Blue Sky Sportfishing

Fishing report for March-June 2011

Steve — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:27:11 +0000

Due to other commitments & bad weather we didn’t start fishing until late March. The weather was still unsettled but the fishing wasn’t too bad, lots of Barracuda, a few Spanish Mackerel, Sailfish, Wahoo & Dogtooth Tuna. No Dorado! It’s now July & we haven’t hooked one this year. There are a few around but they’re relatively scarce & some are very small, 1kg or so; the picture in the market in Surigao City, a good source of info of what’s being caught, is pretty much the same. Possible explanations are the weather, which has been unseasonably wet, depletion of their food supply or heavy fishing & on-board processing at sea. Whatever it is, it’s a great shame because they are, in my opinion, one of the best eating fish in the sea; let’s hope they make a come back next year. Incidentally, the prize for the best Dorado in this year’s competition at the end of April went unclaimed!

Recent catches include Sailfish to 31kg, Wahoo to 12kg, Spanish Macks to 10kg, Barracuda to c.12kg. Recent losses include numerous Sailfish, a c.100kg Blue Marlin & a wild fish which I suspect was a Dogtooth of around 20kgs. Tackle failure, accounted for only one, the Marlin, where the 50lb leader broke just above the swivel after an hour; the others just spat the hook after 15-20 minutes.

Move to General Luna

Steve — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:52:33 +0000

First, apologies to all who have bothered to look for news here. The unfortunate passing of my friend & webman last year left me unable to update the website.

Brief summary of what’s new.

During the middle of last year we moved along the coast from Pilar to General Luna which has a better range of accommodation & other amenities for our guests.

At about the same time I brought a 23ft centre consol down from Cebu which was working well until October when the motor died. Earlier this year I took another 23ft centre consol to General Luna & this, again has been catching a few fish & running trips to the local islands. Next week I’m planning to repower the other 23ft with a Yamaha 60hp. We are also introducing an outboard motor powered local banca for the solo angler.

With gas costing P70/litre & Bluesky burning 70-80litres /hour at cruise we’ve decided to return this boat to Cebu.

3rd Siargao Fishing Competition April 2010

Steve — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:57:39 +0000

26kg Sailfish

We’re just back from Siargao after the Fishing competition. 41 anglers from 11 countries competed in this years tournament despite the unseasonlly unpleasant weather. The last day was virtually a wash-out & the days fishing was abandoned at midday; despite the weather several boats managed to get out for a few hours in the morning & add a few fish to their bag. During the first two days fishing was fairly consistent with several double & triple hook-ups on Sailfish & additional catches of Dorado, Mackerel, Barracuda & a nice Trevaly to make up the bags. Most people seemed fairly happy with the day although there were stories,some absolutely hilarious, of tackle failures, boatmen errors & boat defects. The unsinkable banca which didn’t sink but filled with water, the triple strike where the bancero circled back on & ran over the lines without ever slowing down,a certain local make of swivel which kept breaking, losing the angler several fish on the first day until he managed to beg some others from another angler. I lost count of the fish caught & even the number finally weighed in but would guess at about 40 Sailfish,20 Dorado,15 Mackerel/Wahoo, 1 trevaly & several other fish, total around 100 fish for the 2 1/2 days fishing.Weights were generally down on previous years with the top Sailfish coming in at 27kg (I think last years Sail was 52kg; there was also a Marlin at 58kg). This year 3 or 4 anglers lost what they believed to be Marlin. Overall a good show & lots of fun; one for next years diary.

Mid March

Steve — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:56:39 +0000

Well the weather’s been pretty unseasonable at the moment ( something to do with El Nino), with strong breeze out of NE which makes the fishing uncomfortable & so not too much to report. Mid March we had a few fish but Dave who dropped in for the weekend had a bumper couple of days with Sailfish, Wahoo, Dogtooth, lots of Skipjack, Trevally, Barracuda & Dorado. We’ve been back in Cebu for over a week now but plan to head down there again on Monday 5th April for the big 3 day competition which starts on 14th; there’s no category for Sportfishers so we’ll be spectating & doing a bit of fishing. Fishing has tailed off a bit this week (full moon) but had been starting to pick up, with Sails, Dorado & big Yellowfin common in the market.

Next Trip

Steve — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:36:05 +0000

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!

Check out /www.siargaofishing.com

Steve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:45:42 +0000

This is our sister site & covers a broader range of topics than Bluesky

February Trip

Steve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:24:34 +0000

Mid Feb & my two daughters joined us from the UK to take Bluesky down to Pilar; a friend, Tony Norman, who runs a Bertram out of La Gomera in the Canary Islands joined us as well. We stopped off at Leyte for the night & the carried on to Surigao to pick up more gas, ice, etc before heading to Siargao; other than some bad fuel & several stops to clear the Racors it was a pleasant run. We stayed at Bong’s place in Pilar & ate at Jun’s which is a great combo. Fishing was disappointing, boating the Barracuda & losing the several Dorado, one at the gaff! A couple of Dogtooth strikes didn’t produce either.

January trip

Steve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:14:50 +0000

We flew down in early January for another looksee & a couple of days fishing. Stephen Lanigan O’Keeffe had a nice Sailfish, approx 60lbs, & Jeff had an 8kg Yellowfin; the Sail was the first of the year. The rest of us caught some Barracuda, a couple of Dogtooth, a small Mackerel & a Dorado.We fished on Junior’s & Glen’s boats which are great value for a days fishing.

Recent Catches

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:22:11 +0000

This will be our spot for reporting from time to time on the noteworthy ones we and our guests landed – and the ones we should have landed but didn’t. Let’s be honest; sometimes the ones that get away are the ones that give us the most fun and bang for our buck. It’s just unfortunate that nobody has yet invented a camera that will take pictures of fish we didn’t catch. But who knows; in this wonderful digital age maybe Steve Jobs is working on it. If you get word of the iCam being in the works, lets us know.

Links

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:20:55 +0000

Below are links to sites that might be of use or interest to those considering joining us and anyone with an interest in the area. We’ll update this from time to time to keep it current and when interesting sites come to our attention. We’d appreciate it if you’d contact us if you come across a dead link or if you find something you think would fit here well.

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