Cuban bonefish

[BigAl]

Have just returned from 14 nights in Cayo Coco, Cuba. Originally booked because of the bonefish flats just a mile up the beach from the hotel, reports of a complete ban on DIY fishing in the Cocos had put a bit of a downer on it for me before we left

As we arrived at the hotel there were 2 anglers from near Preston, Andy and Mark, that were sat having a beer with a guy that had Dunitesky, fishing guide on the front of his shirt They had just returned from a day on the flats and had caught 7 "bones" to 8lb. I mentioned the DIY fishing ban that I had read so much about and they said that they had been fishing everyday since they got there and had not had any bother whatsoever. Spoke to the guide and booked a trip for the following wednesday

Me and the FPO walked up the beach the following day, I knew you had to walk east and then round a mangrove headland and the flats were just beyond it. It seemed much further than a mile in the 37 degree heat!!! My missus didn't want to go any further and we turned back towards the hotel with thoughts of a go in the morning hatching in my mind.

Walking the beach again in the morning at 5.30, the sky just starting to lighten in the east would have been a magical experience if it hadn't been for the mosquitos and sand flies There were millions of em! The 50% deet I was wearing kept them off me but they made me nervous anyway. As I got closer to the mangroves the sun was almost starting to poke its head over the horizon, the flies retreated
and tails started poking out of the water not 10ft from the shore. Big tails too. put them down as snapper in the weak light conditions so cast some shallow running Yozuri minnows at them. An hour later and I had spooked maybe 20 fish and with the sun above the horizon I made my way onto the flats proper.

I kept on thinking to myself, surely you dont catch fish in this depth of water? Then I saw my first fish, it was a barracuda in the 20 to 30lb range ambling along in 18 inches of gin clear, lukewarm water!! Put a plug 2 feet from its nose and it hurtled off the sand at a hundred miles an hour Another hour of scaring barracuda and I decided to call it a day as I was starting to melt. I dont think I saw a bonefish but didn't really know what I was looking for anyway

Tuesday before my guided trip, Andy and Mark had been out with Dunitesky again and had had another cracking day having landed 6 bones including one of just over 10lb, they had also lost 4 Tarpon with one over 150lb showing itself 3 times before throwing the hook. Plans were made and Dunitesky would pick me up from the hotel lobby at 7.30 in the morning.

Loading the ice into the coolbox the following morning I introduced myself to fellow angler for the day, Nigel from Cumbria, and apologised in advance for my fly casting as it was something that I do quite infrequently. No problem he said, I'm crap to... The 45 minute drive to the marina? inside the national park were interesting to say the least it was almost like a desert safari but probably much faster!!

The boat was a skiff of 18ft or so with an old but very serviceable 60hp yamaha 2 stroke on the back. She fired up first pull of the chord and we were off. The first stop was within 400 metres of where we had just left. A deepish hole of 12-15ft deep, about the size of 3 football pitches and surrounded on all sides by 3ft of water. Tarpon were rolling everywhere!! The surface poppers were cast out amidst the boils and retrieved as noisily as possible. I had a 3lb jack of some sort first cast, Nigel hooked a 20lb barracuda 2nd cast and the guide hooked a Tarpon of 30-40lb minutes later which came adrift as he was handing the bucking rod to Nigel.We spent an hour here and caught 4 barracuda to just under 30lb a cople of decent mutton snappers and had jumped and lost 4 tarpon. There were lots of tarpon there but having fished for them in similar situations in Florida I thnk live or deadbaits on circle hooks would be the way to go to actually get one to the boat.

We were on the move to the flats a couple of miles away, the spinning rods were stowed and the 9# fly rods brought to the fore. The anchor was dropped so that the stern of the boat sat in 24" of water, we stepped off the back into hundreds of square kilometers of tepid, crystal clear, less than knee deep ocean We walked quietly across the sand untill Dunitesky pointed in front of him about 30ft away, 5 bonefish travelling together and heading straight for him. Nigel has first shot and puts a tangled heap right on their nose They depart in the blink of an eye so we continue our walk, I m starting to get my eye in and can see most of the fish as the guide points them out but most of them seem to be on Nigels side, so i'm still waiting for my first cast when Nigels into his first fish.after 5 tries. Well... I've seen them caught on the tv and they seem quite quick but that fish went like a speeding bullet......I moved 20 or 30 yards away to give him some room and there was a shadow from another one not 2 rod lengths away, I rolled my "clouser minnow" in front of his nose and he took it immediately The speed of them really does take you by suprise but quickly teaches you why you need a decent disc drag on your reel. 150 yards on its first run!!! In seconds!!! I then found myself running backwards to try to keep a tight line, they come back towards you just as fast!! 10 minutes later I have in my hands my first ever bonefish and a beauty too..about 7lb the guide reckons. I'm over the moon, absolutely chuffed to bits but eager for another

We saw lots of fish and messed up quite a few, Nigel had had one of 9lb to add to his initial fish of 6lb. We both pointed to the group of fish at the same time and they were on my side maybe 20 yards in front of us. My fly landed 3 or 4 metres short and Dunitesky whispered leave it............leave it......strip!! 2 short pulls and I'm in "Its a monster" he shouts and reaches into my pocket for my camera and starts to take photos.Have just returned from 14 nights in Cayo Coco, Cuba. Originally booked because of the bonefish flats just a mile up the beach from the hotel, reports of a complete ban on DIY fishing in the Cocos had put a bit of a downer on it for me before we left

As we arrived at the hotel there were 2 anglers from near Preston, Andy and Mark, that were sat having a beer with a guy that had Dunitesky, fishing guide on the front of his shirt They had just returned from a day on the flats and had caught 7 "bones" to 8lb. I mentioned the DIY fishing ban that I had read so much about and they said that they had been fishing everyday since they got there and had not had any bother whatsoever. Spoke to the guide and booked a trip for the following wednesday

Me and the FPO walked up the beach the following day, I knew you had to walk east and then round a mangrove headland and the flats were just beyond it. It seemed much further than a mile in the 37 degree heat!!! My missus didn't want to go any further and we turned back towards the hotel with thoughts of a go in the morning hatching in my mind.

Walking the beach again in the morning at 5.30, the sky just starting to lighten in the east would have been a magical experience if it hadn't been for the mosquitos and sand flies There were millions of em! The 50% deet I was wearing kept them off me but they made me nervous anyway. As I got closer to the mangroves the sun was almost starting to poke its head over the horizon, the flies retreated
and tails started poking out of the water not 10ft from the shore. Big tails too. put them down as snapper in the weak light conditions so cast some shallow running Yozuri minnows at them. An hour later and I had spooked maybe 20 fish and with the sun above the horizon I made my way onto the flats proper.

I kept on thinking to myself, surely you dont catch fish in this depth of water? Then I saw my first fish, it was a barracuda in the 20 to 30lb range ambling along in 18 inches of gin clear, lukewarm water!! Put a plug 2 feet from its nose and it hurtled off the sand at a hundred miles an hour Another hour of scaring barracuda and I decided to call it a day as I was starting to melt. I dont think I saw a bonefish but didn't really know what I was looking for anyway

Tuesday before my guided trip, Andy and Mark had been out with Dunitesky again and had had another cracking day having landed 6 bones including one of just over 10lb, they had also lost 4 Tarpon with one over 150lb showing itself 3 times before throwing the hook. Plans were made and Dunitesky would pick me up from the hotel lobby at 7.30 in the morning.

Loading the ice into the coolbox the following morning I introduced myself to fellow angler for the day, Nigel from Cumbria, and apologised in advance for my fly casting as it was something that I do quite infrequently. No problem he said, I'm crap to... The 45 minute drive to the marina? inside the national park were interesting to say the least it was almost like a desert safari but probably much faster!!

The boat was a skiff of 18ft or so with an old but very serviceable 60hp yamaha 2 stroke on the back. She fired up first pull of the chord and we were off. The first stop was within 400 metres of where we had just left. A deepish hole of 12-15ft deep, about the size of 3 football pitches and surrounded on all sides by 3ft of water. Tarpon were rolling everywhere!! The surface poppers were cast out amidst the boils and retrieved as noisily as possible. I had a 3lb jack of some sort first cast, Nigel hooked a 20lb barracuda 2nd cast and the guide hooked a Tarpon of 30-40lb minutes later which came adrift as he was handing the bucking rod to Nigel.We spent an hour here and caught 4 barracuda to just under 30lb a cople of decent mutton snappers and had jumped and lost 4 tarpon. There were lots of tarpon there but having fished for them in similar situations in Florida I thnk live or deadbaits on circle hooks would be the way to go to actually get one to the boat.

We were on the move to the flats a couple of miles away, the spinning rods were stowed and the 9# fly rods brought to the fore. The anchor was dropped so that the stern of the boat sat in 24" of water, we stepped off the back into hundreds of square kilometers of tepid, crystal clear, less than knee deep ocean We walked quietly across the sand untill Dunitesky pointed in front of him about 30ft away, 5 bonefish travelling together and heading straight for him. Nigel has first shot and puts a tangled heap right on their nose They depart in the blink of an eye so we continue our walk, I m starting to get my eye in and can see most of the fish as the guide points them out but most of them seem to be on Nigels side, so i'm still waiting for my first cast when Nigels into his first fish.after 5 tries. Well... I've seen them caught on the tv and they seem quite quick but that fish went like a speeding bullet......I moved 20 or 30 yards away to give him some room and there was a shadow from another one not 2 rod lengths away, I rolled my "clouser minnow" in front of his nose and he took it immediately The speed of them really does take you by suprise but quickly teaches you why you need a decent disc drag on your reel. 150 yards on its first run!!! In seconds!!! I then found myself running backwards to try to keep a tight line, they come back towards you just as fast!! 10 minutes later I have in my hands my first ever bonefish and a beauty too..about 7lb the guide reckons. I'm over the moon, absolutely chuffed to bits but eager for another

We saw lots of fish and messed up quite a few, Nigel had had one of 9lb to add to his initial fish of 6lb. We both pointed to the group of fish at the same time and they were on my side maybe 20 yards in front of us. My fly landed 3 or 4 metres short and Dunitesky whispered leave it............leave it......strip!! 2 short pulls and I'm in "Its a monster" he shouts and reaches into my pocket for my camera and starts to take photos.


By this time I can almost see the spool of my reel that just had 300m of 30lb backing on it not 5 seconds ago!!!!!!


I dont remember too much about the fight but it was 20 minutes of the most fun I've had with a fishing rod for a long time.


This one measured 29 inches from the fork of the tail to the tip of the snout and according to very accurate length to weight ratio tables scaled somewhere between 13 and 13.5lb :lol: What a spectacular fish!!!



We tried for the tarpon on the way back but just caught more barracuda, the following day we went trolling on a Hobie cat, more barracuda to 18lb but did lose 2 much bigger fish that we think were wahoo.


Friday we were out on the flats again with the guide or so we thought, he had some allergy and was going to leave us in the hands of the non english speaking skipper of the boat We had another 5 bonefish during the windy day but the biggest only went about 3lb and I had a nice mutton snapper of about 12lb on a light spinning outfit. Sorry about photo, taken by boat driver


All in all a great holiday.....but that big bonefish will stay with me for a long long time .........

Al

P.S. The diy fishing at Cayo Coco seemed to be fine and I had no problems at all. Nigel, the guy I had fished with on the first day had been staying at Cayo Guillermo and had been moved on twice by the security/police while fishing off a bridge near his hotel.
The guided fishing worked out about £100 per day per man, good value when you have the standard of fishing that we had on our first day but expensive on a days fishing like our second days fishing when we were only on the water for 6 hours of which we spent 3 of those moving, we couldn,t understand the driver of the boat, we only walked the flats for 40 minutes tops, we spin fished far too much (which I now realise was a way to catch dinner for the guide and crew) the guide didn't come with us and to be honest I felt a little ripped off!!.....He took half our ice as we departed in the morning which leads me to think that he may have had a half day "cash" job to do somewhere else!!
The hobie cats were 20CUC per hour per man and seemed quite expensive when you consider the Cats are free as part of the all inclusive deal of the hotel.................

[marktheshark]

Hi Al
Terrific report, and some terrific fish. I fear, just as it's becoming clear what a good fishery the Cayos are, this ban (it's not just Coco - bits of Paredon and Romano have also been gazetted too) will come into force. Still waiting for more informed opinion about what sort of timescale any ban might take before becoming law, but in the mean time ... congrats!

[penn2]

few weeks ago Booked cayo guillermo off end of cayo cayo due to the diy fishing bans as only the north west corner were the sand dunes are are banned.the rest of the island is fine for diy fishing.
If you go onto the cubamania site theres been plenty of talk about this and theres a link to a cuban gov site listing all the areas that diy fishing is banned.
Anyway glad you caught your first bonefish and more, i'm looking forward for mine.