marktheshark
05-01-2007, 08:27 PM
Hi all
Just got back from a slightly frustrating trip to Guillermo (Ibero Daiquiri); first four days were badly wind-affected which, I was told, is unusual for late April. It knocked a lot of the fishing on the head. Anyway, here's what I found.
The Bridge
Producing snappers and tarpon. From what I saw, the snappers seem to be taken from the crown of the bridge, and dusk into night is good. A lot of anglers, tourists and locals, were broken off by very large fish, probably cubera, running for the mangroves, but there's a good run of smaller fish, muttons and cubera, in the 2-8lb bracket that are more manageable. They seem to prefer 6in live grunts (small yellow shoal-fish with blue stripes and a vermillion mouth). These can be caught at the bridge or from the Melia jetty. Prawns will also work, especially for the smaller fish. There are also small jacks up to 1lb that go for prawns and fight like hell on light gear.
The tarpon seem to prefer the floodlit area close to the boat jetty. There's a magic hour at night, when the tide is quiet between turns, in which the sea goes crazy. Unfortunately for me, I discovered this on Weds, when I kept getting very finicky bites on a mojarra head. Finally one stuck and I found myself attached to a 60lb-plus fish that jumped 6ft in the air. It sounded like a canoe hitting the water. It jumped another three times before running under the bridge, breaking me off. I finally got one at 5am on Friday, a far more manageable fish of about 30lb that I had to play till exhausted, then lip-gaff it in the little bay by the side of the bridge. I had to nurse it for about 5min before it could swim away. Without the gaff, I don't think I'd have landed it - those fish are complete brutes. Mojarra head was the only thing I tried that they'd take. I also had a 5lb barracuda on live grunt here. The locals rate poppers during the magic hour - I tried but had nothing.
The Melia jetty
Badly affected by the wind, so was off form for most of my trip. Very few baitfish, and no sardines. Mojarras were few and far between too, but there are some ballyhoo. Saw none of the usual big stuff taken: no amberjacks, big snapper, barracuda, needlefish or jacks, but I'm sure that will change as things warm up. Some small snapper (incl a 1.5lb grey I freelined up from under the pilings), and an Essex angler got a nice bar-jack of 2lb on a small green wrasse livebait under a float. They fight like hell on light gear.
The channels
Were also affected by wind, with the fish deep down and refusing to rise to the fly until the last few days; then they were back to normal. Plenty of tarpon in the 3-6lb bracket, especially at nightfall, to the usual soft-fibred flies pulled fast. Great fun on a 7 or 8-weight. I got a load of sandeel and sardine imitations in green/white and grey/white and they were perfect. Fewer of the bigger fish than last year - I don't think I hooked a double-figure fish this time. Took a bonus barracuda, though, which was tinted a very odd-looking olive green colour, and was fortunately hooked in the scissors since I didn't have a wire trace on. Didn't know they were in the system. Mosquitos were horrendous: I needed some extra-strong spray, plus a bug-cap, and still got bitten.
Playa Pilar
Didn't fish it - wind was too bad. Edgar at the Iberostar said his mate took a 30lb shark there at night and Jordan the guide said it had been producing the usual run of tarpon and jacks to poppers, with a few snapper in the evening. No sign of the kingfish yet, apperently.
The Hobiecats
When wind allowed, were plying the inshore waters between Guillermo and the two offshore islands. It costs 20CUC an hour. Bait seems to do better than artificials. The Essex boys took a nice 7lb cubera snapper on trolled octopus, and one of the boatmen took a mutton snapper the same size on a fish-belly strip. I got some ballyhoo from the jetty and trolled those - barracuda couldn't get enough of them. Five fish taken, the same number lost. I used a 3pc uptider and Abu 7000-size multiplier with 25lb braid for this sort of fishing and it was an absolute dream - you feel every shake of the fish's head.
Odd and sods
Thomas Cook offer a reasonable excursion called The Cuba Dream, for 179CUCs for all day (7hrs). It's great if you've brought you own gear as basically, you get taxi-ed to the Ranchon in Paredon, get a skiff and a skipper and tell him what you want to do. We went onto some beautiful flats looking for bonefish (nada - wind was still a bit fitful) then did the light trolling bit around the inshore reefs, which was fish city: had some nice jacks, loads of cuda, a kingfish, a small snapper. The killer lures were Rapala Skitterpops and X-Raps up top, and deep-running Magnums in orange/yellow. The cuda couldn't get enough of the X-Rap; I had a dozen hits on it. The day was cut short before we could try the channels for some heavy tarpon when the skipper became rather attached to my X-Rap while unhooking a 20lb cuda, necessitating a quick return to the Ranchon followed by a taxi-ride to the local clinic to get the treble removed.
The Iberostar is now closed for renovations - three or six months, according to who you speak to.
Mosquitos are bad everywhere at the moment. Bring lots of high-strength juice and soothing spray.
There's no way you'll hold, let alone land, a 40lb-plus snapper from the crown of the bridge. The only way is to walk it the 400 yards to the bay at the side (tricky if the fish doesn't want to), or devise a drop-gaff with some heavy rope attached. I'm working on it ...
Anyone stuck for gifts to take out to local fishermen: heavy (50-100lb) mono for handlines. Hooks, including size 14-6 baithooks. Wire. Wind-up torches. Swivels. Weights. An aerator. Pliers. Spare rods, preferably not telescopic, and reels are gratefully received, of course; the heavier the better. Ron Thompson do a big fat popper, 60g, in red/white for a fiver that is highly prized there; and the new gold/red Cormoran jointed deep-diver, for the same price, worked well being trolled over the reefs.
That's what I know. Good luck to all of you going out this month. You lucky, lucky bleeders!
Just got back from a slightly frustrating trip to Guillermo (Ibero Daiquiri); first four days were badly wind-affected which, I was told, is unusual for late April. It knocked a lot of the fishing on the head. Anyway, here's what I found.
The Bridge
Producing snappers and tarpon. From what I saw, the snappers seem to be taken from the crown of the bridge, and dusk into night is good. A lot of anglers, tourists and locals, were broken off by very large fish, probably cubera, running for the mangroves, but there's a good run of smaller fish, muttons and cubera, in the 2-8lb bracket that are more manageable. They seem to prefer 6in live grunts (small yellow shoal-fish with blue stripes and a vermillion mouth). These can be caught at the bridge or from the Melia jetty. Prawns will also work, especially for the smaller fish. There are also small jacks up to 1lb that go for prawns and fight like hell on light gear.
The tarpon seem to prefer the floodlit area close to the boat jetty. There's a magic hour at night, when the tide is quiet between turns, in which the sea goes crazy. Unfortunately for me, I discovered this on Weds, when I kept getting very finicky bites on a mojarra head. Finally one stuck and I found myself attached to a 60lb-plus fish that jumped 6ft in the air. It sounded like a canoe hitting the water. It jumped another three times before running under the bridge, breaking me off. I finally got one at 5am on Friday, a far more manageable fish of about 30lb that I had to play till exhausted, then lip-gaff it in the little bay by the side of the bridge. I had to nurse it for about 5min before it could swim away. Without the gaff, I don't think I'd have landed it - those fish are complete brutes. Mojarra head was the only thing I tried that they'd take. I also had a 5lb barracuda on live grunt here. The locals rate poppers during the magic hour - I tried but had nothing.
The Melia jetty
Badly affected by the wind, so was off form for most of my trip. Very few baitfish, and no sardines. Mojarras were few and far between too, but there are some ballyhoo. Saw none of the usual big stuff taken: no amberjacks, big snapper, barracuda, needlefish or jacks, but I'm sure that will change as things warm up. Some small snapper (incl a 1.5lb grey I freelined up from under the pilings), and an Essex angler got a nice bar-jack of 2lb on a small green wrasse livebait under a float. They fight like hell on light gear.
The channels
Were also affected by wind, with the fish deep down and refusing to rise to the fly until the last few days; then they were back to normal. Plenty of tarpon in the 3-6lb bracket, especially at nightfall, to the usual soft-fibred flies pulled fast. Great fun on a 7 or 8-weight. I got a load of sandeel and sardine imitations in green/white and grey/white and they were perfect. Fewer of the bigger fish than last year - I don't think I hooked a double-figure fish this time. Took a bonus barracuda, though, which was tinted a very odd-looking olive green colour, and was fortunately hooked in the scissors since I didn't have a wire trace on. Didn't know they were in the system. Mosquitos were horrendous: I needed some extra-strong spray, plus a bug-cap, and still got bitten.
Playa Pilar
Didn't fish it - wind was too bad. Edgar at the Iberostar said his mate took a 30lb shark there at night and Jordan the guide said it had been producing the usual run of tarpon and jacks to poppers, with a few snapper in the evening. No sign of the kingfish yet, apperently.
The Hobiecats
When wind allowed, were plying the inshore waters between Guillermo and the two offshore islands. It costs 20CUC an hour. Bait seems to do better than artificials. The Essex boys took a nice 7lb cubera snapper on trolled octopus, and one of the boatmen took a mutton snapper the same size on a fish-belly strip. I got some ballyhoo from the jetty and trolled those - barracuda couldn't get enough of them. Five fish taken, the same number lost. I used a 3pc uptider and Abu 7000-size multiplier with 25lb braid for this sort of fishing and it was an absolute dream - you feel every shake of the fish's head.
Odd and sods
Thomas Cook offer a reasonable excursion called The Cuba Dream, for 179CUCs for all day (7hrs). It's great if you've brought you own gear as basically, you get taxi-ed to the Ranchon in Paredon, get a skiff and a skipper and tell him what you want to do. We went onto some beautiful flats looking for bonefish (nada - wind was still a bit fitful) then did the light trolling bit around the inshore reefs, which was fish city: had some nice jacks, loads of cuda, a kingfish, a small snapper. The killer lures were Rapala Skitterpops and X-Raps up top, and deep-running Magnums in orange/yellow. The cuda couldn't get enough of the X-Rap; I had a dozen hits on it. The day was cut short before we could try the channels for some heavy tarpon when the skipper became rather attached to my X-Rap while unhooking a 20lb cuda, necessitating a quick return to the Ranchon followed by a taxi-ride to the local clinic to get the treble removed.
The Iberostar is now closed for renovations - three or six months, according to who you speak to.
Mosquitos are bad everywhere at the moment. Bring lots of high-strength juice and soothing spray.
There's no way you'll hold, let alone land, a 40lb-plus snapper from the crown of the bridge. The only way is to walk it the 400 yards to the bay at the side (tricky if the fish doesn't want to), or devise a drop-gaff with some heavy rope attached. I'm working on it ...
Anyone stuck for gifts to take out to local fishermen: heavy (50-100lb) mono for handlines. Hooks, including size 14-6 baithooks. Wire. Wind-up torches. Swivels. Weights. An aerator. Pliers. Spare rods, preferably not telescopic, and reels are gratefully received, of course; the heavier the better. Ron Thompson do a big fat popper, 60g, in red/white for a fiver that is highly prized there; and the new gold/red Cormoran jointed deep-diver, for the same price, worked well being trolled over the reefs.
That's what I know. Good luck to all of you going out this month. You lucky, lucky bleeders!