My Cuban Fishing Trip (Pic Heavy)

[FisherGrrrl]

I finally found time to share my Cuba Trip after being back in Alberta for three weeks now lol!

Now where to even start...

Well after a long Albertan winter of ice fishing I can't wait to get back out on open water!!! Last April I headed to the Skeena Region for Steelhead and had one of the best adventures of my life. This year I decided to go somewhere HOT and try for more new species of fish and a new style of fishing. With that in mind we headed to Cayo Coco Cuba for some ocean fishing and our first time casting on ocean flats.

We knew prior to coming that the wind was going to stay around 30-40 km all 7 days, first starting from the southwest and then turning around and charge from the northeast (right across the Atlantic) for the majority of the trip. We wanted to make sure we were ready with all the gear for the elements. Without paying any extra airplane fees, we packed in three 4 piece fly rods, one 3 piece spinning rod, one 2 piece casting rod, along with a couple trays of cranks, a few boxes of custom ocean flies made by a local here in Edmonton, and all the rest of the gear we thought we could use. Thanks to a couple of friends for lending me some heavier fly rods and travel rods, and thanks to Fly Frenzy Custom Flies for having my ocean flies ready for this trip .

Day One we rented a kayak and scoped out the shoreline of the resort beach, tossing cranks and spoons at the dark seam that marked the edge of the white sand. I watched what I thought was a small barracuda follow my rapala up to the kayak but it didn't take and I will never know for sure. The southeast wind quickly forced the kayak down the shoreline until we were a couple resorts over so we headed back to plan the rest of the week. With fishing rods in our hands it didn't take long for locals on the beach to point us in the right direction to a local guiding service. We found a guy dressed in his Marlin Tours t-shirt and he set us up for the week fishing on a boat to drift over the flats as well as a 50 ft yacht that would take as on an over-night ocean fishing trip.

Day Two was the first day of flat fishing and the first day of the 40km northeast winds. "Awesome!!" was pure sarcasm, but it was no surprise. A small rickety old van met us at our resort and we boarded. I will admit this was one part of the trip I had wished I told someone where I was going! I was scared! The two Cubans on the bus didn't speak English nor introduce themselves, the bus creaked at every bump and was dirty with broken windows and torn seats. We drove down a narrow road picking up and dropping off hitch hikers along the way. A couple times the bus would come to an unexpected halt and the driver would hop out, crawl under the van, and start it up again. I think he had to manually change gears lol but I'm no mechanic. Finally I saw the dock!! Phew! My fear subsided and I walked to the dock and hopped into the boat with the guide. Now... at this point I started to feel guilty for judging my guides on the bus earlier at their "people" skills because the guide was amazing!!! Despite the wind he was able to place us in spots to drift across flats in order to get the best of our casts with the limited visibility we had. His knowledge of English consisted of "fly", "spin", "fish", "shark", "bone", and "wind" which was all we needed to know along with his hand gestures pointing out where to cast or where he spotted a fish. A combination of the wind making ripples over the water surface and the clouds casting a shadow made it challenging to sight out fish, and once a fish was spotted a perfect cast (with the wind) was needed within the next 5 seconds (if not less). Most of the casts that we ended up catching fish on were blind, but we got into bones .




Now I have heard 100 times over and over again about the fights these little bullets put out, but still it caught me off guard! The bone would take as much line as it wanted in the opposite direction then turn towards the boat and I’d start reeling in as fast as my arm would let me to keep the tension on, then the bone would turn around again and take off pulling all the line right back off the spool and the reel handle spinning back almost smashing my thumb. It felt like it should have been a 10lb fish but it would be no bigger than a stocked Alberta trout. This little guy was my only bone of the trip but it was enough to make me feel like I had just won a marathon! It’s an instant addiction and I held onto a proud smile for the rest of the trip. The low visibility and strong winds had me doubting whether I would even get the chance to feel the fight, and I did.
When fishing had really slowed down it was still fascinating watching the ocean floor for any type of surprise. We floated over a field of roughly 5 stingrays hovering the flats and two 4-6 foot sharks that we could have poked with a stick. On the way back to the marina, we trolled with crankbaits and I landed my first barracuda!! It looked like a shiny, sleek pike with massive teeth. Wouldn't want him to lock his jaw on my hand!







The next trip was deep sea fishing. The same van picked us up and dropped as off at a different marina. I hopped out of the van and the driver pointed at the biggest boat tied to the dock. I stood there and stared at what was going to be our residency for the next 2 days… the “Coral Blanco” a 50 foot ocean boat with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchenette, and dining area. "This is mine for two days!!!" I hopped in the yacht and sat right in the fighting chair and the boat took off into the sea. This was my second time ocean fishing so I was well aware of how easy it is to get sea sick. For an hour I sat in my chair focusing on the farthest cloud on the horizon. As the boat rocked left, right, up, and down I was starting to wonder when something was going to happen other than my motion sickness getting worse. Then, I heard the captain yell out to the deckhand in Spanish and the deckhand jumped down from the ladder. I looked up and saw 3 birds circling the sky when one of the Penn baitcasters started screaming! The deckhand grabbed the rod and handed it to Geoff right when another baitcaster began squealing! The deck hand ran over, set the hook, and handed me the arched rod. Off in the distance we watch two flashes of blue and yellow jump out of the water then skim the surface trying to get away from the tension of our rods. We had a double header for two dorodos! I landed a female dorodo (I learnt female dorodos have a more prominent forehead and are often larger) and Geoff landed a male. What a rush!!!

[FisherGrrrl]

[URL=http://s19.photobucket.com/user/ambuler44/media/DSCF1278_zps36987038.jpg.html][/URL
Our guides again made an impressive duo! They had ocean fishing right down to a science. The captain would pull a tight U-turn to follow a school of hundreds of baitfish jumping from the ocean surface. At first glance it looked as though an ocean wave was rolling against the natural direction of the rest of the waves. Concentrating hard enough you can see hundreds of little fish jumping simultaneously against the current, probably getting chased by something bigger. Then the deckhand had all 5 lines out at different depths and different lengths so when the captain turned the boat around none of the lines would tangle. Every time the captain thought a fish might take the bait the deckhand would climb down the ladder and be ready to set the hook.

Next fish was something that sounded like a "Pyra"? Wasn't quite sure as the guides did not speak much English. But they were thrilled when the fish was landed! By their excitement and enthusiasm they made it sound like it was a rare catch and a very tasty meal... this was going to be our dinner for the night. After that we caught barracuda after barracuda until there was ten. The guides kept all of the fish.

Pyra?Pyro? Can anyone name this fish??



As the sun was starting to go down the guides pulled the boat into shallower water where the waves were calmed. They anchored the yacht and the wind held us in a steady position in the middle of the ocean. I could see a lighthouse flashing off in the distance, the rest of the horizon was flat from an endless sea. The deckhand began filleting the fish, chumming the water with fish guts for late night snapper fishing. He cut the "Pyra" fish into steaks and used a hammer on a knife to break the spine of the fish. My dorodo weighed in at 25lbs after it had dried up. The captain and guide cooked up the "Pyra" along with lobster tails and rice for supper. They spent nearly two hours creating a feast while handing us Bucaneros and glasses of red wine. We sat on the edge of the boat and watched the sun change the sky to orange and yellows. This was the only time on the trip that I was thankful there were clouds in the sky. It was absolutely breathtaking. This is where we were going to spend the night .







The next morning I woke to the subtle sound of small waves sloshing against the sides of the boat. Bacon, eggs, and coffee was already being prepared by the guides. We ate and shortly after the same guide that took us flats fishing the first day arrived in his boat and picked us up for round two. This day was even tougher fishing as the wind picked up with stronger gusts. Geoff landed another small bone and I got a few snappers. We saw two tarpon jump off in the distance but we couldn't find them again. This day was a lot slower, even the guide shrugged his shoulders in wonderment as he couldn't seem to spot many fish, not even an eager barracuda.

[FisherGrrrl]

The last day we went snorkeling and I got to check out the fish I had wanted to catch. Snorkeling around by myself I spotted one of the biggest barracudas of the trip just 5 feet below me pushing against the current of the tide rushing in! I screamed in my snorkeling tube and immediately stopped kicking my flippers so the current could take me back and away as fast as I could go. After catching about 13 barracuda all week I didn't want to be swimming next to one!

This trip was amazing!! It would have been nice to have had the chance to site out a ton more fish and hook into some more bones but I can’t really complain… I was in Cuba Fishing! It was a blast trying something new, seeing new fish, and being in a beautiful country. And aside from fishing I met a tons of wicked people at the resort, played beach volleyball nearly every night, watched the nightly entertainment and danced at the discos. The resort was gorgeous and I will be definitely be back!!!

[Scott N]

Looks like a fun time, I'd love to try ocean fishing some day.

[new LT]

That looks like you had the trip of a life time. Those little Bones give you the surprise of your life when they take off. Thanks for sharing your trip...

[JohninAB]

Sounds and looks like you had an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Fishnafterwork]

Nice dolphins...love those fish ... Pound for pound right up there with any species.... Amazing colors that change as they tire out and they taste good too!...

[FisherGrrrl]

Originally Posted by Fishnafterwork

Nice dolphins...love those fish ... Pound for pound right up there with any species.... Amazing colors that change as they tire out and they taste good too!...

Ya the colors changed as soon as they hit the deck floor! That one hanging on the scale and the one I'm holding is the same dorodo. Its an awkward fish to hold too cuz all the weight is at the head, I thought my poor left arm was going to snap off lol :P

[Mike Rae]

Looks like a fantastic trip! Amazing pictures, thanks for sharing.

[tight line]

Good variety! Nice mahi!

[coyotezh]

this is beautiful......

[Junglefisher]

Sounds like an awesome trip, well done for trying something diferent.
I think the fish is a rainbow runner.

[FisherGrrrl]

Originally Posted by Junglefisher

Sounds like an awesome trip, well done for trying something diferent.
I think the fish is a rainbow runner.

looks a lot like the same fish! thanks. I searched for a while trying to find something that looked similar to it

[Sundancefisher]

Great job. Nice fishing in the warmth...have a little time to wait until it warms here!

[the local angler]

fishergirl i havent met you yet and i must say you are incredible. thats quite an adventure, incredible catches of the cudas and dorado.you sure have great luck catching huge fish. did you by chance get a look at the make and models of those rods they were using on that boat? i have two big PENN offshore reels and wanted to see what kinda off shore rods people use.

[AppleJax]

Thats an awesome story Amber! The colors on those Dorado's are amazing! You should come chuck some hardware on the river with Jay and I sometime next week if the weather holds up.

[bobalong]

Looks like you had a great trip, brings back some good memories.

[Fishnafterwork]

Ps fishergrrrl the fish in question is a yellowtail amberjack aka yellowtail kingfish or white salmon

[BeeGuy]

Awesome report!

Love the snapper!

[Alberta Bigbore]

Nice trip report.

[Wild&Free]

Sounds like a good trip. Thanks for sharing. Love that sunset picture with the crank on the reel.

[fish gunner]

So jealous , fantastic pics. Great thread looks like the trip dreams are made from . thankx for sharing.

[OneGirlWolfPack]

Love the pictures and story! What an amazing trip that must've been for you and Geoff. That Dorodo is awesome looking!

[Speckle55]

Grats FisherGrrrl .. awesome story and pic's .. great trip!!!

look forward to your next trip

Thanks for sharing

David

[DiabeticKripple]

Great story like always. Your dorado is much bigger than the one I caught in Hawaii haha. Mine was maybe 12 lbs.

[Fishnafterwork]

Originally Posted by Fishnafterwork

Ps fishergrrrl the fish in question is a yellowtail amberjack aka yellowtail kingfish or white salmon

Sorry jungle fisher you were right it's not a yellowtail it's a rainbow runner as u stated... Crazy closely related I was sure it was a yellowtail till I googled rainbow runner haha.... Anyways great fish!

[NUK SOO KOW]

Looks like a great time!!! Thanks for sharing, I've yet to get a bonefish but saltwater flyfishing is some kind of fun!!

[LCCFisherman]

Originally Posted by Fishnafterwork

Sorry jungle fisher you were right it's not a yellowtail it's a rainbow runner as u stated... Crazy closely related I was sure it was a yellowtail till I googled rainbow runner haha.... Anyways great fish!

X2 Rainbow Runner

[C Taylor]

Great story an pics. Nice way to get a break from winter

[iliketrout]

Sounds like a great trip! Hope you have just as good of a time this summer chasing Salmon!