FISHING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
LOCAL STYLE!!!

Hola!

My name is Freddy Suriel and I was born in the Caribbean in a small fishing town called Rio San Juan on the North coast of the Dominican Republic. Like many Dominican families I grew up with lots of aunts and uncles. In 1978, I first moved in with my Uncle Ramon Suriel in the town of Cabarete. We lived in a small hut on the beach. It is located in the area where there is now water, in front of Velero Beach Resort. There were not many of us back then, so we were all, and still are, family. The same school that is on the main road was my school, except smaller; there were only about 40 children in the whole school. We spent our days like many 9 and 10-year-old boys dream of--skipping school and going fishing. Some times we fished from the shore, others times the reef. I spent hours back in the lagoon as well. Then in 1986 I moved to Santo Domingo for a year to live with another Uncle.

When I came back to Cabarete at the end of the year, Cabarete was filled with Canadian windsurfers. It was amazing! All my friends now had new girl friends; we all learned French and spent our time learning to windsurf and drinking Presidente with the newly arrived gringos. The first years that the tourists arrived were some of the best years of my life. But a day never passed that I did not fish.

Eventually I married one of those tourists. She was an American mountain biker from Colorado who decided to start a mountain bike company called Iguana Mama. I worked with Patricia, my wife, for 10 years as a guide for Iguana Mama; but in 2002 we sold Iguana Mama and moved to upstate New York so our children could have a better chance for education than I had.

Many things have changed in Cabarete. The main road that we used to play baseball on is now filled with honking cars and taxis. But I can tell you something, my friend. There are still waters that are the same as when I was a boy. There are still some of us locals who know what the real treasures of Cabarete are and who like to live like the Indians before us .In the winter some days, when the waters are still, we see whales pass by our small boat; other days we see turtle or manatee playing out on the reef.

But it is the silence in the air that you can still find in our waters and the feeling of peace that did not change and of course the tug of a tuna or dorado or needlefish. My wife, she thinks I am a philosopher, that I think great thoughts while I am out every day. But she is not a fisherwoman; how can she understand, it is the fish that I think of, all day, every day.

I enjoy fishing in New York State on Cayuga Lake… that is until the temperature drops below 50 Fahrenheit. I have spent the past three years fishing up North and practicing my English .My wife decided to start an organization called the DREAM Project to help the children of my Country. Now every winter we head back down to my country at Christmas time and stay until Easter. This year I decided it was time to show you all my Cabarete and my Dominican Republic. So the Dominicanfisherman.com was born, but do not forget, first I was a boy; with many, many fishing tales to tell.

Beinvienidos a mi Pais y mi reef
Freddy Mendez Suriel