Shaun Rickard

Thanks guys, they were indeed a lot of fun to catch, saltwater fish definately scrap hard. Roy, I didn't notice the map, good eye mate. Tonyb, I agree about the locals not being thrilled about working at the resorts, when you consider that the average wage in Cuba is around the equivalent to $40 US, I'd be far from happy either. However, we should also remember that the workers at the resorts are considered to have the best paid jobs in Cuba, due to the additional tips and perks they receive. The resort workers actually make more and live better than Doctors, pretty sad but true. I have heard great things about the Sandals resort you mentioned too, when I go back down to Cuba I'll defiantely be staying at a 5 star, just to be sure. As you said, you get what you pay for, but on the other hand I was expecting a little better food and service at a 4 star resort that is partly owned ny Canadians. These resorts do have access to food items others don't as much of it is shipped in from Canada and Europe, the resorts are given what they need to make the guests happy, what they do with it in the kitchen however is another story Tourism is Cuba's number one money earner and there are many resorts to choose from, this is my first bad experience on the island so I just wanted to share it with others so they can avoid the dissapointment and headaches we did. As Terry said, I just tell it like it is. FYI: I would also caution everyone to take what you read on Tripddvisor.com with a pinch of salt. I used to be a great beleiver in this site but not anymore. The Jibacoa resort gets nothing but 4 and 5 star ratings, I found this a little hard to beleive after our experiences so I posted a 'polite and clean' report outlining our dissapointment, they have not allowed it to go up, I tried this 3 times and my post has not been published... Hmmmm? I'll leave the rest of my thoughts to your imagination Cheers, Shaun

As some of you know I just returned from a business/pleasure trip to Cuba. The trip over all was good and we even managed to get out on the water for a couple of mornings to do some fishing. I want to start out by telling you a little bit about the resort where we stayed, reason being is that my mate Ryan and I were very dissapointed with the place, not Cuba just the resort, this was my 4th trip to Cuba and I absolutely love the island. The resort we stayed at was the Superclubs Breezes Jibacoa, despite receiving some good reviews on Trip Advisor I can honestly say that in my opinion this was the worst resort I have ever stayed at in the Caribbean for the following reasons: 1. Awful food 2. Terrible service 3. Rude, surly and unaccomodating staff. I must stress that there were some great staff members too, Jannout (Buffet), Luis (Bell Boy), Barbarita (Sunwing Rep), Leonardo (Virgin Rep) and a couple of bartenders who's names I forget, but there were not many who would even crack a smile. 4. Terrible Management Team who were completely lacking in any Management skills whatsoever. 5. The resort is advertised as being in Varadero, this could not be further from the truth as it is actually located between Matanzas and Havana in the middle of nowhere. To give you some idea of the distance, a taxi ride from Jibacoa to Varadero will cost you the equivalent of $70.00 US. Jibacoa is rated as a 4 star resort, I wouldn't rate it any higher than a 3 star max. I wanted to share my experiences with the members here so you can avoid the dissapointment that we experienced. My advice would be to book a resort that is actually located in Varadero if you're heading to this area, in my opinion the service at these resorts is generally of a much higher standard and the Staff much more accomodating, friendly and polite. I'll post more on our actual experiences later when I have more time. Despite the above problems the trip wasn't a total wash, we met some great locals including 3 great guys from a nearby resort who took us out fishing in a Hobie Cat where we trolled the deep edge of the beautiful reef that is located directly in front of the resort. We also had the pleasure of doing some beach fishing with the Bell Boy from the hotel, Luis, at one of his secret spots. A trip to Cuba wouldn't be the same without visiting Havana, this of course we did on one of the more windy 'unfishable' days :wink: Havana is a beautiful city that hosts some incredible architecture from the 17th and 18th Century, it's well worth a visit. Below are some shots of a few of the fish that Ryan and I managed to hook up with on our few short trips fishing the reef. If you're heading down be sure to take your own rods, reels, tackle and lures, these items are very hard to come by in Cuba. Feel free to PM me for some pointers if you're heading down. We were fortunate to have someone offer to cook up the large Snapper and the Tuna for us, I'm not a huge fish eater but I have to say that it was absolutely delicous, talk about fresh All the Barracuda we caught were released, man do those guys put up a fight, they're like Musky on Steroids 8) By far the most productive baits for all species were the new large #14 X-Raps in the colours shown below, Flourocarben or Cortland Toothy Critter tieable leader material was key to avoiding losing our baits to the aggressive Cuda's :wink: Catching these hard pulling fish in a small catamaran is an absolute blast, but the rough seas at time are not for the faint hearted Unfortunately on the the last 3 days of our trip the winds picked up to around 60 to 70 KMH and we were somewhat land locked. This especially sucked on Thursday as we had booked a charter boat in Varadero to finally head out for our first ever Sailfish trip, needless to say it was cancelled due to the high winds and we couldn't make it the next day as we had to head home. Oh well, next time. Despite our bad experience at the resort I highly recommend Cuba for a vacation, the people generally are extremely friendly and the fishing is fantastic, even close to shore. The Rum isn't too bad either Species that we caught off the reef and the drop offs were Tuna, Barracuda, Red Snapper and Yellowtail Snapper - Pictures below:

Great video and good fishing Nautifish! Very nicely done, you're a natural I thoroughly enyoyed that, thanks for sharing. I'm going to put a link to the clip up on our board, let's see if we can get some hits from further afield than Arizona Cheers, Shaun

Good for you Rippinlips Glad you found it before the Foxes or cats, I hope he/she is OK. Cheers, Shaun

Matt, I returned from Samana in the Dominican Republic a few weeks back and hooked into some nice fish right off a pier at the resort. I didn't get into any Barracuda this time around but the Jacks I caught from shore were a lot of fun. Here's a link to my report in response to another thread about the Dominican on our board. I hope the info helps: http://www.hookmorefish.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1746 - Scroll down for my reply As for your reels, what I did was submerge them in a a sink of cold water each day in my room and then shook them under the water, I then laid them on a towel to dry for the following day. Don't use hot water as it removes the grease from inside your gears etc. They are all fine and working perfectly still today Good luck and have a great trip! Cheers, Shaun

Well said Rick!

Snag, I experienced a very similar incident last summer and got into quite a battle with the Commodore of a well known Toronto yacht club. I too was fishing a Marina and was told to leave, it got quite nasty when several of the members actually threatened my friend and I. Before retaliating I did my homework and contacted several branches of the authorities, my advice would be to do the same. You can read the full story here, I am sure that you will find the information both useful and very interesting. http://www.hookmorefish.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1607 I am 99.9% sure that you are entitled to fish where you were fishing, providing that you do not cross private property to get there or cause any damage. I can certainly understand the Marinas concerns and urge everyone to excercise caution and respect when fishing these areas, but the law is the law. If that is the only option you have to do a little ice fishing in the winter of shore fishing in the summer, tell them to leave you the hell alone. As for the Police, as another member stated, despite the law they will generally take to easy route and ask you to leave. I strongly suggest speaking to the authorities that I did to get a straight and clear answer. Just my 2 cents. Cheers,

Way to go David! Good fishing mate. You have to love the BOQ If this weather holds up I may have to sneak down there again, see what you've started Great pictures and report, thanks for sharing. Cheers, Shaun

No, just out for some good old fun fishing. Would have been nice to get some of those beauties on film though, having said that though, if we were filming we wouldn't have caught that many Cheers, Shaun

Excellent job Pamela, looks great! I very much like your style Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Shaun

Thanks guys, it was indeed a great day, overcast and calm for the most part. The best thing weere the temps, +5C at 6.45am Aaron, I'd definately get down there if you have the time, we got all those fish in 4 1/2 hours. I heard that one boat who was out all day had 30 fish, just incredible. We were also only running 3 rods (1 rod each) as we fished the west side of the ferry in the bay. I don't think this weather and conditions will last for too much longer. As Irishfield kindly pointed out, make sure you check that your insurance policy covers you being on the water at this time of year As for the pictures, you gotta love those digital camera's Cheers, Shaun

With the warm weather that just blessed us I simply couldn't resist one last trip down to BOQ for some more late season Walleye action, and boy did we get into some action. If you're boat isn't put away yet I strongly urge you to get down to Picton, the fishing is hot right now. I headed down to Merland Park on Monday afternoon and headed out on the water for a couple of hours with Kevin Lavers. The fishing was good and we hooked into 4 fish in just a couple of hours. After deciding to stay the night I headed back out on the water early Tuesday morning. I had the pleasure of fishing with George, Chris and Joe form Bass Pro Shops and we had a blast. On the monday I had marked some good fish on graph which I locked into my GPS. We headed straight back to those spots in the morning and manged to hook into 12 Walleye between 6lbs and 12lbs, both George and Joe managed to land a 12lb fish each, congrats guys on your biggest ever Walleye. As you'll see from the pictures below, the most productive baits were Husky Jerks and the new TD-9's. The Husky Jerks worked well mid day and the TD-9's worked like Walleye magnets early in the morning and late afternoon/evening. By far the most productive colours in the TD-9's were Firetiger and Perch fished off the small Offshore planer boards I just want to say that it was a pleasure meeting and fishing with George, Joe and Chris, I had a lot of fun guys. I can't forget my old mate Kev at Merland Park of course, who managed to put me up at such short notice, making this whole trip possible. If you're up for it and want to take advantage of the great weather and hot fishing, Give Kev a call. http://www.merlandpark.com Most of the better shots were taken by Chris from Bass Pro Shops, I look forward to getting copies from you mate Below are just a few shots that I took on the trip: Joe with his beautiful 12 pounder George with yet another 12 pounder, or was it 12.1 Tell me that this Walleye didn't want that bait I think Joe's face tells the story in the next 2 shots, looks like he was having a real bad day Kevin with another beauty taken in the middle of the day Look at the colour of the bait, who'd of thunk it

LOL! It was great meeting you guys, I would imagine there were a few sore heads in your group the morning too Cheers, Shaun

Thanks fishindevil, it was a great weekend. Unfortunately, due to beer related injuries, my mate and I woke up a little late on the Sunday and didn't get on the water until 9.30am, missing the early bite Cheers,