Cuba

The following article (in an edited version) appeared in the February issue of Africa's Original Fly Fishing magazine. It is Tom Lewin's account of the reconnaissance trip undertaken to Cuba by Tom and four Frontier Fly Fishing clients.

The Giant Tarpon of Cuba’s North Coast 

"We go through life with a diminishing portfolio of enthusiasms. Tarpon fishing provides an immense jolt of electricity that freshens up your feeling about being alive." - Jim Harrison, 1973

It’s been a week since I got back home and the aches and pains in my back and arm muscles have just about gone. The line burns have healed nicely and all the plasters are off, and the jet-lag is a thing of the past. But it’s the dreams that are the problem. My dreams at night are filled with enormous silver fish that leap out of the water, gills rattling, huge eyes glaring at me. Lately, I’ve been dreaming of nothing else, only these mirror-scaled fish, powerful as bulls and fast as greyhounds. The silver kings that constantly fill my dreams have captured my mind and my soul and I am battling to think of anything else. I am obsessed with these fish.

In July this year, I hosted a trip to an island off Cuba’s north coast to fly-fish for the area’s legendary giant tarpon. The island is part of a massive marine reserve that stretches out for hundreds of square kilometers and the crystal clear waters combine vast flats with deep channels and mangrove swamps. The place is pristine and untouched by man, but what makes it truly remarkable is the high concentration of big, unpressured tarpon, which is why my guests and I trekked for over two and a half full days to get there. Our fight from Johannesburg took us via Paris and on to Havana where we were given a VIP welcome at the airport and whisked on to our hotel. Early the next morning we boarded a charter aircraft and a couple of hours later we touched down on your typical Caribbean island – white sand beach, groves of tall coconut  trees and impossibly blue sea. Our base was a five-star hotel which backed up on to one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The large bedrooms were air-conditioned and the hotel’s massive swimming pool with floating bar was a popular spot with our group at the end of long, hot day’s fishing. Our accommodation was all inclusive, which means you could have anything to drink, from any one of the hotel’s bars, plus anything to eat from any one of the six or so restaurants, whenever, for free. Everyone agreed that as land-based accommodation went, this was a new level. We were well pleased with tarpon headquarters.

But it was the legendary tarpon fishing of Cuba’s north coast that we had come for. The massive, pristine marine reserve at Cayo Santa Maria is unexplored and plays home to large numbers of big tarpon that show up from May through until August to feed on crabs, shrimps and sardines on the rich tidal flats. The fish are short and heavy compared with their longer, more streamlined Florida Keys’ cousins, a fact attributed to the abundance of available food. Fly-fishing in the marine reserve at Cayo Santa Maria has only just opened up and the Cuban government has allowed only one company to operate in the area which should go a long way to sustaining this amazing fishery.

Our program worked like this: We would wake up at 6.00am and meet for a cooked breakfast at 6.30am in one of the hotel’s restaurants. At 7.00am, our transfer would drive us for ten minutes or so to the marina where the guides would be waiting for us. Once the boats were loaded we’d make for the fishing grounds, usually about a twenty minute ride. We fished until about 4pm each day and when the light got flat we’d head back to the marina for an ice cold frosty.

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