Pacemaker Fishing Forum

My uncle J=ohnny is 89 years young. he has a knack for recalling history.

Recently (Monday), I went fishing with my cousin, Johnny's son. It had been quite a few years since I've seen him but it turns out that we both like to fish basically the same way...for whaever swims at any given time. just being out on the water is the major victory.

So, as my cousin and I were trading emails after fishing, we included his dad, my uncle. Lots of bantering about small fish vs the giant fish he used to catch off the cast of Cuba.

Then this, I hope you enjoy it:

I am going to get serious in this response to Juani's (Johnny's son, my cousin) email sent to Ernie Rojas referring to "you have to be a fisherman to understand."  So far we have been pulling joking in our previous emails.

Juani describes one type of fisherman very clearly and accurate  ........  but there are many other types of fishermen like the fisherman aboard shrimp and/or whale boats, the tournament fisherman looking for big tunas, the fisherman that makes a living from the sea, the fisherman that enjoys the adventure of cruising with friends for fun and relaxation while visiting different locations, etcetera.  We (Juan Lopez and Johnny) were fishermen in this last category along the 240 miles stretch in the north coast of Cuba between Port of Cabañas, Province of Pinar del Rio and Punta San Juan, Province of Camaguey - PARADISE AREAS  located (1) west of Rio Almendares, La Habana - the open waters outside the Port of Cabañas and (2) east of Varadero, Province of Matanzas - the not so deep waters of the Sabana Archipelago (102 nautical miles from Bay of Cardenas to Bay of Caibarien).  For the Sabana Archipelago we can only describe it repeating the words uttered by Christopher Columbus when he first saw the Island of Cuba on October 27, 1492 - "this is the most beautiful place that human eyes have ever seen."

The sea nymph of my father YACHT NEREIDA was cruising-fishing first with Juan Lopez & friends and afterwards with Johnny & friends (note the word "friends" since Juan Lopez/Johnny were never alone aboard the yacht) while cruising-fishing in the PARADISE areas  ........  that during DAYTIME had deep blue ocean waters with bright sunny skies while trolling (especially for "wahoos" at the entrance to the Port of Cabañas and "kingfishes and Spanish mackerels" on the ocean side of Cayo Esquivel at the entrance to the Port of Isabela de Sagua) and during NIGHTTIME unbelievable skies with different constellations depending on the month of the year - examples: Usa Major (Big Dipper) that we frequently used to locate the North Star, Aquilas (Milky Way band which we have no words to describe its amazing beauty) and Cygnus (Northern Cross) were the best known constellations.  Just watching the skies during the pitch-dark- nights gave all of us aboard NEREIDA the inner feeling that there had to be someone with unlimited power and intelligence to create such gorgeous spectacle - that we were given the gift to enjoy -while deep sea fishing (red snappers next to Cayo Piedras del Norte positioned not far away NE from Reparto DuPont, Varadero) or other locations in the Sabana Archipelago.  The loss of yacht Nereida, the amazing waters of paradise on earth and our intimate sea-buddies (Captain Sebastian Lluch, Panchito Vianello and Alvaro Velasco) took everything out of us  ......  and we never went fishing again.  Period.

YACHT NEREIDA was commissioned in 1925 and, consequently, did not have all the "bells and whistles" that are available today on 42' yachts.  We had no radio to communicate with other yachts or land.  We had no GPS.  We had no refrigerator or freezer.  We had no air conditioning.  We had no radar.  We had no shower so we bathed in the ocean.  We had no fishing rods.  We had no fighting chair.  We had no fixed depth-meter. We had no electric range for cooking purposes.  The list can keep on and on covering other "bells and whistles" that are available today on all types of yachts.

What we did have was youth, an adventure spirit, guts and tough hands to pull the wires used for trolling purposes or the lines for bottom fishing.  We had a big ice box on the bow and the expected shelf life of 300-400 lbs of ice inside it would last at the most 3-4 days  ....  just enough to re-fill the ice box frequently when we entered a port.  The bottom line was that there were two venues available for food - daily fishing or canned stuff (like spaghetti with cocktail sausages, tuna, sardines, meatballs, black beans. etc).  To heat the canned stuff or fry fish we had a small alcohol stove with two burners in the "kitchen area" located in the bow next to the big ice box.  We had a great inventory of "booze" in the bilge space where it was kept cool since that below-floor level inside area was under floating line.  The single enclosed cabin in the center of the yacht had a bunk-bed and small dresser on starboard and another bunk-bed and small dresser on port side- but most of the nights it was so hot inside the cabin that we had to take the mattresses to the open deck and sleep outside - weather permitting.  We had a small bathroom with a toilet and a retractable basin - in both cases the freshwater had to be hand-pumped from the limited 150 gallons tank.  We had an open space area located on the stern that alternating was the living room, dining room and playing room (dominoes) - at night using for lighting a provisional hanging artifact that we came up with.   On our cruise and fishing trip from Habana Yacht Club to Punta San Juan in July 1951, we had two powerful repeating rifles, several handguns and plenty of ammo aboard to protect the "pirate's bounty" that we were hoping to find in Cayo La Vela (Key Boat-Sail) - northwest of the Port of Isabela de Sagua as part of the Sabana Archipelago.

WHAT DID WE FISH FOR ?

We had to fish every day to eat.  Period.  The alternative venue was canned stuff that we already mentioned above.

When trolling - our most used venue for fishing - we looked for kingfishes (serruchos), Spanish mackerels (sierras), barracudas (picuas) were delicious when very young, sawfishes (pez sierras), sailfishes (agujas) right outside the city of La Habana, etcetera.  When bottom fishing (1) around the reefs and wrecks of the keys/cays of Sabana Archipelago, we enjoyed catching yellow-tail snappers (rabirrubias), red snappers (pargos colorados), cubera snappers (cuberas), groupers (chernas), and mangrove snappers (caballerotes) plus (2) during the red snapper run next to Cayo Piedras del Norte, Varadero - around the nights before and after the Feast of St John the Baptist (June 24) - most of the fishermen boats (so many that from Casa Chijuan in Reparto DuPont the lights in the ocean resembled a small city) caught +/- 10-15 pounds red snappers in staggering amounts of dozens per boat.

If we were unable to catch fishes - on bad-luck days , after a very slow cruising through the keys/cays of the Sabana Archipelago or whatever other reason during our 14-day-cruise-and-fishing trip east of La Habana - we looked for the local fishermen bringing in their nets to the beaches in the afternoon.  We approached them in the dinghy and proceeded to trade white or dark Bacardi Rum bottles (we had cases of them that Adolfito Danguillecourt y BACARDI gave us as a gift prior to our departure in the July 1951 round-cruise-fishing trip of 414 nautical miles) for selected fishes and/or lobsters that the fishermen had in their nets.  Have you ever went fishing using light or dark Bacardi Rum for bait ?  We did so several times in a very successful way.

Also during our 14-day-cruise-and-fishing trip above mentioned, one day we went "fishing" for German submarine U-176 sunken by the Cuban patrol boat CS-13 on May 15, 1943 at a point in the Nicholas Channel north of Key Megano.  We were unsuccessful in our efforts because our hand-held-sonar was not able to reach the depth at which the submarine was resting on the bottom of the ocean (450 fathoms or 2,700 feet.) How about this exciting but aborted fishing expedition ?  We are sure that you regret not participating with us on this crazy expedition.     

CONCLUSION

There are many types of fishermen and they all have different experiences.  This email will give Juani and Ernie a glimpse on our experience when cruising-fishing-and-having fun simultaneously on PARADISE ISLAND.

Just for the record - the "wahoo" that we (NEREIDA) caught on a Fall day in 1953 at the entrance to the Port of Cabañas was as big or bigger than the one Juan Lopez caught at the entrance of the Almendares River in a Winter day.  We had no scale to weight the same but that night yachts Nereida and Indra (Charlie Lopez Oña) were docked side-by-side inside the Port of Cabañas and - between the two yachts - twelve sea-wolves ate "wahoo steaks" grilled aboard Chris-Craft 55' cruiser yacht Indra built in 1952 with all the "bells and whistles" of those days.  The steak round-sizes were overflowing the 8" plates on which they were served.  Uncle Charlie and his crew had to grill the steaks since yacht Indra lost the bet we had made when they caught a smaller "wahoo."



Here is the above mentioned Yacht Nereida-