Laiya Batangas: Fishing Dorado with the Balacbacan Fishermen
Friday afternoon I was driving south towards Candelaria Quezon where I was scheduled to stay overnight with the great hands on healer Vander Gaditano. I get messages on my cell phone regarding the tragedy of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant problems of Japan. It’s not stopping me from my drive. Candelaria is far enough from the beach of Laiya, Batangas and besides, the location of Laiya waters is it is shielded by the entire massive Luzon island any tsunami from Japan will never reach this place.
I called my contact Edith and reserved a fishing boat. Cost is 2,000 pesos and 250 pesos per fishing rod, then I had to buy bait worth 350 pesos. Expensive because the squid we got were special sweet squid. Tasted the squid raw and it was sweet. My boatmen / fishermen were 47 year old Dionisio and his 23 year old son Melvin.
The technique in fishing dorado is to use squid or fish as bait. Around 6 inches long each. Then you cast the fishing line and the boat goes around in circles on each marked buoy. We go around several marked buoys and eventually wind up with 5 dorados and 1 batalay fish.
About 1 hour into the boat ride I got sea sick, open blue water just endlessly goes up and down. I had to slump in the boat and wait for more than 30 minutes to regain my sea legs. I did recover and went on to enjoy the morning. We left at 6am and came back 12 noon. Their expectation was after lunch go back in the water. No, half a day is alright with me.
We cooked 2 dorado’s over charcoal. Of course I had mine rare. Totally raw is not recommended with dorado as the flesh sticks real hard on the bones. Just heating it enough makes the flesh fall off the bone.
Video of Dorado Fishing in Laiya Batangas taken last year February 28, 2010
The big one that got away
The last and supposedly 7th fish was the one that bit my fishing line. I first tried reeling it in but found that the reel would not budge. Young Melvin saw my puzzled fishing amateur newbie “I don’t know what to do when this happens” and he immediately took over my rod, oh there was an adjustment switch you flip on the rod. He had a big smile on his face. This was a challenge from the regular 6 fish we already caught. This was a big one. Melvin tired and his father Dionisio took over. He too had a big smile on his face. This fish was going to big. Unlike the other fish that jumped out of the water, this one just stayed sunk. Melvin was steering the boat towards the big 4 kilo dorado and was ready to hook it. Then the fish swam out again suddenly, but this time it got away! The fishing line had snapped. Oh shucks! So close. If we had hauled that big boy in, that would have made my day.
From then on I promised to buy a 4 kilo dorado in the wet market soon just so I can taste what a 4 kilo dorado tastes like. Dorado is good when cooked in soup sinigang style. The skin softens and you can eat it fatty. If you heat it on charcoal, the skin is burned and the fat dissipates.
To fill my ice chest I bought some squid and some other fish and went home Saturday. For you foreigners, I do not practice catch and release fishing. I fish to eat.
The next time I said to Edith and Dionisio, I want to go net fishing with the fishermen. Commission a boat, same time 6am to 12noon but instead of fishing rods, we go net fishing and get several kilos of fish. I will just load up enough fish in my ice chest that fits in my car and they can sell the rest of their fish haul in the market. Initially, Melvin thought I was nuts, who would want to pay to fish with fishermen using nets? I explained that city slickers like me just want to experience what they experience and we will gladly pay for it.