Cuba 2012 - Varadero

 Cuba-Varadero
  

In August 2012 we landed after a 10 hour flight on the Caribbean island of Cuba, which means "green inside" in Spanish. We stayed on the peninsula of Varadero, which means "shallow waters" in Spanish. Varadero was built by the mafia in the roaring 20's. We checked in at the RIU Varadero resort at the point of Varadero, just before the main harbour. At home I checked it out with Google Earth and saw there's a possibility to fish on two sides of the peninsula, about a 20 minutes’ walk in between the two spots. That gave me the possibility to fish the other spot, if the wind might come out off the wrong direction. Because of the political system, the people of Cuba are not allowed to have boats, there's no tackle store or any stuff available, and the only fishery is with hand lines. The people are very friendly, Havana is in my opinion one of the most beautiful old city's I have ever seen. Cuba is also known for its cigars (Cohiba), coffee and rum!

According to the locals I met, the shallow azure sea in front of the hotel, inhabited only little fish. The only fish with some size, should be the barracuda, which they call picua by the way, and these could only be caught with a boat (too far out). That information didn't raise my confidence, but I also thought that they weren't used to more modern fishing techniques, like rods and lures.

First fishing at still dark in the morning, too much wind on the beach, so I decided to go for the south spot of the peninsula. It wasn't easy to find it at first, but half an hour later I was standing on the spot I found on Google Earth back home! There was some concrete plaster on the ground, mangroves on both sides. I started with the popper, but pulled a lot of sea weed. That went on for 15 minutes and I started wishing for an ox and plow, I changed the popper for a Rapala xrap "moss green" colour. Moving it very slowly, I suddenly had a fish on with some great splashing in the top water. It turned out to be a fat beautiful mutton snapper. A Cuban fisherman with Morgan Freeman looks appeared and we shook hands, communication was difficult because I don't speak Spanish that well. I gave him the mutton snapper, he started fishing with a hand line and sardine baitfish, he got a big mutton as well.

In the next coming days I caught some little bonefish, permits, mullets and all kinds of little fish on the fly during daytime. Funny thing is in one of the mornings before the break of dawn, the annual ritual, a local dog offering itself as a fishing buddy, occurred again. Laying on my bed on the beach during daytime, I watched the sea with my monoculars and saw a big splash which wasn't a pelican or something. Because the RIU provides free water biking for half an hour, I had an idea to do some trolling. The Cubans were laughing about the idea. Simone and I started biking and when we were about 500 meters from the shore we had a great strike, the fish kicked like a mule, I felt that one of the triangle hooks popped out, after a while we got it at the surface, it appeared to be a big mutton snapper. I dropped it when pulling it out on the leader, no pics unfortunately. Just before we went in, we caught a 15 inch jack, my Cuban criticasters were watching. On shore they all wanted to have the fish, I gave it to an old man.

In my conversations with local fishermen, it became clear that the fishing in Cuba was the best during sundown. After some great dining, we went to the beach around 22.00 hours. We met a guard named Luis, great guy, who told us his cousin was fishing a bit further on the beach. I lost a big fish on my herring rig during bait fishing, the hook was bent out straight. Fishing live bait didn't get me any hits, so I started with the Yo-zuri popper, waded till the middle in the calm warm sea. The night was like a black curtain and there was no wind, serene silence. The only thing you could hear or see was the splashing of white water up front my popper! In the second cast I got a hit by a fish that took off like a fighter jet, very memorable moment, adrenaline pumping through the vains. It emptied my spool again and again, I ran along the beach from the left to the right and back. A fantastic horse eye jack eventually dropped on the beach.

Luis was yelling to his cousin who came running towards us. After introductions, I gave the fish to Luis, went back in the water and in a little while I had another one, the guys went crazy because the fish is worth 10 bucks and the month income of a Cuban 13 bucks. In the days to come, I would catch a couple more horse eye jacks from 8 to 12 lbs. I have to say this really was a great experience, the Cubans told me they didn't know there was fish this big in their waters.　

In the harbour of Varadero you can rent a charter boat under Bahamian flag. We booked it on one of our last days. The captain was straight, he told us no one in the fleet caught anything in the last couple of days. All the big fish were in deeper waters because of the heat at the surface, so he told us. So we adapt to our expectations and started sailing the ocean drinking rum, smoking Cohiba cigars and rock 'n rollin' on the deck, listening to Elvis tunes that shattered out of the speakers. We were having great fun till one of the reels started screaming, fish on! Back to serious. I jumped in the chair and started drilling a nice barracuda, the deckhand didn't want to let go of the fish with his firm grip during photo shooting. After a while we caught another one and came back in the harbour with a great day to remember, catch and release policy on the barracudas. Cuba a has lot of fishing possibilities for adventurous fishing from the shore, a great beautiful country to visit, like Jamaica, it has a unique ambiance!

Tight lines.

Lee