Next Trip

We took Bluesky down to Pilar towards the end of February,fished for a few days & then I had to return to Cebu. My next trip is planned for this coming Monday, 8th & we’ll be fishing till Friday. I have a couple of friends coming in on the following weekend & then we’ll be heading down again for another session.Until the weather settles down a little the tactic is trolling rigged Flying fish or Rapalas,Yo-Zuris, etc for Sailfish, Dorado, Dogtooth, Mackerel. We did hear of a small Marlin caught by the local fishermen a couple of weeks ago so I’ll probably take a couple of 50lb stand up outfits (Duels on Melton rods) for use on the Smitty belts we have & run some bigger baits for a few hours to see if anything happens!

Big Move

The big news is, of course, the big move.

I came to the Philippines about 9 years ago with the aim of setting up a Sportfishing charter business. The result was Blue Sky – operating for the past 6 years from Cebu City. Good years they were, too, as Cebu is definitely a good place to hang one’s hat. But – big but – I came here to fish, and the truth is that the waters around Cebu are not as productive as they once were, between the local fishermen and commercial operators stocks have become depleted and results are iffy at best. More and more often of late I have found myself dissuading potential customers when I felt the timing was less than promising. Also happening more frequently in the past couple of years were my trips to Siargao to go after the big boys – marlin, swordfish and others – found in the Pacific. The idea for a fishing camp on Siargao Island took hold and I decided to move to the town of Pilar because of its deep water & ready-made infrastructure; it is also the home of Siargao fishing legend, Junior Gonzales & his wife Jean, who run a fishing lodge on the river estuary.