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Pacific Angler Expeditions
Cuba 2008
Casey Giesbrecht
When I first found out I was going fishing in Cuba I didn’t know what to think. Obviously I was excited but I had no idea what to expect. Going to a foreign country and trying a type of fishing that was completely new to me? It left me sleepless on more than one night beforehand. Would I be able to cast far enough? Will I have all the right flies? Would my tarpon leaders hold? Do they have toilet paper in Cuba? I went on this trip with an open mind and very few expectations and I had the time of my life!
When we arrived in Cuba we were treated like kings. Our plane had the two millionth tourists to arrive to the country. Once we passed all of the TV cameras and press people, Mojito’s were placed in our hands and the party began. Our luggage was picked up for us and we were swept to the front of the line through customs and, shortly after, off to our hotel for our first night in Cuba. Ben, Charles and I figured we would do the tourist thing the first night, so we set out to check out the area around the capital building in Havana while looking for a decent place to have dinner.
I had a hard time getting around the culture shock. Everything was so run down and in a state disrepair but everyone was happy. The streets for the most part were clean and there was no graffiti anywhere. There was not a single situation that I can think of when I felt like someone was trying to take advantage of me or they were just talking to me because they were after my money. After dinner in Havana we decided to call it a night as we had to get up at 4am the next morning to catch our bus.
After eight or nine hours of travel by bus and boat we arrived to our home on the ocean, the Tortuga. The Tortuga is anchored in the middle of the Jardines de la Reina and it houses up to 15 guests at a time, as well as staff. We found our room, got into our fishing clothes as fast as we could and were out on the water, all within an hour of arriving. Ben and I shared a skiff, the “Manatee”, with our guide Bemba (11 years experience) on the first day and Charles fished on his own with his guide Pedro (19 years Experience) on the “Jurel”.
After a quick boat ride through the mangroves, Bemba asked me to jump up on the casting platform and had me show him how well I could cast. Ben handed me my 9 foot 8wt Sage TCX. I nervously pulled my size 6 pink Christmas Island Special off the hook keeper, stripped my new Rio Bonefish line off my reel and started false casting. I was freaking out! I was in the middle of nowhere trying to show my guide how well I can cast a rig I have never fished with before. I kept thinking to myself: “come on, don’t blow it”… that first cast was effortless! I launched about 90 feet on my first cast! I smiled to myself underneath my sun mask and knew right then it was going to be a great trip.
After stripping all my running line on to the casting deck our guide poled us around until we found a few tailing fish. Once we were in position Bemba said to me “my friend, you look at me”, so I turned and waited for his instructions. “My friend, bonefish at 11 o’clock”. I looked out at 11 o’clock and could not see a thing. I got some line up in the air and asked Bemba “how far?”… he answered “20 meters”. I was thinking to myself: meters, who the hell uses meters? I figured that is roughly 60 feet and I shot some line. Bemba yelled “STOP!” and I froze. It seemed like it took forever for the fly to sink.
Bemba quietly told me to start stripping and on my second strip I felt my line go tight so I strip set the hook and I had my first bonefish on! It screamed the line off the reel, turned, and peeled some more! After we landed that fish I could not get the smile off my face. My first cast to a bonefish and I landed one. My trip was made at that moment.
Our second day (first full day of fishing) had Ben and Charles fishing with Bemba and I was riding single skiff with Pedro. It was really hot on day two and so was the fishing. I was able to connect with about 30 bonefish and landed more or less a third of those.
Pedro was on me every time I lifted my rod tip instead of doing a strip set. Every time I would lose a fish Pedro would let out a big sigh “my friend, I don’t understand why you lift the rod, you must STRIP!” In the afternoon I heard some chatter about Palometa (Spanish for permit) over the radio and found out that one of the other fisherman on the Tortuga, a fellow by the name of Alexander, had a grand slam! The grand slam is the holy grail of warm water fly fishing.
In order to get a grand slam you must have photographic proof that you caught a bonefish, a permit and a tarpon, in the same day! By the end of the day Charles had also completed the slam! Unreal! Two grand slams in the same day and one of them, Charles, was in our group! That right there made Charles trip, the trip of a lifetime! I had a permit follow my fly until it saw the boat and that was as close as I got to a slam on this trip. As we headed back to the Tortuga I noticed that the weather had changed.
The wind was picking up and the water was much rougher than when we left in the morning. From here on in the fishing got quite a bit tougher. The winds blew between 25-40 km/h and a lot of the fish moved off the flats. Never the less, we still got into a mixed bag of fish every day but were not able to pull up any big numbers to the boat. With the water churned up from the wind we did some blind casting for Tarpon in a few of the deeper channels. We boated fish with consistency that ranged from 10-30lbs.
There was one point that I was stripping my fly and had a much larger tarpon, in the 50-60 lbs range, come flying out of the water trying to inhale my fly. The tarpon missed as I pulled my fly from the water. My guide was screaming for me to cast again but all I could do was stand there with my knees knocking asking Ben if he just saw that! That was a moment I will never forget. Our guides worked extremely hard for us and the staff on the Tortuga were great.
All in all I probably connected with 60-70 Bonefish. I landed 8 tarpon and lost 2 others while I saw 10 permit with legitimate shots at 7! We ate like kings. Every night there were always a few different kinds of fresh fish and seafood including lobster, snapper, grouper and tuna. The food was fantastic. All in all, the entire trip was amazing! The fishing was great but what really impressed me was the people.
Cuban’s are proud of what they have and who they are. I found them to be extremely helpful and patient and they all wanted to see us happy. If you ever get the opportunity to go fish Cuba, do it! You won’t be disappointed! Come see us at Pacific Angler and we will be happy to help you plan a successful trip of a lifetime.
Ben Gehrke
This was, truly, one of the best experiences I have ever had! I had no idea that when Charles, Casey and I left for Cuba that it would exceed all of our expectations.
The Jardines De La Reina is off the south coast of Cuba and is, undisputed, one of the best warm water destinations in the world! After being there personally, I completely understand why. When you arrive at the Tortuga, our floating hotel, the guides are in the boats waiting for you and the cocktails are freshly poured.
After a quick tour of the Tortuga and being shown to our room, we found ourselves unpacking in a hurry to get our three rods each and our wading packs out, and then we were straight to the boats!
The guides quickly looked at our flies while we were putting our rods together, and, in what seemed like seconds, we were bombing threw the mangroves on our way to the first flat.
Casey was first on the bow while and I was taking all kinds of pictures of, easily, one of the most beautiful places I have visited. After one blind cast, so our guide (Bemba) could see that Casey was capable of bombing out an 90 plus footer, Bemba said "ok, good my friend". One minute later we snuck onto the flat. Bemba directed Casey where to cast and how far. After two strips Casey had his first bonefish taking a huge run. This thoroughly set the pace for the trip.
The first few hours of the trip we had bonefish, jack trevally, tarpon and barracuda to the boat. It was so much fun I nearly peed my pants! By the time we were on our way back to the Tortuga, it was well after dark. Upon our arrival we were greeted with fresh mojitos and some of the best food I have ever tasted.
Cuban people are very friendly and during our stay we got the royal treatment. We looked forward to dinner every night as the seafood was awesome and there was always lots of fresh fruit. After dinner it was usually story time with some rum and a cigar, which was the perfect ending to perfect days. We would all take turns telling of our adventures of fishing in Cuba and abroad, we really enjoyed the company of our fellow fishermen.
For me personally, it was a wicked and totally awesome trip. I will be going back for sure! I have a strong feeling that Casey and Charles will as well… after all, Charles got a grand slam on the first full day. How could you not want to go back?