Fishing Cuba... The report.

[Greenheart]

Just got back from a couple of weeks holiday in Cuba & my poor long suffering wife Rita, even allowed me to take some fishing gear along. We stayed at a resort called Guardalavaca (This means guard the cow in Cuban) in Holguin provence. Beautiful palm fringed beaches with warm crystal clear water.

The first thing that I did on arriving at the beach, was to don my snorkeling mask & fins to check out what was living under the water. I discovered that about 400m offshore was an amazing coral reef that was absolutely stuffed with fish of every colour of the rainbow & all shapes & sizes. The next thing I did was to enquire via the pool cocktail bar, if any of the hotel staff had any info on the local fishing. I soon discovered that a couple of the guys who worked there were keen fishermen & we arranged to go out over the reef using one of the hotel pedalos the following day.

The next morning, i had a word with one of the chef's in the hotel kitchen. Borrowed about 5lb of raw fresh king prawns & set of to the beach to meet my new found friends. I took along my Mike Ladle 3 peice spinning rod & a carp reel loaded with 15lb line. They turned up with hand held spools of 80lb line & massive hooks that must have been at least size 8/0
After about 5 minutes paddling in the pedalo, we arrived over the reef & one of my new found friends, borrowed my snorkel & mask, dived over the side & anchored the boat by tying a rope to a peice of coral. He then dived back down & came back up with about a dozen white sea urchins which are extremely common here. These he proceded to smash up & throw over the side as groundbait. This soon had the desired effect & in no time at all, the water below the boat, was a seething mass of fish. I tackled up with a steel trace (All the fish here have teeth) & a size 2 hook baited with prawn & lowered it into the water. This resulted in an almost instant bite & I caught one of these little fellows...

I soon discovered that not only do they have teeth, but razor sharp spines & fins... Ouch
We then spent the next couple of hours catching fish of every type & colour imaginable. Most got thrown back un-photographed as I was'nt prepared to take my camera out on the pedalo. However the guys kept this little assortment for the pot & I photographed them when we got back to shore.

Not sure what they are, but I believe they are local varieties of Snapper, Grouper & Wrasse which gave great sport on my light gear. One three occasions when I was playing a fish, the line went really heavy & then went slack. This was due to Barracuda grabbing the fish & biting them in half...

They definately have sharper teeth than the Pike in my local rivers. I did try live baiting for these with some heavy duty Owner Saltwater treble hooks, but they did'nt want to know.

A couple of days later I talked the missus into letting me go on a deep sea big game fishing charter. Target species Marlin, Dorado, Kingfish & Barracuda.
The boat was a fast fishing boat with outriggers set up for trolling four rods. A high level bridge for fish spotting & an onboard bar...
We headed out into the Gulf Stream trolling 12" dead mullet as bait. I also took along a selection of my larger Rapala Pike plugs that i'd fitted with heavy duty split rings & treble hooks. When the crew saw these, their eyes lit up as good fishing tackle is hard to obtain in Cuba. They selected a 8" red & white Repala Magnum & replaced one of the mullet with it. Rods were 80lb class fitted with large Penn Senator reels & 80lb line. After about 30 minutes of trolling & a few plucks on the bait by smaller fish, one of the reels screamed. It was the one fitted with my lure. There were three of us aboard the boat. Myself & a guy called Tom & his girlfriend. We decided that it should be ladies first, so she sat in the fighting chair & was handed the rod. After about a 10 minute fight, she landed a Barracuda of about 15lb.
Off we went again & about twenty minutes later my lure was hit hard again & the rod bent double. This time it was my turn, so I leapt into the fighting chair, grabbed the rod & after a hard fight lasting about 25 minutes I landed a Kingfish (King Mackerel) weighing 22kgs (About 48lb) Definately bigger than the ones on Chesil beach....

Picture from Wilkpedia

Tom managed one more barracuda of a similar size to the last one & then we headed back to port, trying to drink the bar dry in the process
All in all a great day out. The trip was spoilt for me though by the fact I took loads of photo's, but when I got home & turned on my digital camera, a message came up saying Card not initialized. It appears the card has developed a fault & corruped the files. (Has anyone got any idea how to fix this, or if it's possible to retrieve the pictures?)
Anyhow I had a great time & would reccomend the fishing in Cuba to anyone. Great country & great friendly people.

Oh & I found the perfect fishing mobile for Claudia (Twiddler)...

[Twiddler]

Superb report/pics there Ian......glad you had a great time. Well done on your Kingfish, did it put up a good fight?

Looks a dream of a holiday.......maybe a few hours overtime will pay for a trip there



Love the fishing mobile....hope you brought it back for me

[Wilza]

Hi Greenheart, great report, I hope to be going to cuba for two weeks in March! I hope to get a bit of fishing in while i'm there! can't wait. I really fancy catching a Barracuda or two!

[pingu]

sounds a fantastic trip there ian
wouldnt suggest usual feathers for those makkie then


dave

[Norfolkboy]

Great report Ian, shame your pictures didn't come out, hopefully you can retrieve them.

Sounds like you had a great time, and caught some cracking fish too.

[BaggieRich]

Sounds to me as though it was everything you hoped and more mate. Shame about the deep sea photo's but you'll never loose the memories now will you? I hope I get a chance to land some of those big game fish one day.

A great report mate, and sounds like you had some nice fish. Glad you had a good time.

[monkey nuts]

sounds like a great time had by all
well done cracking report

[fishypaul]

what a wonderful looking place,great pics there ian

[biggun]

Great read Ian! Sounds like a fantastic place to visit.
I can't wait top go back to Florida (this time without the kids) and get some sport fishing in!

I hope yo get your pictures but I think the card is done for. You could try taking it to your local Jessops or some other good camera shop but don't hold your breath!

[gullyworm]

WOW!
Ian that looked and sounded great.Ive caught lots of those orange fish in the Gulf.
Have you been to the East Yorks coast?Its very simular.