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CHAPTER III

Fishing Gear Used in Fish Capture

As an economic commodity fishes normally captured from populations

living in wild state and restrained and replaced under man’s complete control
by various means. In doing this, man uses a tremendous amount of gear and
equipment.

The Filipinos as fisherman have fashioned different fishing devices and

employed various methods to take fish and other aquatic products. Our
forefathers caught their fishes by dividing using their bare hands and by
utilizing simple manual gear like spears, arrows, gaffs and snares. They also
built artificial fish shelters to attack fishes when captured after being trapped.
Our Malayan ancestors brought fish corrals and fish pots to our shores.

The Chinese introduced the fishing nets like the gill nets, lever nets and
push nets.

European gear for catching fishes like the beach seine ad round haul
seine was introduced during the Spanish regime and was later improved during
the American occupation. Japanese fishing gear was also introduced here
during the early 1900. These included the beam trawl, tuna long line, tuna pole
and line, ring net and stop seine. The fish otter trawl was operated in Manila
by an Englishman in 1909.

Basic Classification of Philippine Methods and Gear

I. Fishing without gear

- the simplest forms of gathering aquatic resources man used his bare
hands to gather everything useful to his needs along the shores of lakes,
rivers and seas or what was left behind in shallow waters or flooded
areas now drying up.
A. Hand picking
B. Diving

II. Stupefying Methods

- dependent upon the physiological reaction of fish to certain physical or

chemical properties.

A. Mechanical Stupefying
1. Hitting the fish directly with any object like stone, clubs,
hammers, etc.
2. Hitting a submerged stoned with another where the fish is hiding.
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3. Dynamite detonated by a blasting cap with a short fuse.

B. Fish poisoning using suitable poisons made from local plants and
chemicals to cause fish paralysis.
1. Toxic plants like Derris or “Lagtang”.
2. Chemicals like Rotenon, Endrin, Cyanide, Burnt lime, Copper
Vitriol, etc.
3. Deoxygenation of the water by stirring up the mud in shallow
regions.

C. Electrical Fishing – fishes are sensitive to electrical currents and head

always toward the positive pole.

III. Fishing Using Miscellaneous Hand and Grappling Instruments

- generally used for gathering sessile or trapped animals (panikwat)

English Term Local Term

Shovels Pala
Tong Sipit
Gaffs Gantso
Hoes Panghukay
Pick Patik, Piko
Scrapers Pangayod
Spade Pangdukal
Grabs Pandakut
Rakes Kalaykay
Tweezers Pambunot
Dredges Pangahig
Scoops Pandakot, Bitha
Pokers Pangsundot
Clamps Pangipit
Snares Panilo

IV. Wounding Gears

- those used by man who throw some pointed objects by hand or by

special equipment.

A. Spears, lances and arrows – instruments are provided with pointed,

barbed or barb less blades at the right straight tip which are not
removable from the handle and are generally thrown by hand or
sometimes from a gun or bow-like device.
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B. Harpoons – pointed instruments with barbed blades detachable from

the handle and either thrown by hand and discharged from a gun.
C. Rifles – “Baril”

V. Fishing Using Barriers and Traps

- and other than those made of textile, barricade principles leading the
fish into a situation or in closure from which it cannot escape or from
the which the way of escape is not easily located.

A. Barricades – are complete barriers of wooden trunks, debris, mud, weeds,

banana stalk, rocks or bamboo webbings built across the natural migration
path of fish.
B. Fish shelters – are made of anchored bunches of twigs and bushes, piles of
rocks or poles which becomes the hiding place for fishes and from where
fishes are captured by different devices operated in different ways.
C. Fish Corral – a guiding barrier constructed of bamboo, brush or chicken wire,
which is in tidal, waters or along natural ways of fishes which s of such shape
as to lead the fish into desired collecting area.
D. Fish Pots – basket-like enticing devices usually baited and made of bamboo,
chicken wire, rattan and other suitable materials in the form of either
cylindrical or rectangular receptacle with a non-return valve providing an easy
entrance but different exit.

VI. Fishing with Lines

- line fishing with hooks, follows the principles of offering the fish real or
artificial bait, which it tries to catch. Lines can have left anchored, left drifting or
set in a fixed position from the surface to the bottom.
A. Hand lines

1. Simple hand line or drop line – single vertical line carrying one or two
barbed hooks and worked simply by dropping it into the water and waiting
for fish to bite.
2. Multiple hand line – single vertical line with a small series of barbed
hooks attached to it by spreaders at regular intervals.
3. Jigger – line bearing multiple barb less hooked devices which is worked
by jerking up and down in order to catch squids, octopus and other fishes
attracted to it.
4. Pole and line gear – consist of a hand line attached to a pole used with
baits of many kinds.
5. Troll lines – are hand lines with a hook or hooks at the end with natural or
artificial bait that are drawn or towed by a fast moving banca or boat.
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B. Long lines – extremely long lines with large series of baited hooks either set
or drifting and requiring only periodical attention at more or less fixed time
interval.

1. Set long lines – anchored or in some way fixed so that they are not free to
move with the current.
2. Drift long lines – those without fixed attachment to the bottom and are
free, therefore, to drift with the tides or currents.

VII.Falling Gear

- work on the principle of covering the fish with a gear, which can be a cover pot
or cone-shaped network with a stiff opening.

1. Cover pots – entrapping devices with the opening at the lower most to
cover the fish.
2. Cover net – somewhat conical net fitted with circular rigidly framed
mouth which opening is being used to cover the fish previously attracted
into another contraption.
3. Cast net – a conical net, which forms a circle covering the fish when
thrown. It is heavily weighed at the base with a retrieving line connected
at the apical portion.

VIII. Fixed Impounding Nets

- gear principally made of woven or knitted fibers with meshes o confine the fish.

A. Filter nets – conical bag net without funnel-shaped valves, made of sinamay
cloth or cotton netting fixed in flowing water of filter shrimps, crabs, fishes, etc.
B. Hoop nets – funnel-shape bags nests constructed over circular frames having
non-return valves but no wings and catch fishes in rivers and places with fast
currents by straining the water.
C. Fyke nets – winged conical filter nets with a series of circular hoops leading to a
close sac or trap with a small opening from which exit is difficult.
D. Pound nets – fixed impounding nets supported by either stakes or held in place
and maintained in form by combination of floats or buoys, weights and anchors.
“Otoshi-ami” is a gear of this type, which was introduced in the Philippines by
the Japanese fishermen to catch tuna, bonito, yellow tails and skipjacks.

IX. Scooping Nets

- these gear take fish by submerging a hanging net and swiftly lifting the gear to
capture or enclose the fish that happen to be over it.
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A. Dip net – variously shaped and framed bag net in which capture is affected
usually by a scooping motion. This is operated either by hand or mechanical
power.
B. Crab lift net – small shallow square baited lift net mounted on a tapering
bamboo for caching crabs.
C. Lift nets – generally a square net, which is operated in rivers by four persons
from four bamboo outposts and operated, by merely lifting the net without the
use of pulleys or blocks.
D. Lever nets – semi0mechanized rigidly framed lift nets mounted on a bamboo
raft and operated by a lifting action of the net attached to the end of the lever.
E. Blanket net – a lift net operated with the aid of light or chummed baits, having
the float line either suspended from the outrigger of the boat or to the series of
the whole length bamboo floats while the lines attached to the leaded side of the
boat are used to haul the net from the bottom.
F. Bag net – a cubical net like an inverted mosquito net, hang from under a boat
and lifted as soon as fish have gathered over the net.
G. “New Look” – a lift net like a bag net by the hauling process is accomplished
from a rectangular platform supported by four corner post.
H. Two Boat or Four Boat Lift Net – Lift net in which the corners are lifted from
anchored boats.
I. Push Nets – triangular bag net framed with a collapsible wooden or bamboo
handle.
J. Skimming Nets – lift push nets operated in deeper water from a small banca or
raft, using a skimming motion while drifting in the boat.

X. Drive in Gear

- various of types of net operated with the use of a scare line or other devices to
frighten the fish toward the net and the lifting process of the net affects the
catching of the fish.
A. Drive in nets – triangular form of netting with bamboo frame at all.
B. Muro-ami – used mostly in corral reef fishing were several fishermen equipped
with vertical ropes tied with palm leaves swim toward the set net, scaring the
fish along its way.

XI. Dragged Gear

- this group includes those nets, which are pulled through the water on or near the
bottom or even pelagically for an unlimited time.
A. Dredge – use to collect shellfishes where a farmed netting of wire is dragged
along the seabed and the capture of the fish or shells is affected by the raking or
scratching action.
B. Trawls – nets in a form of a conical bag with the mouth kept open by various
devices and the entire gear is towed behind a moving boat.
1. Bottom trawls
a. Danish trawls b. Irish trawls
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c. Japanese Beam e. Spanish trawls

trawls f. Otter trawls
d. Beam trawls g. V.D trawls
2. Mid-water or Pelagic trawls

XII.Seine Nets

- consisting o a bunt or bag with very long wings or towing warps.

A. Beach seine – operated by dropping one wing, one smooth gradually shelving
coastal area on or near the shore.
B. Lampara, “Sincoro’, or Sahid = has central bag and relatively short wings of
large meshes.
C. Fish corral seine – a rectangular piece of netting with a bunt at the top central
part is dragged within the enclosure of the fish corral to collect the fishes
trapped inside the coral.
D. Reef seine – dragged seines operated on reefs or over rough grounds having the
corking submerged and the lead line continuously freed from snag by divers.

XIII. Surrounding Nets

- fishing devices made of long wall of webbings.

A. Round haul seine – like a big deep net with bunt at the corner.
B. Purse seine – a round haul seine having the bunt at one end; he whole net is
provided with a pursuing device in which a draw line is pulled.
C. Ring net – resembles the “Lampara” in way the two wings are pulled.
D. Half ring net – long rectangular net held vertically in the water by a line of
floats above and a line of lead sinkers below with a bunt at the center.
E. Scoop nets – small purse seine, which is employed as an accessory gear in
hauling the catch direct from the large semi-circular enclosure of deep-water,
fish corral, the later without a collecting pound or crib.

XIV. Gill Nets

- simple walled curtain-like nets set vertically in the water, having meshes that
allow the fish head to pass in trying to swim through but not the body, and catch
the fish in the gills as the fish try to withdraw.
A. Set gill net – anchored on the bottom or may be fixed or attached from an
anchored boat so that the net is not free to move with the current.
B. Drift gill net – gill nets that are set free from the bottom and are free to drift
with the current but usually fixed to the boat or other crafts, which are free to
move with the current and wind.
C. Encircling gill net – gill nets spread out in a circle and gilling process is
hastened by frightening the fish by various devices mostly by noise.
D. Trammel nets – the manner of capture of the entangling net I that the fish
entangles itself in the pockets or spaces created by the nets while the fish is
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trying to escape. This gear consists of two outer walls of netting with bigger
meshes and one central wall smaller meshes.

XV. Traps for jumping or flying fishes

- a habit if in danger, of jumping out of the water, and they may act in the same
manner when meeting obstacles. This behavior has been taken advantaged of in
conjunction with some special fishing methods. Artificial obstacles such as fish
ledges or net wall are built by fishermen to make fish jump. The method of
catching is that the fish, after it jumps, falls back into a horizontal floating or
suspended net or raft trap, or eve in an empty boat or box.