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| This picture has been taken on the western side (beach side) of the Varadero. |
Two days later our second week of the vacation
was starting at the touristic hell of Varadero. It’s a nice place but have
absolutely nothing to do with the real Cuba. There’s only hotels after hotels
with some souvenir booths between them. The bright side of the Varadero is that
basically whole east side of the 20 kilometer long peninsula is unbuilt and has
some decent spots to fish at.
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| My playground on the first morning. |
On the first morning I left the hotel when it
was still dark outside. I tried to find some life between the shore rocks again
but failed miserably. I think I had one bite but didn't see one single fish.
After the dawn I changed my gear and soon caught my first fish with my whip
rod. Well, the first or second fish gave me nothing new as they were Dusky
damsel and French grunt. Then I put a small piece of damselfish on my hook and
soon caught couple of more grunts. This time they were Bluestriped grunt and I
had caught my first new species at Varadero.
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| Bluestriped grunt (Haemulon sciurus). |
Soon after it was time to head back to hotel.
On the way back I was fishing with a small silvery spoon in the hope of some
predatory species. It started quite well when I had an angry bite right on my
second cast. It was a small barracuda but sadly it got off just when I was
grabbing it with my lip grip. I had few more hits and follows by what I think
were houndfish until I had to go for lunch.
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| This is the place I saw the Cowfishes at. |
Next day came and this time I was on the move
after the lunch. I was starting from the place I left yesterday. I spotted couple of Scrawled cowfish right
away near the shore line and started to lurk them. Well, my bad luck continued
when I had two bites by them. The first one got off and the another one broke
my tiny little hook on the furious run it took. I wouldn't ever believe cowfish
can swim that fast. That was it. I saw some cowfish afterwards but never got a
bite again. A bit later I had some bites by the needlefish or houndfish also
but failed to catch them too.
I had seen some sergeant fish day before and
now I took a new attempt after them. They did not like dried worms nor piece of
fish but this time I had some bread with me. It was still not easy. They did
eat the freebies and even my hook bait but I could not hook them. In some point
there was a school of sergeants busying around my bait when a small fish
ambushed from the side and and gulped my hook. A Schoolmaster snapper (Lutjanus
apodus) was a refreshing surprise after a lousy afternoon. Quite soon I finally
managed to hook and land one sergeant fish as well. Two fish on a six hours
session is not much but at least they were both new species for me.
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| Very hungry bread eating snapper. |
|
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| Sergeant major (Abudefduf saxatilis). |
On Friday we had been booked an offshore
trolling day with a few Finnish guys. We decided that the first fight (if we
ever have one) would go to the guy who booked our trip. After one hour we had a
bite and Jukka reeled in a nice Dorado (or Mahi mahi) of about seven kilos.
Then it was my turn to be...
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| Jukka is fighting with a Dorado. |
About half an hour later we had another screaming
bite and we saw a marlin splashing behind the boat. But of course it got off
after few seconds and I didn't even make it to the fighting chair. Soon after
our captain headed to the shallows and tried to find some barracudas for us but
there was nothing showing anymore.
Next morning I was on the shore in the dark
again. I did not find any fish this time either. I wonder if there's any gobies
or blennies at all at the waters of Varadero. Rest of the time I was fishing
with my spinning rod and tried to find barracudas and needlefishes. I was
casting a silvery spoon again and I did have a hit soon after I started. This
time I managed to land the fish and my first ever barracuda was finally there.
It was only a small Greater barracuda but I was soooo happy with it.
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| My first ever Barracuda. |
There was couple of local fishermen casting with their hand lines nearby so I gave the Barracuda for them. They thanked me nicely and told me they gonna barbecue it in the evening.
I had some more bites by the houndfish again
but the barracuda was going to be the only fish of the day.
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| I'm not a car person but at Cuba you just can't look away when seeing beauties like these. |
15th of February was gonna be our
last whole day of the vacation. This time I decided to go a bit further to find
some new fishing grounds. I took a hop-on hop-off bus (by far the best and the
cheapest way to travel at Varadero) and headed to the canal on the eastern side
of the peninsula. I started with a sabiki rig and caught my first fish of the
day almost immediately. It was a Silver mojarra (Eucinostomus argenteus). After
that I set up my other rod and made cut baits from the mojarra and casted a
running ledger rig out.
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| Silver mojarra. |
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| The canal. |
Cause nothing happened I was going to check my
bait and was slowly dragging my bait on the bottom. When it was only about ten
meters from the shore I had a bite and hooked a fish. It was not a big fish but
still a nice little Mutton snapper and the second new species of the day.
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| Mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis). |
Later on I caught couple of more mojarras and
happily one of them was another new species. I also caught a cute little
striped fish with micro fishing gears. I was sure I had caught a new species
for me but found out later that it was only a juvenile French grunt
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| Yellowfin mojarra (Gerres cinereus). |
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| French grunt juvenile. |
The last day of the trip was much worse I
expected but at least I caught three new species. After all I had thirteen new
species from Cuba and it was the 20th country I have been fishing
(and caught fish from) at. And if you haven’t noticed yet: every fish bigger
than my palm is a huge monster in my standards…
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| Having a daiquiri with the Papa Hemingway himself. |
