Old cars, cigars and some fish: Cuba part 1

February 2015. Me and my girlfriend were finally travelling to Cuba. I’ve been trying to convince her for years that Cuba is the place to visit as long as the Castro brothers still have the power in their hands.

We had booked a conducted tour where the first week would be travelling around the country and visiting all kind of places of interest. The second week was dedicated only for relaxing and fishing in Varadero.

 

A real life picture from the streets of Havana.

After a few days traveling in Havana, Viñales and Santa Clara we arrived to the coastal city of Cienfuegos. And because we had a free evening I packed my fishing gear and headed to the shore. 

Cienfuegos. I was fishing just across the street.

Loyal to my style I started by finding out what might be hiding under the shore rocks. It didn’t take too long to catch my first Cuban fish. I’m pretty sure it’s a Frillfin goby but if you have other opinions feel free to tell me. After that it went dead for a long time until I caught my second fish. It was a small French grunt.  Not a superb fishing session but at least I caught two new species.

Frillfin goby. Ben C, I know you doubt about it...

French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum).

Next morning I was on the shore well far before the sun. Again I was lirking between the rocks. I had some cautious bites but could not hook single fish. Then I tried a bit deeper behind the rocks and caught one small French grunt. I tried also with sabikis, spinners and a spoon but not had a single bite with these.

With this taxi we made the funniest taxi ride ever.

Next day our caravan moved to the city of Trinidad. Our hotel was situated on the peninsula of Playa Ancón. Again we had free afternoon and because we were living by the sea I was at the shore in no time. Couple of hundred meters from our hotel was a small bridge with the fast flowing tide going under it. When I arrived there I saw several fish species right away, damsels, wrasses, parrotfishes, barracudas, puffers etc.

Here it is. A species fishing mecca of Playa Ancón.

And now you think I was catching all the time? Noup. All I caught was two Dusky damsel and one Doctorfish with my whip rod. There was couple of small barracudas hanging around but they just moved away every time I was offering poppers or spoons for them.

Dusky damsel. These brown damsels are always so easy to identify. Not.

Doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus). Caught with a piece of damselfish.

It was getting dusk already when I saw some predators chasing baitfish just ten meters from me. I quickly change a small Vibrax spinner on the line and casted it in the middle of the boil. I blanked on first cast but on the second I had a hit and soon was holding a small jack on my hands. On the same moment the wind calmed down totally and in a split second there was literally hundreds of mosquitos attacking my bald legs and arms. That’s the reason the picture of the Bar jack is that hazy. I just stuffed all my gear to my backpack and run back to the hotel. I think I got at least hundred mosquito and sand fly bites on me that night…

Bar jack. Normally the blue bar on the back is much more apparent.

With a mosquito repellent all over me and a head torch on my forehead I was ready for a quick early morning attack. I wanted to know if there was some night active species living between the shore rocks. It was much harder that I though it would be. I lost few critters before I finally caught the one and only fish of the session. Like all the three species last night this one was luckily a new species for me.

Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta). This one is a juvenile.

On the first week at Cuba I managed to catch six new species. Compared to the time I spent fishing I’m pretty satisfied with the results.

There's a real dream species to catch. Jicotea aka. Cuban gar. Saddly I didn't have chance to fish them.

You did not see this one coming. This was my first and probably last time tasting a real hand made Cuban cigar.

Alpine cyprinids

End of September 2014, northern Italy. Me and my girlfriend had been planning a little road trip around northern Italy and some other Alp countries. Of course I made sure that our accommodations were situated by or at least near some kind of fishing possibilities.

A real fishermans dream car. Powerful, spacious etc.

We flew to a city of Bergamo, rented a nice little Fiat 500 and drove couple of hundred kilometers to the village of Dolo. Next day we took a bus to the Venice. They say that you have to see Venice at least once in your lifetime. Well now I have seen it. Yes, it was different and kind of interesting but same time way too crowded for me even in late September. On the other hand it would be handy to fish straight from your window….

How about fishing from your window?

Ok, let’s get back to fishing. On the second morning it was time to add Italy to my list of the countries I’ve been fishing at. There was about 50 meters from our hotel door to the river bank. It was a nice little river with a quite clear water and moderate flow.

Once again I started with my four meter travel whip rod and it didn’t take long when I was holding my first Italian (or should I say North American) fish. It was a Pumpkinseed. There was some small bleak like fish swimming on the surface and I wanted to catch few of them so I took my one meter whip with a tanago hook and caught a few. There it was, my first new species of the trip, Alburnus arborella. I also caught one little cyprinid which I haven’t identified yet. I think it’s a juvenile rudd, but is it European or Italian version….somebody could tell me that.

Italian bleak (Alburnus arborella).

Would it be juvenile Rudd?

After mini species hunt I set up my bottom rig too. First I caught couple of Ruffe and Roach then came the second north American species I’ve caught earlier. Largemouth bass was very welcomed species indeed cause I didn’t have decent picture of it earlier. I caught one more Ruffe and a small Bass before it was time to us check out from our hotel and head north to the Lake Garda.

A bad ass bass.

The view from my fishing spot at Lake Garda.

We spent only one night at Lake Garda and of course I headed to the shore early at morning. There was lots of fish surfacing at the lake and I also saw few nice fish cruising by the shore line. I’m pretty sure the fish I saw were carp and maybe there was one tench too. My catch though was not so good. Only couple of European perch and few Sunfish. I thought they were Pumpkinseeds but if you disagree please let me know….here they are:

Sunfish 1

Sunfish 2

Sunfish 3

Later that day we crossed the border of Austria and spend the night at a traditional alpine house located in a small alpine village. There was nothing to fish for but a small river which was unfishable due the heavy rains day before.

Landhaus Walch. This was really nice and reasonable priced accommodation.

Next day was dedicated to “collecting” countries when we drove from Austria to Switzerland, made a quick stop at Liechtenstein and whizzed through Switzerland back to Italy. Our next hotel was situated by the lake of Como. After a short walk round the village and a delicious pizza at our hotels pizzeria it was time to get some sleep and getting ready for the mornings fishing.

Lago di Como.

Once again I sneaked out when it was still dark outside. I started my fishing by lurking with a small mormuska between the shore rocks. It didn’t take long when I landed a small wiggly fish. It was a Freshwater blenny and a new species for me. When the sun rised I saw there was lots of fish under the concrete stairs I was fishing by. The only problem was the fish were really cautious and I managed to catch only few of them. Luckily there was two more new species among the fish I caught. These two were a Danube roach and an Vairone. 

Freshwater blenny (Salaria fluviatilis).

Danube roach (Rutilus pigus). This species is NOT living in the Danube river.

Vairone (Telestes souffia).

At the afternoon I made the second attack of the day. This time the fishing was even more difficult but I still caught one Perch, one more Vairone, couple of Rudd (they might be even Italian rudd which would be new species for me) and last but not least a small cyprinid which turned out to be Italian nase and a new species.

My swim. Most of the fish were hiding under the concrete.

I had decided that next morning I will focus on catching one of the bigger fish I had seen cruising on the surface. I threw some freebies to the lake and waited for the fish to come. They were swimming in a small groups of two to four fish and were eating my offering every once and then. But when I casted out my crystal waggler float they vanished right away. I concluded that my only option was to fish with a freeline methods. It was really hard to cast the hook and a small piece of bread far enough but when the fish arrived again I gave it a go. I casted my bait few meters ahead of one of the fish and it dashed for it immediately and hoovered it in….the fight was on and soon I landed a nice looking fish a bit short of 1,3 kilos.

You can almost read from my face how happy I was...

Because we were on a road trip it was time to leave again. Our next destination was Lake Maggiore but on the way we made a quick visit to Lugano, Switzerland. It’s a really nice looking city with a magnificent surrounding. Among the fish species I’m also collecting countries visited and fished. There was a nice underground river flowing in to Lake Lugano right at the end of the city promenade. So I just had to smuggle my icefishing rod and box of worms to the shore. The place was full of fish. At least hundreds of Roach and Perch were gathered to the rivers end. It took about ten seconds to add a country when I caught my first Swiss fish. Soon after that we hopped to our Fiat again and rushed back to Italy.

My first Swiss fish. Sorry about the bad picture.

I got up before sun again and made a short walk to the nearby marina. There was really nice looking rocky shoreline so I started to lurk between the rocks. First I caught couple of Freshwater blennies but then there was something different hanging on my line. It was a Padanian goby yet a new species for me. During the morning I caught several blennies, gobies and Perch more before we headed to the lake by the kayaks we rented.

Padanian goby (Padogobius bonelli).

29^th of September I made my last fishing attack of our road trip. My destination was the mighty River Ticino at Somma Lombardo. My target here was Rhodeus amarus which I saw night before when we were relaxing by the river with dozens of local people. I started at dawn and caught two Padanian gobies right away. Rest of the morning was really quiet. Absolutely no sign of Rhodeus amarus and all the other fish had almost no interest about my baits. I caught only two small Perch and one juvenile Italian chub and a new species for me.

After all it was nice trip. 1600 kilometers in ten days. Four lakes, two rivers and two new countries fished and at least seven new species was much more I expected.

I want to thank Dr. Porcellotti from Ittiofauna.org. He has been a great help with identifying the species I caught from Italy.