Cuba Advice

[tomkat]

If anyone has been to a resort in Cuba where the fishing is decent wading from the beach I would like to hear about it. Thanks

[landry]

Me too:)

[John Bacon]

I found the fishing to be pretty tough wading from the beach. If walk out any distance it is quite difficult to balance yourself. Waves hitting your chest knock you off balance.

I did managed to catch a fish while fishing from a paddle boat though.

[fishermccann]

Milia Las Americas , right beside the only golf course. You can cast off a 10 foot cliff, down into 20 feet of water. The golf course and staff at the resort are top notch, my #1 place to stay in Cuba.

Edited March 30, 2016 by fishermccann

[Big Cliff]

In all my trips to Cuba I have never fished there but I have seen plenty while snorkeling. I would bet you that if you befriend one of the bar tenders at the resort he'll hook you up with someone that will get you out fishing for next to nothing.

 

Past trips I have taken all sorts of fishing tackle with me to use as tips and it ALWAYS went over big time. Things like packages of chiclets, kids clothing, fishing line, hooks...... all those things were better than American $ when it cam to giving things that were appreciated. We've been invited to share food in their homes, and treated like we were royality any time we've gone there.

 

No matter how well you treat the Cuban people, they will treat you better! Oh, and a friend of mine did go on a bass fishing trip (with a friend of a bartender) and told me he'd never had a better fishing trip and it cost him some kids clothes, a flat pack of chiclets, and a spool of fishing line.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip and looking forward to your report!

[aplumma]

A spool of power pro 65 lb is worth around $100.00 around the islands( sorry not sure about Cuba). Fresh bait will go far lures from shore have poor results in all of the places that I have visited.

 

 

art

[Big Cliff]

A spool of power pro 65 lb is worth around $100.00 around the islands( sorry not sure about Cuba). Fresh bait will go far lures from shore have poor results in all of the places that I have visited.

 

 

art

You can't go there "YET" LOL. Cuba is very different from any of the other places I've visited. In every one of the others you had to watch your wallet all the time. In Cuba if Sue had wanted to go for a walk on the beach at 2 am I wouldn't have been the slightest bit worried. I have so many stories about the honesty of the Cuban people, they have always been so wonderful!

[mark demmery]

We stayed at the Pestana in Cayo Coco 2 yrs ago. Brought some gear to fish with, then to give away when we were done. Hooked up with a cook from the Hotel who was into fishing. We walked 10min to a point on the beach with some coral and other structure. just using shrimp as bait (the cook supplied, raw) we caught smaller fish all morning! Heavy weights, leaders and circle hooks did the trick. Few follows on jerk baits and spinners, but it seemed like shrimp was the ticket. we just waded out (with our shoes on, that coral is sharp!) and long bombed the shrimp as far as we could. Most fish were 1-5lbs and the cook was more than happy to take them home to his family. From what he was saying, line, leaders and hooks are in demand. We left them everything but our rods and reels.

[Headhunter]

I was in Holguin and watched a guy fishing the day away from shore. Very light tackle and raw shrimp sourced from the kitchen had him busy most of the afternoon, but nothing of size was caught.

I think the key is to find, as mentioned above, reefs near shore that have deep water access in close proximity.

As side note, like others here have said, bring stuff down to give the the locals. A trip to the dollar store to buy, pens, pencils, paper, coloured markers is hugely appreciated. We brought old baseball gloves and they were met with tears of appreciation.

I also hit my local Long and McQuade and bought up a bunch of their house brand guitar strings to give to local musicians. Again, met with tears of joy! Remember that the average Cuban makes between $12 and $20 / month, so anything you can do to help them out is huge!

And Big Cliff is right, the people of Cuba are the best I have encountered. On our last trip to Varadaro, the airline left our luggage in T.O. We had virtually nothing for four days! The Cubans who worked at the resort offered to bring us clothes from their homes to help us out!

Lovely people who I hope don't get spoiled, when the U.S moves in...

HH

[tomkat]

Thanks guys . I already planned on bringing some stuff to pass along. My garage is like a tackle store I have a few reels I can part with and terminal tackle etc.

[Bitsmith2k]

stayed at royal hicacos in varadero.. there's an inland pond across the road that has tarpon in it.. nice ones too.. casting from spots on the shore with spoons proved to be lots of fun.

 

members of our group had rods/reels go missing at some point between toronto and cuba.. i packed just rods in a hard case, locked with my name/address on it.. everything else in my luggage.

 

replies about the locals are spot on.. they're awesome. left a mess of line/terminal tackle etc with a bartender that took us out to his spots for surf fishing (more accurately: getting smashed on the beach with the locals)

 

the harbour at the tip of the penninsula had lots of places to fish, we had follows there, but didnt catch anything..

[Big Cliff]

Shrimp seem to be the "GoTo" bait in any salt water fishing I have ever done but a good size float with one of those bait fish hanging below it will almost always get you a nice size barracuda with a little patience. (Tip, DO NOT try to Lip it!)

 

Boy am I looking forward to your reports when you get back. Don't forget those packages of chiclets, they can't buy them there so they are like gold. Also pack yourself some snack stuff, Pringles and such, (bags of chips will be bags of crumbs by the time you get there) again, very hard to find stuff like that when you are down there.

 

Now rum.... bring home a few extra bottles but declare it. (we always bring 3-4 bottles each). Customes hate it when you do declare it because of all the paper work they have to do for the couple of $ involved. They always give me crap and I always reply that I am quite willing to pay any duty and taxes so they will just wave you through. If you don't declare it and they catch you they will seize it, never happened to me but I know several others that got caught!

 

Same thing with cigars you can buy Cohiba Lanceros down there (but be careful get them from a dealer) here at home they are worth about $600.00 (or something close to that) for a box of 25. I'm not sure what the current price is for them in Cuba but it was about 25% of what they were selling for here in Canada last time we went.

 

Oh I wish I was going again right now LOL.

Edited April 1, 2016 by Big Cliff

[scuro2]

Down south saltwater fishing is nothing like northern fishing. It is a very steep learning curve and much depends on how much time you want to put into it...start here. http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/forums/rest-of-the-world.314/Bait works but isn't really needed for experienced fishermen. Watch the water...moving water is your friend. Get a great pair of sun glasses and watershoes. Avoid lures with exaggerated wiggles and black and other muted colours. You can't go wrong with poppers! I usually go down with at least 10 of different sizes Also if I were going down the first time I'd buy Cuda tube lures and just wade the edge of the water during high tide for Cudas. With good sunglasses they are not hard to spot. Burn lures for Cudas

Edited April 1, 2016 by scuro2

[Old Ironmaker]

If you bring down a few old carbs from early 60's or late 50's small block Chevy, Chrysler or Ford they will let you marry their daughters.

 

I have fished from the boat slips in and around Veradero and had a blast with medium tackle. One Peacock Bass after another. Bring plenty of tackle to leave there, it will be much appreciated as well as anything baseball related. But anything auto related for old model US cars and they will lose it. I will next time.

[Freshtrax]

I have an old ford 4 barrel I can donate if you want.