Fishing in cuba?

[tek_121]

I'm heading south to go fishing in jardines de la reina, and I cannot find something. I was wondering if we can fish the flats with a normal fishing rods? I'm not a fly fishing guy, and all the site that talk about cuba fishing talk about fly fishing or deep sea fishing!!! I'm a bass angler kindda guy, is there package that I can buy directly in jardines de la reina???

Thanks in advance for youre help, fellow anglers...

:confused:

[kkostek]

I have been to Cuba twice in the last two years. Once to Gaurdalavaca near Holguin and last Nov to Cayo Largo. The flats fishing is fantastic in Cayo Largo, not so great in Holguin. I did get some massive strikes in Narnjo Bay after convincing a local to row me out into the mangroves for two hours. Mainly from large barracuda and some other giant that I could not identify. Landed one huge barracuda and a few mangrove snapper which my guide insisted on taking home.

I have heard good things on the area you are going to. Apparently there are bonefish and some tarpon in the area and just inland there is some good bass fishing with the chance at a big one.

If you took a med weight spinning outfit with 8lb test and a few dozen leadhead jigs with various colours in both plastic and deerhair, you would should do well with the bones. I caught all of mine in Cayo Largo on a purple leadhead with chartruese and white deerhair adn got spooled by some beast, either a massive bone or a big permit. Best time is an hour before to an hour after high tide and if you can time that in the early morning or evening, even better!

If you would like to read my report on Cayo Largo fishing and find more cuba fishing tips on your area, go to www.cubamania.com and look for the fishing section. My report is titled "Cayo Largo Report"
Unfortunately the site is down at the moment and has been for a couple of weeks.

I'm off to St Martin next week and have found there are some good tarpon to be caught in the lagoons that not many people fish for. I'll write my report and post it here on my return.

Good luck.
Hey, I just found my report complete with pictures in my drafts folder. If you want, reply with your e-mail address and I'll send it over.
Cheers
Keith

[kkostek]

Hey Tekk, I posted the Cayo Largo report here in case it helps anyone else.
Long but hopefully informative. !


Just back from Cayo Largo after a great week Nov 18-25-04

My wife and I were blown away by the stunning beaches, wild natural environment and I loved the fishing!

We stayed at Sol Cayo Largo in a sea view room, second floor (worth every extra penny) and the hotel was great. All except the food! Not good but the lobster (extra) was fantastic.

Having travelled with my 6 month old son and my wife, I managed to sneak off for only a few very early hours each day and twice for a two afternoon sessions. After exhaustive web searching, I only managed to come up with two reports that gave me some starting points, both of which produced fish. (thanks guys!)

I’ve never flats fished like this before for bones, permit etc. I’m a bass/musky fisherman and having lived in South Africa for 15 years before recently returning to Toronto, I’ve done a lot of deep water tuna fishing off Cape Point and fished for Tiger Fish in Zambia. One trip to Mozambique was the closest as we trolled most of the time but also cast poppers along the shore for king and queen fish, which is the closest I’ve come to this sort of fishing. Well man I’m hooked now! This beats the pants off fishing for bass. I guess that’s why Henry Weischuck (sp?) decided to go south and start the TV show “Fishing the Flats”….

The first day I went to visit the Casa Batida fishing club at the marina. The guide, and the two italian fisherman (both had three spinning rods each and no fly rods) told me I could come back tomorrow to book a day trip (having been previously told by e-mail that I had to book a full week) at a rate of $400 usd/day. If I had a partner to share the boat I may have gone a half day but that is almost what we paid for the whole week trip including flights so I said “forget it” and set about on a fishin’ mission!

For tackle I took an 8/9 weight fly rod and a proto-type 2:1 retreive ratio, multiplier fly reel designed by a friend in Zimbabwe. (Look for Abel fly reels to release their version using his tech this year! ) an asortment of flies for bones and permit. A med weight 7ft spinning rod with Shimano bass reel with 200 yards of 8lb test and assortment of jig heads for power grubs and unfortunatley not enough deer hair jigs (more on that later) and also a heavy salt water spin outfit for chucking big plugs for barracuda and hopefully tarpon.

Based on one of the reports I read, I set out for “The Pig Flats”. When you fly into the island you will see that the north side of the island is one enormous flat that stretches for literally hundreds of kms. The south side where the hotels are is mainly beach with coral reefs and deeper drop offs. You can access the pig flats by taking some form of transport back towards the airport and town. Just about 1-2 kms before the run way you will see what looks (and sounds) like a generator facilty on the right side. Take the road beside this and staying to your left, you will go through the gates into the pig farm. If you see a worker, ask permission to access the flats and they should allow you with no problem. Straight ahead of you is the most stunning flat stretching left, right and straight out to see as far as you can see.



) The pig farm is rather noisy and smelly, I headed dead left along the shore line, around a crop of rocks (seen here)
and began scanning around looking for bones. I blind casted the spinning outfit with a leadhead deer hair jig, (green white) and on third cast hooked a nice barracuda that promptly broke me off. While wading along towards the left and some interesting mangrove shoreline and still scanning the shallows, I looked down about four feet from my feet to see a school of big bone fish cruising by! They were in about 2 ft of water and by the time I got my cast off, they were gone! About a half hour later hooked and landed a small bone of about 2 pounds on a long cast but did not see any other. Then just before I was about to leave, I fired off a cast to a clump of turtle grass and as it landed something big picked it up and ran like hell! I didn’t even have a chance. With the rod bent double, the drag set right, whatever it was stripped me of all 200 yards of my line and was gone! Man I would have like to have at least seen it. Big bone, permit, barrcuda that got foul hooked? Who knows….
My second trip was that afternoon to Playa Sirena with my wife and son. Of course I took along a rod and snuck away for an hour to explore the bay on the opposite side of the boat docks where the catamarans come in to dock for lunch. The docks sit on a small bay directly opposite Sirena Beach. If you walk around the bay and then keep going through the bush away from the dock you will come upon another larger bay.

As I arrived here I saw a cruising bone fish of about 6 lbs. fired a cast but no take. Caught a barracuda here and lost another one. If you head right along this shore you get to mangroves and weeds, if you head left you get to this spot;

I saw some bones crusing aways out but no takers. Looked good for the right tide though. Never had a chance to get back there.
If you head towards the airport, carry on past it toward the town you will see a bus stop on your left and a road to the right. You will see the cuban style murals on a wall at the end of this road. Turn there and follow the road around the left and to the end past the fuel tanks. Stay left and you will come upon an old leisure area with a bar and submerged palapas and a beat up old docks.

You can walk out to the end of these (be careful) and fish into the deeper channels as the locals do each day. It looked good and I threw mostly large plugs in the hope of something big but no takers. I think live bait or jigs would produce snapper as that is what the local were catching on cut bait.
The second last morning I tried a spot I had passed by a few times directly across from the airport entrance. You’ll see a small road with lights along the sides and a small hut right as you get to where the buses park at the airport. You can drive right down to a parking lot right at the sea side of a great flat (extension of the pig flats) I got there at the perfect time. High tide, just before the sun came up over the mangroves. I thought I was dreaming or my eyes were possibly fuzzy from a rum induced hang over when I saw about 20 tails sticking out of the water a mere 20 feet from the shoreline! I got so excited I almost screwed it up trying to decide; fly or spin, fly or spin? Not being a great fly fisher with no salt water experience I opted for the spinning rod with the same hair jig. Thankfully as I was in for a great ride! I cast about ten feet to the left of the tails and as it plopped into the water, the tails disappeared. I thought I spooked them when Wham! A nice bone picked it up and ran like hell! My small reel almost didn’t handle. As he took off the school scattered with a mighty splash as they zigged and zagged out of the shallows. What a sight as the sun came over the mangroves and lit up the dead flat sea completely gold! After a hell of a fight, close only to Tiger Fish I’ve caught on the Zambezi river, I landed about a 5.5 lb bone, my first decent flats fish ever!

I carried on at that spot for awhile and luckily landed a nice barracuda on the same jig with no leader! Lucky day I guess!
Our last day, with the plane leaving at 12pm, I snuck out at 6am and got to the same spot. The tide was too low but as I got out a bit I spotted a large school of bones tailing. They seem to be there in early morning no matter what the tide is. I think the low light it key in this area. I tried out my fly rod and managed a nice bone of about 2.5lbs, my first ever sea fish on fly. Great fun and a real tug even from the smaller fish. Larger fish were mixed in but the water was so shallow they spooked easily.
Now I can’t absolutley confirm this but I’d swear that over to the far right (facing out to sea) I spotted about a 40lb tarpon rolling right next to the mangroves. I ran back to the car and got my heavy outfit and started wading towards it. I had seen the silver slab rolling gently and cruising very slowly along the shore. By the time I made it over there all I saw was some distrubed bottom. I also did see TONS of smaller bones crusing along the mangrove shore so this would be a great place to go with a fly rod at the right time.
Sadly we had to pack up and head back to the -2c weather of Toronto. It was almost like a dream when I climed into bed that night and thought, ‘was I really fishing the flats for bones just this morning?” Weird!
We’ll be going back asap. Likely around march and now I know where to start and what to avoid. I think I’ll spring for one day out on the boat next time to really get the full experience.
I was really frustrated not able to get much info on fishing Cayo Largo, so I hope this lengthly account helps any of you who plan to head there. Make sure you bring your rods, extra line, steel leaders and lots and lots of green and white deer hair leadhead jigs! The barracuda love them as much as the bones (and whatever the hell that was that spooled me!)
Good luck and tight lines.

[scuro]

Thanks for taking the time to post your report. It was exactly what I was looking for. I am going to Cuba in March to the same resort. I would love to chat with you before I go, sent you an IM recently.

Chris in Canada

[PanamaJack]

Several of our members have fished the well-run Italian operation out on Jardines de la Reina. The bulk of anglers out there do use fly gear to target the Bonefish, Tarpon (30 to 80 pounders) and occasional Permit. But there's absolutely no reason why you couldn't also target them on spin gear.

Whilst 'surfing' I recently came across a site that offers opportunities to fish for what are reputedly 20lb plus Largemouth Bass. That might similarly be of interest. The web site's http://www.cubatravelusa.com/ - but just to stress I've no experience whatsoever of this operation.
Kindest regards
Dave West
Chairman - Sportfishing Club of the British Isles
www.scbi.org.uk