Cuba shore success! Read last post!

[scuro]

Inshore fish are generally a lot smaller so if you are more out on the ocean proper trolling then more line. The larger inshore ones fight more like very large pike and bass.

Pick reels with a great drag. They don't have to be super capacity reels but don't bring your bass reels. With inshore you need to be thinking water flow. If it is a deeper area of high water flow near the ocean...bigger fish may be there. If you are fishing a lagoon or flat then you should be safer with a regular reel. I've been down about 10 times and have only encountered two fish that could have spooled me. One I landed the other was a locomotive and snapped my line before I got spooled. The problem with braided is if a lot of line is going out it is bound to make contact with the bottom and braided cuts easily. I'd use 20 pound mono for trolling.

Your biggest problem will most likely not be rods, reels, lines or lures...it will be finding large fish. This holds especially true if there are no charter options and the area is generally not fished so you can't go online to read about how others fished it. The first problem you have is inexperience and then if the location is good. A resort not in a good location will produce little, I experienced that last year when I let my wife pick the destination. Then it is all about water flow. Then some fish are choosy about light conditions. Read all you can about fishing tides and what works for different species.

[rex.stpierre]

I got a quantum reel that has two spools. I put 200 yards of 65lb braid on one spool and I will put 20lb mono on the second spool.
I'm getting the 9 foot 6 Baja rod. It breaks into four pieces, it is made for line from 8 to 25lb test and can cast 1/2 ounce to 2 1/2 ounce lures. I'll definitely try to book the lagoon tarpon trip ASAP when I get there. 180 CUC for 4 hours. Ill be wearing my polarized sunglasses ( I love them). I will also bring a tray full of lures, shinny spoons, tubes, soft lures, a couple poppers, a couple jerbaits, some salt water hooks, some 80lbs fluro leaders, some metal leaders, a couple floats....I'll be set to catch atleast one damn fish!!!

[rex.stpierre]

Im back, i had to put up with 35km/h winds all week. That translated into no fishing trips available. I fished a couple morning for a couple hours. One morning, the wind was down. I casted over a patch of weeds rooling in. I was using that 9 foot 6 baha travel rod with a quantum reel. It was spooled with 20lbs mono tipped with 80lbs mono leader. As i reeled in my 8 inch silver spoon, a fish hit hard and ran with my lure. I reeled him in with my rod tip high, i let him fight my rod and my drag...he made three runs, one solid one, always parallel to the beach... He jumped twice and i could see his long silver body along the top of waves. I finally got hom tired enough to pull him into shore, making surf a wave in...i ran up to him and it was a 16 pound 37 inch cuda...his eyes were like quarters and his teeth were like roofing nails. I talked to a few fisherman that week and some locals. It was the biggest fish caught from shore that week. Im so glad to have caught it, what a thrill!

[scuro]

Glad to hear you did well. You lucked out on the 80 pound mono leader. Had it's teeth gotten into that it would have sliced that in half. Saltwater fishing is a thrill, especially when there is snow back home!!

[Jimmy_1]

Interesting.

Chris, the Miss and I are looking to plan a get away next year. Does Cuba have fishing regs for visitors? Did you have to buy a permit etc?
What about the DR?

I know in the Cayman's fishing isn't easy and very strict limits. But boy some phemomenal scuba diving!

[scuro]

Cuba is the wild west of fishing. No regs nothing...unless you are fishing on private or public waters. If you do that you may end up in a Cuban jail. Rules on that change quickly so be very aware of who owns what rights and state park areas. Since there are no regs practically all of Cuba is fished out except where locals can't fish and even in these locations they are denting the quality of fishing with spear fishing and netting. Many of the other countries have it worse...similar conditions but the locals have boats and cars!

If you have the money then go to Belize or the Bahamas where sports fishing is fully protected and you have no worries.