Expedition Philippines!

Yesterday I returned from my three week long holiday in the Philippines, thankfully the weather was nice but the temperature was still quite a shock! My main visiting area was the island of Panglao and Tagbilaran city in Bohol Island on the Central Philippines (Visayas).
I haven't heard much about the fishing potential on that part of the Philippines (and in all the Philippines for that matter) but I was sure that the UL/LRF gear would see me catch something. Thus I took with me my two travel rods: The Daiwa spinmatic 6', 4pc, 1-4lbs and the Shimano Beastmaster STC, 2.40-2.70m, 10-40gm. The second rod was taken just in case I could find deeper water or a boat and fish for larger predators.
The waters around Panglao Island are not very deep but the reef is in a short distance from the shore and this attracts many fish. The only problem is that Filipinos just love all kinds of fish and seem to have eaten all the big ones! lol
So on my first visit to the local beach I got my UL gear so that I could see what could be had... We were on a typical beach of the island where the sand meets sea-grass and some rocks after 5-10m from the shore, while the reef can start anywhere from 10-50m away. 
I focused mainly on rocky outcrops on the edges of the beach and used mini carolina rigs with #6 slim offset hooks and SSG shots. On my first cast and after a couple jerks I got the first bite and straight away I knew which species it was... A small garfish very similar to ours had decided to eat the 2" Berkley Fish Fry..

After releasing the garfish I continued fishing and got a sharp bite, I let it develop and after striking I had a feisty fish on the end of my line.. Bringing it in I realised it was a species of wrasse (cigar wrasse) that is very common here.

The protagonist of all the day sessions.

I continued catching some more of these albeit in smaller sizes than the first one until something different hit the lure at high speed. It was a tiny spotted snapper and after a couple casts I got another one. Very aggressive!

Small but fast and furious!

This session was followed by a couple more very short ones in daylight and night time. It was becoming apparent that the cigar wrasse would be the dominant daylight species while at night small cardinal fish (Apogon spp) were abundant.

On the first week of my trip I was planning to visit Balicasag Island where the reef is very close to the shore and its considered a hot spot for snorkeling due to the variety of fish there. Therefore I was planning to do some serious fishing there and took it easy the first few days.
When the day came I was filled with anticipation and excitement! We went on the boat and the plan was that I would fish a few good spots before going on the main island for the day. On reaching the first mark and admiring the clear water and corral strewn reef on the bottom, I begun assembling the rod and in a most unlucky moment disaster struck! The first two sections of my little rod went down a whole on the deck of the boat and into the sea!
I was left speechless and looked like a kid that someone stole my ice cream...! I was even more frustrated when I went snorkeling on the island and saw the multitude of fish swimming a few meters from the beach...
After this mishap I didn't even want to think about fishing! I tried with the heavier gear but to no avail.. After some days though I got an eureka moment! I managed to fit the tip of my Shimano beastmaster to the bottom section of the Spinmatic thus combining the best of the two companies!
Joking aside, the rod  proved adequate and I was back on the fish.

Custom rod lol!

I had a session in Alona beach where although packed with tourists, its a very promising mark with plenty of structure and seaweed. Also there are lots of baitfish around and in retrospect I think I should have put some more time there. I caught a nice variety of fish missing some nice garfish though that kept biting through the line. The highlight of the session was a very colourful triggerfish! there was a shoal of them but they are tricky to catch due to their small mouths and feeding style with small bites. Also they destroy softbaits! The best lures seemed to be small paddletails, twintails and tiny crayfish.

Alona beach

The point I fished.

Absolutely stunning!

Seemed to get the bigger ones from the first casts in the area - classic territorial wrasse.

Had to wade and almost got my smartphone wet!

 What I found very effective apart from the carolina rig was using small tubes with jigheads after I added some liquid attractant in the cavity. If the bites were short, a small hook added on the main one proved successful in catching the finicky fish.

Needs more testing..

..but very effective.

Another good area was the main bridge that connected Panglao with Tagbilaran city, mostly at night.
I fished around the bridge at high tide and when I managed to get past the cardinal fish hordes I got a small grouper (lapu lapu). Tiny padletails, slims and power isome on #8-#10 hooks were very successful.

The bridge

A cracking species!

Devouring and endless!

A welcome but rare surprise.

Paradise..

Need to check it out some other time...

I have to admit that I really wanted to do some more fishing but unfortunately luck wasn't with me.. I hope I can get another opportunity to fish these tropical waters, this time with proper equipment and doubled up! What really amazed me was the willingness of these fish to take a lure and also the much better fighting abilities than our similar fish.. For example the cigar wrasse is similarly built to our Mediterranean rainbow wrasse but it fights so much harder!
It was obvious that the heavy gear was not needed as unfortunately larger fish are not abundant but for the UL/LRF aficionado, Philippines is a very good place to bring a rod.
What I didn't have the chance to explore was the freshwater potential, as Bohol has quite a few rivers, but the access is usually difficult and my accommodation was far from these areas..
I really had a wonderful time there and managed to get a good break from the horrible weather here, moreover I recharged my batteries and I'm now ready to move up in Scotland for the summer season to work (and fish of course!).
By the way, I was feeling restless after the long trip yesterday and paid a visit to the canal with the following results..

A really good way to relax before going to sleep! Will be getting stuck with a few more of these soon.

Thanks for reading and tight lines!


Gear used.

Rod: Daiwa spinmatic 6', 4pc, 1-4lbs later custom made to Shimano Spinmatic!
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro1000
Mainline: Sunline Siglon Fluorocarbon, 4lbs
Rig: carolina and jighead
lure: Tiny craws good for bigger wrasse, tubes, paddlle/straight tail very effective.