Cayo Romano Cuba has been fishing beautifully
Just thinking back on my last trip to Romano and how well it fished. I tend to fish the late spring early/ summer time frame at Romano for a couple of reasons. Firstly, late April through June generally offers the most consistent weather, with lots of sun and with winds that are usually pretty manageable. Secondly, these months also offer the best opportunities found during the year for shots at the big migratory tarpon that swim these north coast waters during their yearly migration.
I love to wade whenever I can and Cayo Romano is one of the few places in the Caribbean that offers a great deal of excellent wading for those who want it. A combination of hard packed sand as well as volcanic rock/coral offer good solid footing where anglers can get out of the skiff and wade for hours. Most of the fishing while wading at Romano is for bonefish but I’ve landed 4-foot barracudas, snook and my largest ever permit, at just over 25 pounds, while walking the flats. It’s the kind of place where you have to have two rods with you when wading because the species diversity is so good that you just never know what might show up.
The bonefishing at Cayo Romano is as good as anywhere I’ve seen in the Caribbean and on my last trip there at the end of May, I was catching fish in the four to five pound range, all day every day. My biggest fish of the trip was around 8 pounds and I had multiple 6 pounders throughout the week. It’s hard to beat that when you are landing 15 fish per day, which was about my average for the week. On my third day I got out of the skiff at 9 am and spent most the day casting to tailing fish that were in tight to the mangroves. The low tide offered a lull of about an hour where I only saw a few fish hanging on the edges of the flat I was wading. So, I just switched over to my 9 weight and started chasing ‘cudas that were lurking in the channels and the deeper edges of the flats and they were more than willing to eat my popper. (a lime green chartreuse foam popper)
Having fished at Romano for 15 years now, it is just so damn nice to no longer have to do the long drive to and from the mainland every day. With the hotel situated just a two-minute walk from the marina where the skiffs are kept, my morning routine would consist of a shot of expresso in the lobby bar right before walking across the street to get into my skiff for the day. With a cigar bar, spa, two pools and even a bowling alley, the hotel has been a complete game changer and what was once a good fishery that entailed a long drive each morning and afternoon, has now been elevated to one of the top two or three fishing destinations in the entire Caribbean basin.
Heading back the last week of May, 2024
