El Puerto Azul

The place never lets me down...almost.
Another trip that started late. Gret's attempts at waking me at 4 a.m. were futile. The past night's labor  (loading the boat,gear and tackle) had put me in a stupor that would not be broken even by the scream of a Penn International's clicker. Finally, at 5 a.m., the smell of coffee inches from my nostrils jump started my neurons.

 I fell off the sofa and crawled my way to the bathroom. The warm water brought all my senses online and a shot of coffee fired up the furnace.

 After a pleasant drive through EDSA ( it was a holiday) and an exhilarating run through CAVITEX ( I was charged as CLASS I with my boat on the roof. HOORAY!)  we arrived at our destination.

 I had no intention of actually using the boat this time but a group of Caviteno anglers had beat us to my favorite spot so down went the boat.

After a hectic 15 minutes of setting up, we finally pushed off, motored to a spot near the cliff north of the pier and started casting. Gretchen got first strike on her popper and I hooked up on my spoon. The fish made several commendable runs and two jumps before succumbing.

Gretchen took my baitcaster and started working the spoon as I bled the fish. A few casts later, she hooked up to her own threadie.

I switched to my Swinghead Jig with a Bass Assassin tail and landed fish number three.

By this time, the wind had picked up and was overwhelming our homemade anchor. Even with its long rode, we had to re anchor three times ( time to make a decent anchor).  I decided to move to the lee side of the pier where wind was less of a problem. This side of the pier has a lot juvenile lapu lapu.

Gretchen switched to a Berkeley shrimp while I stuck to the Swinghead. A baby lapu lapu inhaled my rig on the first cast...what its intentions were with a meal nearly as big as it was, was beyond me. After an hour of drifting the area and hooking nothing else but bottom, we decided to beach the rig.

 After loading the boat and finishing off a meal I set up my Majorcraft Crostage rod. this was the first time for me to try the new rod even if I've had it for quite some time. Gretchen opted to take a siesta under the mango tree, the green fruits seemed to be of more interest to her than bleaching under the blazing sun.

The Cavitenos were still there with their phalanx of rods bristling the pier. After smiles and introductions, I asked permission to cast from a rock situated between two of their rods. This was slightly uncomfortable for me as decades of lurecasting has taught me that casting lures and worse catching fish in an area were others have baited rods out can lead to misunderstandings but the group was the friendly sort so I took the risk...

 A few casts out and I knew the Shimano Speedmaster reel/ Crostage 7'9" rod were sweethearts from birth and the 22gram jig was their lovechild. The rod launched the jig out with an ICBM's trajectory while the reel would bring it back riding shotgun in a Ferrari.

This was the retrieve the threadies wanted...

Three threadies struck in succession in less than an hour of casting. The Cuda took more coaxing. I had noticed baitfish jumping in a spray pattern rather than in the regular forward fleeing motion. I knew from experience that this was due to predators attacking straight up from below and only cudas do this. They often go airborne in their attacks and come down on their prey.

 I slowed the retrieve but kept it erratic with sweeps and and short pulls of the rod. strike one resulted in foam and a flash of yellow tail. minutes later strike two was a huge splash but a miss just the same. Strike three was spectacular, the cuda switched tactics and took to the air divebombing the hapless jig from above. Hookup! I had misjudged the size of the cuda, hammerhandle turned out to be pick axe handle, good sized!. The fight took time and I eased off the pressure not wanting to bring the toothy critter to the rocks green.

By this time the Cavitenos took cue and one of them had a new unused jig with him. He started casting in the spots I was working and blissfully hooked up to what turned out to be the last fish for the day. It's always nice to see new lure converts and now, I figure, less rods will be porcupining the pier .

Took some video this time. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Haruan-Hunter-Store/464029106950250

Some Tips: There's no need to keep blindcasting an area, fish intelligently and with the tides. Keep your senses aware. When predators are lurking baitfish act differently. Puerto Azul has bites at certain, almost fixed hours (non tide related).