Into the Creek Entering the Inner Lake

The creek had been an interesting place. It was almost like being in a Tarzan movie. It was completely surrounded by thick jungle, on both sides, as well as, above. Although it was a sunny day, it was dark and gloomy at the surface of the water because no sunlight was able to filter through the top cover of tree leaves. Although we saw no wildlife, there were many sounds of jungle life: lots of bird and insect noises. There were many large spider webs with large, colorful spiders in residence, at many places along the way. Overall, the boat passage was spooky, and fun!

When we got into the lake proper, we began to fish as we had done in the previous lake. In no time, I got the first hit and it proved to be bad news! The fish I caught was a native specie that we had been calling a “dog fish”. In short order we caught several more of this same specie. The dogfish we caught were in the range of 2 to 5 lbs. They give an immediate good fight but give up easily, surrendering themselves to be pulled docilely in on the final retrieve. In other words, they are not a fun fish to catch. They resemble in shape the common carp that we have in the USA but, unlike the colorful carp, they are uniformly dull gray in color. However, the most distinguishing feature has no resemblance to a carp, whatsoever. The mouth is large and, when it is wide open, it exhibits the meanest set of large teeth that can be imagined. By any measure, it is one scary looking fish!

Enrico appeared surprised and, with a disgusted look on his face, said that we should reel in and return to whence we had come. The problem was that the dogfish are known to be fierce predators. So fierce, in fact, that when their numbers become large they are capable of taking over and completely dominating their immediate habitat. This includes eliminating any Peacock Bass in the area, even though the bass are a larger species. The lake we were in had been taken over by the dogfish and we were very unlikely to catch any bass in it. It was a shame; too, because Enrico told us that the last time he had been there (months before) the bass fishing had been good. Apparently, it had been one of his better, “secret” spots.

We returned to the first lake via the same creek passage that we had arrived by. In short order, we were back fishing the same way we had been in the morning, with Larry and I in the middle of the lake and Steve and Barney fishing its edges. After a bit of a lull, I caught a nice 5½ lb. Peacock and shortly after that Larry and I both, simultaneously, hooked and reeled in “barracudas”, each about 12 inches long. This is another native specie that looks rather docile until its mouth opens and displays its dangerous looking teeth. This fish is just another, stark reminder that we were in the jungle and that the jungle can be a really mean place.

Enrico continued to surprise. He took one of the barracudas and stitched its body with fishing line, for its entire length, in such a manner that the fish remained alive. To the trailing end of the fishing line he attached a triple hook creating, for all intents and purposes, a living fishing lure. He, then, rigged this living lure to the line on our spare rod and played the line out into the water, allowing it to troll after the boat as we slowly traveled along. We could see by the movement of the line in the water that the fish swam erratically as it followed the slowly moving skiff.