WWFG Fishing Reports

FLY FISHING ISLA DE LA JUVENTUD - AVALON - CUBAN FISHING CENTERS

Hotel Rancho

The Hotel Rancho El Tesoro is located on the outskirts of Gerona, the Isle of Youth's largest city of 75,000 people. "Hotel Rancho" offers comfortable accommodations for our anglers with large single rooms for each angler. Each room has queen beds, air conditioning, lots of storage space and good showers. Your maids will clean your room each day and do laundry/ironing on request. (Please leave a suitable tip for these extra services) Security at the hotel is excellent and the front desk is open on a 24 hour basis. Telephone service is available to anywhere in the world as well as internet access for hotel guests. Meals are superb, a combination of classic Cuban dishes like smoked pork, chicken, black bean soup, rice and beans and fresh fish like mutton snapper and grouper. The french fries are out of this world. Salads with fresh tomatoes and other vegetables are served with olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar dressing. Our chef is happy to prepare sashimi from freshly caught fish of the day. Evening meals feature several different entrees, and our chef has often been accused of preparing enough food for twice the number of people we'll have at the table. We can promise you that no one will go hungry on this trip! Anglers staying at Hotel Rancho have their own private dining room, as well as their own private chef and wait staff. The dining room is air-conditioned and used not only for meals but also as a place to relax before dinner with a perfect Mojito and perhaps a classic Cuban Cigar.

Perola

The Perola is a 75-foot luxury live-aboard yacht that we utilize for weekly trips to the more remote areas of the Canarreos Archipelago. We stop off at selected anchorages like Cayo Campo, Cayo Roserio and the Cantiles islands. This is a wonderful yacht, recently refurbished and perfect for a group of six anglers. There are five very comfortable air-conditioned beds below deck, 4 single beds and 1 double bed, all shared cabins have their own private bath, with good showers and plenty of hot water, and lots of storage space for anglers. This is an impressive yacht, with polished hardwood floors and teak paneling. Circular stairways take you downstairs to the cabins or upstairs to the dining area on the top deck. The top deck is covered and always remains in the shade but open to the sea breeze, insuring a very comfortable and insect free environment. Clear plastic side coverings are utilized in harder winds or in inclement weather. Several comfortable rope hammocks are hung from the ceiling structure and can be lowered after lunch or dinner for a delightful nap in the breeze. A full sized, air-conditioned salon on the main deck level can be utilized for a living and dining area in extremely harsh weather. Sinking into one of the plush couches with a good drink is the perfect way to end a long day on the flats and a full size table in the salon is the perfect spot for a couple of anglers to tie flies. Cuisine on the Perola is superb. Fresh fish of the day are utilized for most meals, either caught by the anglers themselves or harvested by the crew. Lobster and Conch can be had on a daily basis from the surrounding waters. Salads with fresh vegetables and a variety of fruits are available any time. In addition, you'll have wonderful pork and chicken entrees during the week, fresh sashimi for appetizers and some of the finest frozen Daiquiris known to man. Traditional Cuban flan topped off with aged Havana Club Rum is one of the many unique and delicious deserts served.

FISHING

Avalon is one of the few companies in the whole world able to offer its guests the unique possibility of fishing in a completely exclusive marine park, free of commercial fishermen, nets or any skiff or yacht from other companies. Think about the infinite possibilities of having all those nautical kilometers just for you – being able to choose the species and the place you desire to fish without any fuel limitation during your fishing week. These are some of the species you will fish in Avalon at Cayo Largo.

Bonefish: These are the most abundant and popular of the flat species. The average weight is about 6 pounds but bigger specimens are caught, especially in the winter months. Fishing is either from the skiff or by wading. While wading the vast stretches of firm sand flats, in Carribean warm waters, there is nothing more exciting than stalking and catching a “bone“. At times the fish may be seen literally standing on their heads with their tails sticking out of the water. This action is called tailing. Bonefish move onto the shallow sand and mud flats to feed on animals that live on the bottom. They use their conical snouts to root around the bottom to dislodge worms, mollusks, shrimps, and crabs. The sight of these fish tailing as you approach is just transfixing.

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Permit: Quite abundant in Cayo Largo, where they live up to their reputation of being the most frustrating fish of the flats. Lots of skill and patience are required, but a fair number of “grand slams “ have been achieved by many anglers. Permit primarily forage on flats and intertidal areas, entering shallow water on incoming tides from deeper adjacent channels and basins. They usually travel in schools of about ten, but may school in larger numbers; larger permit tend to be more solitary, feeding alone or in pairs. Permit also congregate around wrecks and other deeper-water structures. Like the bonefish, the permit uses its hard mouth to dig into the benthos and root up its prey. These food items usually consist of crustaceans and mollusks, which the permit crushes with its granular teeth and pharyngeal bony plates. However, as opportunistic feeders, permit will eat a variety of animals, including amphipods, copepods, mollusks, polychaetes, fish and insects. Developmentally, permit exhibit planktivorous feeding habits as juveniles, eating copepods, amphipods, mysids, larval shrimp, and fish. As they increase in size, permit begin to feed on benthic prey including mole crabs, coquin clams, flatworms, gastropods, and sessile barnacles. Larger adults feed on gastropods, sea urchins, bivalves, and crabs.

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Tarpon: Tarpon rate as the strongest, most acrobatic and most exciting saltwater species on the fly. Even juvenile fish will put your angling skills to the test. A large number of tarpon are resident year round in Cayo Largo tidal channels and flats with migrating fish showing up in April until August. In most circumstances, fish are see rolling and the angler will try to approach within casting distance. Tarpon are often found in schools with other tarpon and are opportunistic eaters that feed on a variety of fish and crabs. Their average weight is from 15 to 30 pounds, but fish up to 120 pounds maybe encountered and some large fish have been caught over the past seasons. They are in the area all year long but tarpons over 50lbs are usually found from March to August.
Correct hook setting will also help put the odds in your favour. Point the rod tip at the fish and firmly set the hook with your stripping hand only.

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Jack Crevalle: These fish are noted for their speed and aggressiveness to grab popper flies. They are mostly found from March onwards on the sandy flats around the main island. They are considered a primary target for sight-fishing.
Other species: Barracuda is another regular of the flats and reef species like Snapper, Grouper and Cubera are also worth a try.

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A Season From November to August
The climate is warmer than in the Bahamas with an average temperature of 23.6 C in January. These fair weather conditions during the mid winter months are suitable for flyfishing the Cayo Largo flats. August, with an average temperature of 28.2 C, is the hottest month in Cuba. There is invariably a pleasant sea breeze but, occasionally, stronger winds can be experienced. The fishing season runs from November until August, thus avoiding the cyclone period during September and October.

November / January
The beginning of the season from November to January is very good with plenty of bonefish (especially big ones) on the flats and mangrove areas. Fishing for tarpon and other species can also be excellent. It is a very pleasant period to plan a trip to Cayo Largo as the weather is much warmer in Cuba than in Europe or Northern America.

February – June
Peak Season is from February to June when all species are present in the area such as tarpon, permit and jack. Migratory tarpon, up to 800/100lbs (average 15/30lbs) are regularly spotted and casts to permit are very frequent. This period is the best to try the Gland Slam. Many Grand Slams are made each season and also some Super Grand Slams (Tarpon, Bonefish, Permit and Snook).

July – August
In the late season the weather gets hot but the fishing is still very productive, especially for tarpon and permit. Fishing for bonefish is also very good in the morning and in the evening. The statistics are very interesting. They show that the same number of fish are caught during the hot months, however, by half the number of rods.