 16 yr old daughter. One of the very few things that I wanted to do when we were there was to go fishing. After a bit of research we found a guide in Cebu who owns and runs Blue Sky Charters, so we booked time with him. Since my wife’s parents live in the province of Masbate (long E at the end) in the town of Placer and is a day’s boat ride to get there we would have a very limited time in Cebu to go fishing.  After a 31 hr day to get to Cebu our time was fully scheduled. The first day we all slept 26 hrs straight. Which was Saturday, Sunday was sightseeing and Monday was the day that our niece was baptized. Tuesday was the day that we were going to go out with the guide. Boy, I was looking forward to that. As Monday went along I noticed that the skies were getting much darker and heavy weather was moving in. Upon checking the weather report, the Typhoon that was being watched had turned unexpectedly in our direction. The Coast Guard put out a small craft warning late in the day until mid-day Wednesday. You got it, no fishing with the guide on Tuesday. In addition to that our schedule was so full that when we returned to Cebu we would be “leaving on a jet plane” and yes we will be back again, but we do hate to go.

Sorry, just could not resist that. So once it was decided that we would not be allowed to go fishing with the guide, my wife Johanna’s Uncle Eping said he had a boat and we could use it to go fishing. We spent a good deal of time Tuesday going to places to look for fishing rods as no one had any. 

(A quick change of subject here, when I first took Jo fishing she would look at them and asked what they were I explained that they were fishing rods and she asked how you fish with them and I also explained that to her. After a pause she says to me oh, in the Philippines they use nets, I nodded in acknowledgement, and after a pause she says, “Sometimes they use dynamite, but that is illegal”. To which I just broke out hysterically laughing since I had never seen anything like that, read about it, but never saw it. I commented that I have to put that on the list of things that I have to do before I kick the bucket, or rather “put on the bucket list” as was a common expression by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in their recent movie. Once, just once I have to do that. Yea right, and I gotta snowboard down MT. Everest also, once, just once at 52 yrs of age as I am now or older.)

So back to the story, we looked all over Cebu for rods. Ever look in a haystack for a needle? Well you got the idea then. We did eventually find two places that had saltwater rods, except I was not going to pay nearly $200.00 for a rod I was only going to use once or twice. I let that one pass and we went on to Placer Masbate. A point, of interest the word Placer means the happy place and Masbate can be broke into two words, Mas means very and bate means ugly. So we were headed to the Happy Very Ugly place and I must say the people there are very happy people as are all or so it seems of the people in the Philippines. The part of the name bate we Americans would pronounce with a long a, no e, rather in the RP (Republic of the Philippines) it is pronounced with a short a, with the e at the end.

Now you may be asking yourselves how is this dude and his family going to go fishing, and the answer is just like Americans used to without poles, by hand lining.

Now we arrive at the day in question. With much anticipation we headed for Uncle Eping’s boat. There were 8 of us that went. Papa, Uncle Eping, Beebe, uncle’s daughter, Zack my son, Jo, myself along with the captain, Uncle Bolboy (lot’s of uncles) & mate his son, Roger. So off we went out for about two miles and stopped. Uncle Bolboy had made each one of us a hand line, which consisted of a 9 or 10 in. piece of 4 in. diameter bamboo that monofilament, was wound around with three hooks and a 1oz. weight on the end. We each baited our hooks with shrimp and squid (you could eat the bait it was so good) and proceeded to fish. Uncle Eping caught the first one a Botete, to us known as a Puffer fish which we did not keep because; 1. They are poisonous if you do not know how to properly make sushi, and; 2. It was only about 2.5 in long. Soon afterwards Jo caught a second Botete, which we also released for both of the aforementioned reasons. Next it was Papa’s turn He also caught a Botete, and so did Zack. All of these fish were in the same size range. Then I changed our luck, as fate would have it. I caught the largest fish of the day and what a fight it gave me as I tried to mightily to pull it up and into the boat; it nearly exhausted me repeatedly diving back towards the bottom in its attempts to regain its freedom. My back felt like it was going to cramp up and my shoulders would come out of their sockets. This fish was a real fighter and was bound and determined not to end up in someone’s frying pan. After an exhaustive battle I finally bordered this valiant sea creature. As it turned out it was an edible species, a Lagaw, an absolutely splendid specimen, which measured an outstanding 5.5 inches in length.

So why did I just put you through that bit of excitement, hey you have to admit to yourselves that you were looking forward and expected that kind of experience from some far off exotic tropical location and I did not want to disappoint you.

It was obvious that I could not hide my disappointment at the size of the fish that we were catching. My fathering law, Papa explained to me that the seas have been depleted by illegal fishing by countries like the Chinese that come illegally into Philippine waters and fish with huge miles long gill nets, in addition to some large native commercial fishing enterprises. Taking everything in the sea, and what they do not want they just discard over the side. To compound that fact the Philippine economy is not as robust as our in the USA even at this time when we may be facing a recession. So, what does this lead to; Subsistence fishing for many of the local people just to feed themselves and their families. I would like to quickly add that later in our stay Uncle Bolboy and his son brought us a Trevally that they had caught while fishing with nets more than 25 mi out, a very long way to travel in open ocean for their small boats.

We in the USA are extremely lucky with our resources. We are lucky that we have the option to practice conservations ethics that allow us to sustain our natural resources. Most of the rest of the world are not that lucky. While in the Philippines what I witnessed for fishing was that everyone keeps everything they catch. They have to. They have no choice. Oh excuse me, yes they do, to keep the fish or try to practice catch and release as a sport as we do in the USA and literally let their children starve. That is not choice at all. Anyone in the USA that reads this article should never ever take a holier than thou attitude about this. We are not so rich that we can look down our noses at a people’s that are less fortunate than our own. We do not have that right. We are SO lucky that we do not have a clue about what it is to really be needy, to really want for the basics of life, food and shelter. We are arrogant as a people and a country that even today we have people that refuse to acknowledge that there is such things as global warming. Or that for the good of our country, our environment and our economics that they should drive anything less than their big fuel guzzling SUV’s etc. Just so you know I do own a truck for work. A ¾ ton dodge ram diesel pickup truck that in this day and age is used only for my work which as a guide I need. Can you see me loading a moose into a compact pickup truck? The front wheels would be off the ground. The rest of the time I/we drive a Toyota Prius hybrid.

Those are things that are not right my friends, they are ALL PRIVILEGE’S!!!  Or fishing practices which this all started with, is based on catch and release in this day and age. Most of us know that to continue to enjoy fishing as a sport we need to practice these ethics. That is a privilege, not a right. We are damn lucky, damn lucky.

This has brought my wife’s family and me to try and do some very small things to help with the food situation in the town where they live. Her mother has owned the rights to a fishpond for many years. We are currently developing this pond for aquiculture production. Once in production this will accomplish several things. Yes we will make some money on products sold from it. It will also allow us to start a small rice bank where people that cannot afford to buy rice for their families will be able to acquire some. Just so you folks in the USA know; working for money to buy food is not always an option. In parts of the country the unemployment rate is near and sometimes over 40%. Jobs are scarce and lucky to get. When our unemployment was that high we called it the great depression, FDR and the government stepped in to help. The Philippine government tries to help its people, however its resources are stretched thin, which leads many to be without. For the people that are too old to do work we are planning some kinds of activities where their knowledge can be used and passed on to younger generations to earn their food (age and the wisdom it brings his highly respected in the RP, unlike here in the USA);thus giving a self-respecting value of need. Younger and more able-bodied people we hope to enlist to do community service work. Something’s that in the USA many people would consider themselves above doing. Sweeping streets, collecting trash, things that will be of value to the community and to their self-virtue. One way or another we would like to find something for all of the people that we could help and that want our help something to do to help themselves, their families and their community.

As Americans we are rich. Even our poorest are rich when compared to poor across the globe. As Americans, we are lucky, so damn lucky that most of us do not have a clue how lucky we are. We are the luckiest country and people in the world and I hope and pray that we start realizing it appreciate it and do what we can to protect it, work for it and when we have the opportunity to help others that will appreciate that help… WE ARE SO DAMN LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!

May you all allow the Lord to help you make it a great day in his beautiful world outdoors and the one we have created indoors.