The Ladder – with Railing Barney Climbs the Ladder

In no time, it seemed, they had constructed a strong ladder that they leaned against the cliff and it reached past the top. Larry, teasing Enrico, said, “It looks great, but there’s no handrail.” The guides glanced at each other and, not to be outdone, they grabbed their machetes and, again, disappeared into the jungle. They returned in a short time with additional tree limbs. Using the same notching and lashing techniques, they quickly fashioned a creditable handrail and attached it to the ladder. They then disappeared into the jungle with their machetes and we could again hear the hacking, this time with the sounds slowly progressing away from us. They were clearing a pathway through the jungle.

When they returned, we all got together and pushed/lifted the skiffs up over the cliff, onto the path. The next job was for Barney to climb the ladder, which he did, slowly, but completely on his own. Everybody in our party, including Barney, had a great smile of triumph on their faces when he finally made it to the top of the ladder and stepped onto the jungle floor. We then proceeded in a linear progression through the jungle pathway.

Enrico, Larry and I pulled the first boat, laden with the fishing gear, lunches, the outboard motors, gasoline, life preservers, etc. along the cleared jungle floor. Behind us, the two other guides and Barney’s young friend pulled the other boat. Barney gamely tried to walk but, for a good part of the trip, he rode inside the pulled boat. After about a half of a mile’s distance we came upon the shore of a large, inland lake. This was our objective, where we were going to fish for the day.

The guides continued to surprise us. They pulled a revolving bass chair from under the boat seat and set it on a chair-high pole in the back of Barney’s boat. When we launched the boat and were all set in the water, Barney was ensconced on that seat with a big smile on his face, looking, for the entire world to see, like the “cat that ate the canary”.

The whole episode spoke volumes about the abilities of our guides and the real care that they have for their clients.

I told Enrico about their plan and he said that it might work but, that the bigger fish were in the center of the lake, and that we should try there, first. If nothing else, I had learned to trust Enrico’s judgment, implicitly, in all matters relating to fishing these waters. He moved our skiff to the center of the lake. Larry and I rigged up our lines, Larry with a woodchopper and me with my normal silver spoon lure. Enrico moved the skiff forward very slowly, under minimal power, with Larry and I standing and casting/retrieving to opposite sides of the boat. In this manner we began to traverse the center length of the lake. It was a bigger lake than I had been used to fishing; a couple of miles long, at least.

It wasn’t long before I got the first hit: a nice sized Cara. Enrico’s family had another meal! In rather quick succession, I pulled in two more fish: a nice, 4 lb. Peacock and a 3 lb. Butterfly Bass. It wasn’t long, however, before Larry topped me, in grand style!

He hit something really big that bent his rod almost double, forcing him to use a “pump and reel” motion for the retrieve. There was a big fish on his line, just sitting in the water tugging on the line. After a good tugging battle between Larry and the fish, the fish took several good runs, before Larry finally landed him. The whole battle had been rather expertly done on Larry’s part. The fish turned out to be a big, beautiful, 15 lb. Peacock! Larry had become the “high hook” in our family and, although we didn’t know it at the time, he wasn’t through, yet.

Soon, thereafter, it was getting close to lunchtime and Enrico asked us to reel in. We headed back to the small beach where we had put in, picking up the other skiff on the way. Both Barney and Steve were happy. They had been catching bass in the range of three to eight lbs. and had had a good morning’s fishing. Larry’s catch, however, was still the king.