One of the anglers shows off his catch

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Back on shore, the boats are pulling in to the mud bank that is the landing area. Pigs and chickens run around, looking for any crumbs dropped from lunch bags. The Las Tunas team shows me its worms: all hand poured and rigged on homemade light football-type jigheads. Their fish are still on the stringer in the water. Most of the fishermen are playing it close to the vest, keeping their stringers submerged. This is partly to keep the fish wet as long as possible-"they won't be officially weighed here but back in Bayamo, a two-hour drive during which the fish will be out of water. And it's partly just to keep other teams guessing about how they did.

That afternoon, in a small square in the dusty city, the official weigh-in finally takes place on old-fashioned mechanical scales that might have been borrowed from a fruit stand. Moving away from the pack has paid off for Las Tunas. They are in first place with six fish weighing 38 pounds, more than 6 pounds ahead of the second-place team, Villa Clara, which has 31 pounds. One of the Granma anglers has his photo taken with a fish of just over 10 pounds, the biggest bass caught in a tournament on Leonero in years. The guys who didn't get to fish today look grave. Thirty-eight pounds is not unheard of, but it will be tough to equal, let alone surpass.