Fishing the Phillipines??

[OffTheHookB&T]

I have a friend getting ready to move to the Phillipines and he asked for some help getting set up for some trolling. He was thinking 5 lures, and 10 rigs for using local baits. The question I have is, has anyone here fished there and what are the local baits? Do they live bait or troll dead fish?? Just want to give a good starter kit, so any suggestions would be much aprreciated!

[Andaman Andy]

Chuck,

Unfortunately most of the philippines has been wiped clean.
Reefs dynamited etc. think there are some places left with sails not sure where, philippines is quite a big area.
If it was me i would definitely have some Rapalas CD14 Red/White, Small 5 - 6 inch jet heads, small Chuggers and start looking down the local fish market for Ballyhoo.

[Patudo]

Where is your buddy going to be living/fishing? It's a big country... the second largest archipelago in the world after Indonesia and just like Indonesia many reef areas have suffered from poisoning and dynamite but others can have really good fishing. Suitable vessels and sport fishing expertise are lacking but you need only look at the charts to see what sort of potential could be there.

Having fished in nearby countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand) I would take the following

- Small octopus skirts or feather jigs for catching bait tunas (skipjack, small yellowfin, kawa kawa, frigate mackerel etc) for dead and live bait and strips

- Durable swimming plugs which are particularly effective inshore and near reef and also very good for wahoo, tuna etc. The rapala is popular but I'm liking the Halco laser pro which is much more durable, less easily knocked out of whack etc. Also had good luck with the Mirrorlure 113 MR, Rebel jawbreaker etc.

- Some small (6-8inch) jets and resin head skirted lures

- Coils of mono leader 100-130 lb, 200-250 lb. 49 strand cable 500 lb (skirted lure rigs). Aluminium and copper crimps and hand crimper to match. Single strand wire for the plugs and bait rigs. Bait hooks from size 7/0 for bally and strips to 10/0 for small live skipjack.

Local baits seem to be scad (galunggong) and small tunas (tulingan) which are probably better live than dead baits. Skipjack and the other bait tunas make good strip baits. Ballyhoo may be available.

Regards

P