Fly Fishing in Cuba Part II

Days four and five made the trip for me.  I fished exclusively for tarpon on those days and those fish are the ones that will get me back to Cuba.  Lordy they were so wonderful!  During the entire trip everywhere we fished was stunningly beautiful; it seemed even more beautiful on days four and five.  Perhaps I was influenced by the fish, perhaps not.

The guide would pole us across the tarpon flats and call out fish.  We would cast and immediately start stripping as fast as we possibly could.  If you reached forward and missed grabbing the line for the next strip the tarpon immediately turned away.  The gloves made feeling the line more difficult so I had to look down at the line to make sure I grabbed the line for the next hard strip.  It was intense and so exciting.  The line goes tight when they take the fly and the guide keeps yelling, "Keep Stripping, Keep Stripping!"  When the fish took off we did a strip set with our line hand, pinned the line against the rod with our rod hand, and then strip set with our rod hand.  Every single fish jumped on the hook set.  It was truly incredible fishing.

Day six was the cloudiest and the most windy.  At one point my guide said, "El relampagos es peligroso."  I believe I got the Spanish correct, either way, he meant the lightening is dangerous.  It was in the distance but moving our way.  We all had to cut the last day short.  I hooked 4 barracuda before we got back.  They are a bad ass looking fish and made the 10th species I caught.  

The accommodations on the ship were adequate.  The staff was friendly and always very, very helpful.  They really helped make the trip special.  The guides bent over backwards to get us in to fish and to make sure we were all enjoying our day.  

The guides

The deck hand, the hostess, and the captain.  

A very pleasant surprise was how good the food was.  We had fresh lobster as part of our dinner every evening.  

I booked this trip through Fly Water.  The staff there was helpful through every step of the process; I will definitely book another trip with them.  Our host was Blake Merwin of Gig Harbor Fly Shop.  Blake was also great and I would go on another trip with him.  

Blake on the left talking with Scott, one of the other anglers.  

  For the gear whores out there here's a picture for you.

Overall this was a trip I thoroughly enjoyed and would do again.