April 17th & 18th, 2009
Article written by: Robert Doyle
May 9th, 2009
The Sport Fishing Club of Cebu (SFCOC) held it's first tournament in Lagundi, Oslob, Cebu this April 17th, 2009. Cebu Sport Fishing representatives were participating in the tournament to help promote this wonderful "best kept secret" of Southern Cebu.
Oslob is approximately 3-hours drive (two hours if I'm driving) from the center of Cebu City. Oslob is a sleepy fishing village situated close to the Southern tip of the island of Cebu, not far from Santander and only 30-minute boat ride away from the beautiful Sumilon Island. The fishing grounds are not far from the main fishing lodge as you can practically drop lines only a 100-meters away from shore.
Night before the tournament with the
gang.
The waters of Oslob are pristine and clear. Deep blue with visibility down to 25-meters. On those days the waters are glassed over, you can just hang over the side of your boat and stare at all the wonderful coral fish parading around their habitat. The area is abundant with large schools of bait fish and at times you may see the awesome swarms of those little bite size morsels that predator fish love. It's an amazing sight when you see those large schools come in, the schools of fish can be as large as 1 hectare and you see all the barracuda having a field day jumping and snapping at them. It's exciting to see this kind of activity as the ocean "boils" with activity and looks similar to a bubbling cauldron.
The fishing tournament is the Sport Fishing Club of Cebu's first publicized function for the year and a half it has been in existence. Most contestants were club members, although the event was also a open to the public. As there were also a few folks participating from Canada, Europe and the United States. The SFCOC has an eclectic bunch of individuals that make up a great start to Cebu's need for a real organized sport angling organization. I've been associating with the group now for half a year and as with any sport fishing club are laid back, friendly and shows the typical concern for practical fishing methods. Over-all they're a bunch of great guys to hang out with.
Entrance to Esta's Fishing Lodge
Everyone arrived in Oslob the day before the tournament and immediately started preparing their gear for the next days activities. The event had two categories for winning; 1. The individual with the largest fish.; 2. The individual with the most caught. The method of fishing was open to both drop line and trolling with a few of the participants strategizing for both types during the contest.
Sunrise from Gordon's Boat
The event was being held in Lagundi, Oslob and Esta's Fishing Lodge was kind enough to allow the club to hold it's event at their facilities. Esta's is a great place for the intermediate to avid sports angler to stay because Esta's is familiar with our needs and have a great staff that coordinate with the local boatmen to ensure a trouble free visit. When I say they are familiar with a sports anglers needs, I mean they really are. They offer a early morning wake up service and will have your breakfast prepared at 3AM for you to dine-in or if you choose, packaged up for your trip on the boat. While you munch down on your vitamins and minerals, your boatman will grab all of your fishing equipment and begin loading it into your boat. The staff at the fishing lodge are friendly and helpful and are even available to shoot up to the local fishing market in Carcar to secure live bait should you require it.
The day of the event started with the sign in at 5AM. Everyone congregated in front of the Monet's house (the club president) for a quick run-down on the safety requirements and to log-in for the departure. The clubs sole Canadian club member, as usual is the first one to depart, with me following only a minute behind. (It was just a couple weeks earlier that both Gordon and I had visited Oslob to do a trial run. That's what we called it, in actuality we were bored and felt like a good drive. At that time Gordon was the lucky one as he pulled in three good size Giant Trevally, and a barracuda, along with an accidental hook up on a Whale Shark.) So this time, my boatman and I were close on his tail as I was hoping some of his beginners luck would rub off on us. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized Gordon had devised a game plan of going deep for Marlin in the area between Cebu and Bohol. Once I noticed his boat head far out towards the distance, I directed my boatman to Sumilon Island, a tourist destination for diving.
Gordon's catch the week before
the tournament
The sunrise came about around 5:30 AM and I was just beginning to make out the silhouette of the island in the distance. We had begun trolling right from the get-go and I was just able to see some of the other contestants barreling fast for the island. Sumilon Island is a popular point for the local fisherman and the sports anglers as the water is deep, clear, and the channel between the island and Cebu attract many predator fish to the area. This region of Cebu is well known for it's large LapuLapu (Grouper), GT (Giant Trevally), Whale Sharks, Lager Head turtles, Wahoo (Spanish Mackerel), Tuna (small sized) and the occasional shark. I also learned later on that the local fisher folk were bringing in some fairly large sized Squid measuring about 4-8 inches in diameter with a length in the range of a couple feet to a meter.
Want to see more pictures from the tournament? CLICK HERE
As soon as my boatman and I arrived at Sumilon we began circling it. Only 30 minutes of making the first trip around the island I had seen my buddy Roel passing in the opposite direction. Roel had a big smile from ear-to-ear that could be seen 100-yards away. I automatically knew that he had a strike on his voyage out here. As soon as we got into shouting distance from one another, he held his hands up in the air to give me the international sport anglers sign language of how big a fish he caught. He was able to land a fairly large sized Wahoo (also known as Tanigue to the locals).
Some of the participants
Later in the day reports of large grouper were coming in along with some other smaller coral fish. I struck out for the contest, so I'll blame that on Gordon for not sharing any of his beginners luck with me. Or, I can just blame it on equipment failure. ;)
Anyways, everyone had a lot of fun and a big congratulations has to go out to SFCOC for putting on a great event! There were some good fish caught, most were eaten and it was great to sit back and relax with the gang and eat all the delicious food of Esta's Fishing Lodge.
So when are you guys having the next one?
Category 2 - Winning catch
The Winners of the Tournament
Roel Sarmiento
Category 1 - Largest Fish
6.1kg Wahoo
Jan Berends
Category 2 - Most caught for the day
1 Barracuda, 2 Grouper and one bait fish
John with a little fish