Los Roques
Los Roques has been in my mind for a long time. Being attracted by any unknown destination, often in the ‘’special’’ kind of countries, it might sound strange being attracted by Los Roques.
Well, first of all, it’s many years that international fishing tourism in Venezuela went down a lot, allowing few anglers to fully enjoy this beautiful Archipelago without sighting dozen of other fishermen, secondly, the variety of species catchable on Fly make Los Roques one of the top three most interesting destination in the Caribbean (even in the top two ), the third reason is the nice Caribbean flair your breath there, no cars, sandy road, walk around barefoot all time and good Rhum, and fourth the price extremely affordable for the quality of services and fishing. I don’t think you can ask anything else about a fishing destination.
So, all this was just in my mind when I finally managed to organize my stay there to see with my eyes if my feeling was good, and what we found was exactly as I imagined or even better.
First of all, traveling via Caracas has been extremely smooth and easy, according to locals and foreigners who work in Venezuela, the safety situation has improved a lot, and in fact, everything has been super easy and pleasant.
The arrival in Los Roques is super cool, walking barefoot from the Airport to the Posada is so cool, no cars, no noise, and you are already feeling relaxed and ready to fish.
On day number one all the guys took a guide and the first day ends up with tons of Bonefish and one nice Permit. Enough to celebrate with some coke and Rum.
In the next two weeks, we had the opportunity to discover many new areas and spots every day and realize the real potential of this place, everything is possible, but a very common daily setup is to spend some time chasing small Tarpon in lagoons on a light rod, then go for Bonefish and possibly get few shots for big Triggerfish and Jacks are also a constant visitors on the flats.
It’s always possible to target Sharks, some flats have many, and while I'm not a big fan of sharks, on the fly in shallow water I always enjoy targeting them, so it’s wise to have a 9-10 wt rod set with thin wire or titanium leader for Sharks and Barracuda which are a constant presence on the Los Roques flats.
For the trophy hunter on top of double-digit Bones and Permit, Los Roques has something very unique to offer, the Rainbow Parrotfish and the Midnight Parrotfish. The first can be found in schools in some specific spots, they can grow over 10 kg, they are beautiful and they are the ultimate trophy, while the Midnight Parrotfish is rarer but in general more aggressive, with some luck, you might get one. We hooked him, but he bit the leader.
With Parrots, we have been unlucky because the water level was high and their spot was very high and rough, impossible conditions to chase Parrots, we only had a short good session when we hooked three of them.
Last, but not least, being lucky with baitfish, you can encounter some XXL Tarpon, we had shots and some resident big Tarpon and we hooked a few but all came off.
Overall we caught Bones, Permit, Triggers, Jacks, Tarpon, Snooks, Barracuda, and Sharks and we lost two different species of Parrotfish.
After this fishing, my idea of Los Roques is much better than what i had in mind before the trip, and of course, we will be back!
