Cuba – Jardines de la Reina
Fly Fishing for Tarpon
The Jardines de la Reina Archipelago is located some 100 km to the south of Cuba’s mainland. This coral reef is almost 160 km long and thus the third longest in the world! The entire area is covered by 250 pristine islands with incredible mangroves and various “inhabitants” such as crocodiles, turtles, lizards and many more. The Jardines de la Reina were declared a national park in 1996 and have enjoyed special protection since then. For example, commercial fishing is strictly prohibited!
On this trip I joined Helmut Zaderer’s group. Helmut has been organizing these trips for many years. Everything was perfectly planned and scheduled. We flew to Havana via Madrid and spent the first night in a hotel. The next day was at our own disposal. I booked one of the famous vintage cars for a sightseeing tour of the town, something I can really recommend. Unfortunately, the day was overshadowed by a tragic accident when a building (not far from our hotel) was destroyed by an explosion.
The next morning, we set off on a bus and after a 7-hour ride reached the port of Jucalo where we boarded the mother ship “Jardines III” After a further seven hours (roughly 72 nautical miles) we finally reached our destination – quite a long journey from Frankfort to Jardines de la Reina. The area is divided into 3 zones (A/B/C). We were to fish in zone C.
With the exception of the last day the weather was fine and our expectations very high after the success of previous years. As is often the case with fishing, things turned out differently …
We got off to a great start on the first day with 2 grand slams. The remaining outings were tough for all of us because the large tarpon schools disappeared. To add insult to injury, many a fish refused to take a perfectly cast fly. You couldn’t help but think that that these fish had seen plenty of fly patterns in their lives. At the end of the day, we all caught our fish and set off on our way home with a feeling of satisfaction. I hooked 22 fish and was able to land 10 tarpons and a wide variety of other species.
Many thanks go to the organizer, Helmut Zaderer (https://flyfish-adventures.com/) and my angling and skiff partner Andreas Bächle who had been there several times previously and who gave me invaluable tips on tarpon flyfishing.
Tight lines
Stephan Kreupl, May 2022