Fly Fishing Education
After all of the rescheduling to avoid hurricanes, my trip coincided with the second national Cuba fly fishing competition. Used as a vehicle for education, the competition attracted 26 participants from around Cuba.  Many participants were guides, but some were just hard-core anglers. 

Some of the contestants receive instructions prior to the casting competition

This education effort was great to see because education is an essential (but often overlooked or underappreciated) component to effective conservation and fisheries management.

Because fly fishing gear is hard to come by in Cuba, there was quite an array of rods and reels, and some participants had to borrow rods for the competition. As you might expect, there was a wide range of skills in casting and fishing, but I think that everyone in the competition learned a lot.

The competition included two days of fishing in Las Salinas, and one day of casting competition.  The 26 anglers (13 teams) were divided into two groups, and rotated fishing and casting days.

The casting competition included accuracy and distance events.  For accuracy, casters had to hit targets at different distances with the fly.

The distance competition was for maximum distance on both forward and backward casts. 

In the final event of the casting competition, anglers had to cast the fly through a target (a wooden frame) at different distances, on both forward and backward casts.

On my final day in Jaguey Grande, I was treated to a very cool sight. We parked the car on the side of a dirt road on the outskirts of the neighborhood, and walked down a path that cut through a field of scattered brush. Suddenly the tall grass ended, and we were in an area where the grass had been cut short. And there were kids casting fly rods. Machito was there providing instruction. These kids, 8 – 10 years old, were casting better and farther than a lot of experienced fly anglers in the States.  I think six kids were casting on that afternoon, but Machito said he has at least 12 in his program. The goal of the program is to educate the kids about environmental conservation through fly fishing, and train the next generation of fly fishing guides at the same time. Laudable and impressive.  

The shortcoming of the kids education program is that they don’t have enough rods, reels, and fly lines. This gear is tough enough for the guides to get, and kids being kids, rods get broken.

All material copyright Aaron Adams 2007, 2008, and beyond, unless otherwise noted.