Conclusion to Cuba

Howard Croston, the Hardy and Greys’ Product Manager and England Team International returns from Cuba with a tale to tell…

An awesome trip. Cuba itself was fascinating. Good food. Friendly people (if you overlook the number of police and dodgy-looking characters wearing sunglasses). Stunning girls and, in Havana, a city that’s really a step back in time. But it’s the fishing that you want to know about. Fabulous. A lot of it was down to Marco, our Cuban guide, who seemed to possess an uncanny ability to interpret the movements of the fish, and eyesight so acute he could spot them miles off. His casting was equally impressive but, what we really appreciated, John Wolstenholme and I, was the fact that he quickly took stock of our own abilities. He started us off with the easy stuff and then increasingly stretched us, taking us to more and more challenging situations. This way, the fishing remained gripping, red hot. At first, we were casting to enormous shoals of bonefish – sometimes two or three hundred strong – all tailing, all twelve yards from the boat. Thrilling initially, but soon Marco had us looking for big, single fish or looking for permit. And we came close. I had a shot at what I thought was a single fish and put a fly close to it. It didn’t move and I withdrew the fly only to see a second fish down deeper that was just turning on it. Later, I spied a pod of five fish and cast to them. One bolted, the rest spooked and that was the second chance gone.

So my first piece of advice is get yourself to Cuba. It’s great. My second tip regards the gear and if you look at my original list, it all worked incredibly well. Particularly, the prototype nine-foot, eight-weight G-Tec which stood out as a perfect light bonefish rod. The nine-foot, eight-weight Zane was a bit beefier and ideal for bigger bones and (probably) permit. Even when the wind was up you felt in total control. The ten-weight Zane landed a twenty-three pound barracuda for John Wolstenholme with no problems at all and the ten to twelve-weight Zane and Platinum XDs both performed faultlessly on snappers, jacks and tarpon. Never once did we think we were there without the right gear for the job which is always a huge relief.

Tip number three. When it comes to flies, don’t get too intense and complicated. What you need is a range of weights and sizes rather than endless patterns. Small and medium crab patterns work for both bones and permit. So they’re ideal…when a permit appears you don’t want to waste time changing a fly or it will be gone as fast as it arrived. Marco advised us to use long-tailed patterns for the bones with a pink or a red head. The best were perhaps twice the length of a normal Crazy Charlie dressing. For the tarpon, we were happy with just a few patterns, Cockroaches and especially The Toad in different sizes. The Toad is a bit like a swimming crab and the side dressings let the fly sink slowly so it doesn’t freak out the tarpon. Keeping fly choice minimal allows you to concentrate on locating fish and presentation. That’s where the real challenge lies.

We found a fast-sink line was really useful for exploring deeper channels when the weather was cloudy or when heavier winds blew up. In situations like these you just can’t sight fish and you’ve got to work the depths blind. We found fast-sink ten-weight lines perfect for snappers and jacks that fought like crazy. If the wind really gets up strong, then a spinning outfit isn’t a bad idea either. In near gale force winds, it’s not great to have too many ten-weight lines scything around in a relatively small boat.

It’s always useful to fish with heavy nylon traces and we used fifteen pound breaking strain for the bones. The reason for this, again, is that this calibre of line will do for a permit if it appears. I repeat, if you’re lucky enough to see a permit, you’ve got to cast for it at once without worrying about tackle changes.

I have to make a point that the weather changed frequently and storms blew up out of nowhere. The problem is, even if the day has been hot, if you get wet then you get cold. It’s as simple as that. I kept my Greys Weathershield jacket with me at all times and I never had a problem. The protective buff that I talked about in the first article was also useful to keep the worst of the sun off my neck, chest and other exposed areas. I’ve got a shot of Wolstenholme wearing one and he looks like a refugee from the desert but it kept him cool.

Finally, remember that this is a really serious fishing situation and all these species scrap quite unbelievably. I’m glad that I took a roll of electrical tape for my hands! Put tape on all the exposed areas of your hands and fingers and you will find that it protects you against otherwise inevitable line burns. If you get the salt and the sand into wounds caused by line ripping off at monumental speed, it can really ruin your trip.

Would I go again? Hey, you at Fish and Fly, give me the money and I’ll be gone tomorrow!