returns from cuba

After an unusually windy April and first half of May the weather finally went back to normal conditions in the Caribbean for this time of the year. The typical May-June weather is low wind to nearly flat calm until 2 pm, when the wind picks up a bit, followed by some rain showers in the evenings and nights. The rest of the season from June and into first week of October usually has good weather conditions and excellent fishing, but of course there are no guaranteesfor weather anywhere in the world. According to Ulysses and Samuel, that has guided the area for 20 year, these are normal conditions. Last week I focused on flats fishing. To see a tarpon, and cast to it with precision, without scaring the fish, see the tarpon eat the fly and then try to set the hook is a fantastic challenge. Pure adrenaline and a bone shaking experience! The 5 days of fishing the flats resulted for me in 35-40 hookups with 7 landed to the boat. Weight ranged between 40lb – 115lb, with a majority around 70-80lb. As said, it’s not easy to set the hook and to calculate the power and timing needed for a correct hooking. I must admit I lost some flies and leaders as well as doing all beginner mistakesover and over again.All in all one of my best fishing weeks ever even if the guides said it was not a top week. Some anglers preferred the channels and the big 3-meter deep basin. There were days when they saw fish rolling everywhere and had lots of hookups, fish jumping, and also quite a lot of fish landed. Most of the fish in these places were over 100lb with the biggest landed to the boat weighing in at 140lb. The stories were of course of the even bigger ones that could not be landed.