After 8 days in paradise, I have returned. We stayed in Cayo Santa Maria, which I would highly reccomend for a family/fishing vacation. I went fishing almost every day first thing in the morning when the family was sleeping. I tried 2 different approaches.
I attemped to book a fishing charter for a half or full day. They offer 2 different styles. Deep Sea and Specialized ( which is fishing the flats). Neither were available for ANY of the days I was staying which was a huge disappointment, but I vowed not to let it get me down.
1. I rented a moped from the resort for 10 pesos and visited a variety of bridges that linked Cayo Santa Maria to the main island of Cuba. I was using rapalas, poppers (Yo-zuri in the white/red combo was deadly for barracuda), and shrimp as bait. Casting from shore and the bridges works well, and I managed to catch several small colorful fish in the 3-5 lb class as well as numerous small barracuda. I stopped at one bridge and began casting. A construction crew working on the bridge saw me fishing, immediately stopped work, and began to fish beside me with hand line spools, they only went back to work when I told them I had to leave, 3 hours later.
2. The best bang for your buck is right on the resort. Guided trips on the Hobie Cat sail boats were available for tourists to rent for 20 pesos for 4 hours. I asked them if they ever had fished from the boats. Of course, as Milo said earlier, it seems all cubans love to fish and the guides were very excited to do something more exciting than take out intoxicated tourists.
After inspecting my rod and my gear, he ran into the hut where they store there personal belongings, coming out with some of the biggest wooden rapalas I have ever seen. The color combo of red/white (bloody nose) was very predominant. We were off. Almost immediately we were into several smaller barracuda 5-7lb range. We caught them going all speeds from very fast (much faster than I have ever trolled for salmon) to dead slow with the rapala just floating on the surface.
The next day I came back with raw Mahi-Mahi fillets from the chef, as directed by the guide. The guide also brought another fishing rod, and fished as well. We cut it into strips of about 3 inches long, and placed it on the trailing treble hook of the rapala. If the fishing was good yesterday, it was on fire today. We caught several much larger 15-20 lb barracuda, a 15 lb red snapper, and the icing on the cake, a very large Dorado which was lost at the edge of the boat as the guide made his third attempt to pull it into the boat. After shaking the hook, he didn't say a word for an hour. This is not because we missed a photo op, but because he estimated it to be around 40-50 lbs, which is a feast of a high quality eating fish.
All in all, it was an excellent experience. For me the idea setup would be
- Heavy telescopic rod ( Mako has a great one at Canadian tire for 20 bucks)
- Large heavy duty spinning reel with a large line capacity ( the baits are trolled WAY back behind the boats, and the Dorado and larger barracuda took me to very close to my lines end several times
- 40 lb braided line
- large diving rapalas
- yo-zuri poppers
- steel leaders
- large treble (3/0) hooks and sliding weights
* the other thing I would bring is a small gaff. The guide told me that many tourists have injured themselves on the teeth of barracuda. As well, if we had the gaff on board, I am sure we would not have lost our Dorado. Sailing a small boat, and pulling a huge fish up at the same time is a difficult task as I have learned, so make it easier. Any fish you catch WILL be consumed by the guide and their families. Although I am sure they would let a fish go upon request, I would reccomend offering them to the guide first.
One last word of advice. Fishing gear and tackle is very hard to come by down there, and even when available, would be considered a luxury. I left everything fishing related I had down there ( rod, reel, lures, ect). When I gave my rod and reel to the guide as a tip, he almost fainted, and found me the next day to give me several Cohiba cigars as a thank you. If I ever get the opportunity to go back again, I will be visiting garage sales, and asking friends for old rods and reels to give away. Canadian tire sells Red Wolf brand fishing line spools for 3-4 bucks. Buy several of those as well. Fishing line is especially hard to come by.
If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them
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Topic: Shore Fishing from CUBA beaches (Read 81959 times)