Fishing in Cuba

[Jamie Donnelly]

Im off to Cuba in August, what sort of fish would i expect to catch of the shore??

any tips would be great!!

Jamie

[PanamaJack]

Hi Jamie
There're several past posts on Cuba in this forum that are well worth looking at - http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2086&highlight=Cuba, http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27170&highlight=Cuba and also this one, despite its title - http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27636&highlight=Cuba. And also it is worth exploring the fishing related topics on the http://www.cubamania.com/ forums.

Obviously Cuba, and its surrounding islands, is quite large so it might well be worth posting a note of the resort you're planning to visit. I know, for example, one of the forum posters - MarktheShark - has extensive knowledge and experience of the fishing there.
Dave

[Jamie Donnelly]

thanks alot mate!!

your a legend!

Jamie

[ZAGMAN]

little ones ! lol

If my experience from 2 years back was anything to go by if you can get to the fish from the beach they've been caught and scoffed long ago! lol.....thats sanctions for ya

Having said that it does very much depend on where you are heading to, we stayed on the East cost ...errrrmmmm.... Playa Puesquero was the hotel, Guardalavaca was the area "I think".

The beach fishing was poor, lots of "small" reef fish but nothing of any size, even tried after dark hoping for a cuda, it wasn't to be.

Matt Hayes fished the island extensively on his series and went to some amazing places, however most of them were on the West coast and having looked into going back specifically to fish it's damned expenny to get to the more exclusive spots.

The usual tourist boat trips were offered but having spoken to several guys from Canada and the UK I gave them a wide berth, the usual tourist trap, 1k offshore trolling knackered old lures telling everyone they catch Marlin.... yeah OK lads we believe you ..not !

I managed to get copious quantities of fresh prawns from the waiters, it's amazing what a dollar bill will buy you in Cuba!

If you want more detailed info let me know, my previous post on Cuba got lost from the site. Watch out for the little brightly coloured wrasse like fish, they're tiny but have the meanest set of barbs I've ever seen, got tagged by them several times and blead well !

To sum up my fishing experience in Cuba was crap, BUT the holiday was amazing, loved it and would defo go back..... have fun, remember to post your results when you get home..

[connorhope]

Hi Jamie, i fished Cuba last April, we stayed in veradaro facing the marina, had no problem getting live bait as there were a lot of people on beach with nets.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/connorhope/image011.jpg

A Cuban convertible peso buys you a lot of live bait, as they don't take dollars anymore. We fished on the beach and in the harbor, catching small barracuda up to the size of 2ft. Using live bait and float.
The price of a boat trip was about £55 if four shared,

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/connorhope/image022-1.jpg

Take plenty of wire trace, lures and floats you can't go wrong.

[Jamie Donnelly]

wow!!!! how cool!!

so, i can fish off the beach, with wire trace? what sort of bait?

that looks sooo cool!!

Jamie

[connorhope]

[QUOTE=Jamie Donnelly;455080]wow!!!! how cool!!

so, i can fish off the beach, with wire trace? what sort of bait?

that looks sooo cool!!

Jamie[/QUOTE

Hi Jamie, you could were i went. Get the wire trace you can tie. Cast a lure or rattling rapala or trot out a large float with live bait on.

[Jamie Donnelly]

ok so i should take loads of lure and wire traces.

iv heard that you can get live bait of the beach from guys with nets for some like 50p per kg!! lol

so what sort of fish will be able to catch doing this??

Jamie

[connorhope]

ok so i should take loads of lure and wire traces.

iv heard that you can get live bait of the beach from guys with nets for some like 50p per kg!! lol

so what sort of fish will be able to catch doing this??

Jamie

One peso convertible will buy you a good handful of live bait, [they don't carry scales]. Around the marina where we were, barracuda [small] were the in fish at that time of year [April] thats why you need wire traces. You are going in hurricane season so look at the other replies you have had to your, [Q] and follow the links to find what fish are in those waters at that time of year. If you can take some cheap tackle and leave it there with some of the locals, [every little helps] you will never meet nicer and more helpful people all for the price of a couple of hooks. :)

[Jamie Donnelly]

thanks for that mate, i will buy a load of traces with hooks on for them.

Jamie

[spill]

I stayed at Varedero a couple of Septembers ago. I had a good look at the north side (the sandy side) from a pedalo - it seemed fairly shallow and not much life close in. The rocky south side that borders the road looked more interesting with small barracuda and garfish. A couple of locals were using the livebait method and I had a couple of cuda follow my shallow diving plug. I got the chance to share one of the charter boats with another brit (total cost was just over £200) - we ended up winning some competition with a catch of about 6 Barracuda up to about 12lb - the prize was an evening cruise. Another day I tried fishing next to the marina from the concrete edging (using sea snails picked from the concrete for bait) and got some colourful mini species.
The best fishing that I got to do was by hiring a Hobycat (small twin hulled yacht) from the north beach. It was about £25 for a snorkelling trip and he let me take my spinning rod along to troll behind the small boat. I ended up getting a few Barracuda, a large Garfish and a small tuna-type fish which faught very well indeed on my light spinning gear. It was much more fun than the big boat and much cheaper too.