guardalavaca shore fishing

[skitterpop]

hi guys im a 17 yr old off to guardalavaca in july with my familly staying at the las brisas hotel which has a pier stretching off of its beach next to a small fishing jety. ive looked thru the previous topics but i havent found any solid information about what species other than cuda and small reef fish i can be expecting to catch around this area.
Theres a small estuary just by the side of the pier which looks like it could be home to some snook but im still not 100% sure wether or not this is likely.
ive fished for these species before in the florida keys so i am confident on my choice of tackle i just need to know what species im most likely to find and any reports from any one whose been to the area.
any help would be appreciated. :)

[cubafish]

Sounds like you have done your homework, but unfortunately for you there is no solid fishing information available for that area that I am aware of because of the the heavy netting by commercial fishermen. *As you say "cuda and small reef fish" are all you are likely to find as the netters have worked the area for many miles on either side of Guadalavaca. *FYI the small reef fish will be mostly snappers, and the Cubans call all varieties of snappers "pargo" (including mangrove, mutton, lane, etc.). *The estuary you mention used to have a good snook population, but alas, most have sccumbed(sp?) to commercial fishermen's nets. * :(

I generally use an 8lb spinner, and yellow bucktails in the 1/4 - 3/8 oz size have produced well for me in Cuba pretty much year around. *I use 8 lb in the summer when the wind is generally not blowing as much, but in the winter I will take a 10 lb spinner and 1/2 oz bucktails for better wind penetration. *If you think you will have a chance of going out in a small boat then you should know there is a pretty exciting mutton snapper fishery in Cuba around hard or rocky bottom as well as around the reefs. *There are still a few muttons left around the reefs and areas where there is hard or rocky bottom because the commercial netters do not like to set their nets in areas where they may get hung up or torn. *The great part about this relatively unknown mutton fishery is that like a freshwater bass, the muttons in Cuba will hit a topwater plug. *That's right, if you think you will have an opportunity to go out in a small boat then take some of your namesakes with you in the large size - 3 1/2 inch - 1/2 oz, in any of the colors that have a white or silver bottom. *And if you do take SP's, be sure to change out the hooks for 3x or 4x salt water hooks because the freshwater hooks that come on SP's will not withstand the strength of a mutton snapper - if you don't change out the hooks you will have some pretty exciting stories to tell when you get home when you show and tell your friends how the hooks became straightened. * *:o

Like your name BTW as I like and use many of the Rapala products.

[skitterpop]

cheers man
i was also wonderin what the shark fishings like cus im goin with my little cousin and i wanted to take him shark fishing in the evening at sum point.
i caught nurse sharks in florida just by casting small mangrove snappers of the jety were we were staying in the evening which proved quite productive is there any chance i could use the same technique in cuba.

[cubafish]

You are likely to be disappointed with the shark fishing in Cuba. As I mentioned previously, the Cubans have netted most of their near shore fish, including sharks, so you'll have a much better chance of helping your little cousin catch one in the Florida Keys than you will in Cuba where you will likely never see one. But if you do try, after dark would be my choice of times to try, using a small butterfly'd snapper or other small fish.

[Tackle Tart]

Hey, i am staying in the club amingo atlantica in guardalavacia does anyone know what the fishing is like around there? There are two big headlands eather side of the hotel.

[cubafish]

Unfortunately it is basically the same as my reply of 2-21 above. Cuba's near shore waters have been heavily netted, and while you can still find/catch a few small snappers and perhaps a small barracuda, you will be lucky to see or catch anything else. These are beautiful waters that should (and have in the past) be teeming with fish, but you will soon discover why it is called fishing and not catching. :-)

[Tackle Tart]

haha, yh cheers for that m8.:-)

[Peter Perez]

The Last Time I fish there it was 2003, we caught a lot of Cojinuas, it is a jack type school fish , known in the US as Blue runners.
And we caught an occasional cubereta,(Mangrove snapper) but you have to get in a boat and go out about 3 to 4 miles to do good reef fishing.