Pantabangan Dam is too far away, but you can mostly catch bass in the Philippines with Daiwa Double Clutch lures, Bomber Crankbait Lures, or soft plastic worms. When it comes to soft plastics, I use Zoom and rig it either using the drop shot rig or Carolina rig. Both works.
Anyway, if you want to go Largemouth Bass fishing, I would suggest going to Cavinti, Laguna. This is mostly my advice because Pantabangan Lake is too far away from the Metro. Plus, Cavinti has TWO lakes adjacent to each other that have been stocked with LMB as well (Caliraya and Lumot Lake). Pantabangan, Caliraya, and Lumot lakes are the only lakes with LMB that I know of. If you would go to Cavinti, you really can't fish much onshore, but you can rent boats for 1000-1500 pesos for the whole day. The locals are very kind.
Another helpful piece of information is that if you would consider going to either Lumot or Caliraya, I strongly recommend you to be equipped with rain gear. They are lakes situated on the top of a mountain, so light sprinkles and rain come plenty. That isn't entirely a bad thing though, because this results in rainbows almost every 30-45 minutes if you're into that.
Tight lines, and stay safe.
PS: Pantabangan (or Nueva Ecija in general) is known for having lots of Philippine Cobra, while Cavinti hosts a population of both Southern Philippine Pit Vipers as well as King Cobras so exercise caution if you ever decide to just wing it and go into the woods to journey alone.
