Looking back---the Fishpond

The palisda-an (fishpond)

The picture below shows a small body of water trapped in a low lying area instead of a”palisda-an”.

the palisda-an before the upgrade

When I was a young boy, my grandfather used to hold their annual family get together every 'Sabado Gloria' (Saturday after Good Friday) here at the property and the main event is the catching the contents of this palisda-an. It certainly does not look like this back then. It is way much larger, well stocked and well maintained. Back then they don’t drain the water in the pond. The water level is low enough to drive all the fish into a corner and trap them using a “tarik” (a portable fence-like contraption made of tall and thin round strips of bamboo weaved together). The most exciting part is watching the guys scoop the jumping “dalags”, “paltats’, ar-aros’, “guramis”, “cap-pys” and “lagdaws” (freshwater fishes, crab and shrimp). Yes those were the days.

I wanted the palisda-an close to the abong so I could throw my fishing pole from the balcon. The palisda-an will be enlarged to 20ft x 60ft, the riprap materials will use large stone and the design will be free-form style meaning no corners and no straight lines.

The slide show below shows the palisdaan construction phases. Click on the picture to start the slideshow.