Don and Carmen Good Service from the Guides

We all met on the dock the next morning and I was a little surprised, but pleased, to see that Carmen was accompanying him, correctly outfitted for fishing. Although, I don’t think he asked for, or even realized, it, I got my first inkling that Don was being provided special treatment that day. In addition to his guide/driver for the day, the senior guide of the lodge also accompanied us in Don’s boat. He was Enrico’s unofficial leader and this was the first time I had seen him accompany a client into the field.

We left the dock side by side in two Nitro’s. Enrico was driving Larry and me in one, and Don and Carmen with the two other guides were in the other. We drove for a long time that morning, maybe an hour, at high speed and we were in a part of the river that I had not seen before when we finally reached our landing spot.

The beach was wide and sandy and we walked at least 100 yards before we reached the jungle. We found a trail that was somewhat overgrown and the three guides went ahead, periodically using their machetes. All in all, the way wasn’t too rough and we reached our destination after about ten minutes. Throughout this time we had been carrying on a pleasant conversation with Don and Carmen. Mostly, it amounted to swapping fishing stories between Don, Larry, and me but Carmen, also, held up her end of the conversation with some good stories of her own. She was proving to be a good fishing companion.

During the walk, Enrico stepped on a large splinter and it became deeply embedded in the sole of his bare foot. He couldn’t get it out by himself so he called the other guide over to help. After some preliminary and fruitless trying, the guide picked up his machete and calmly proceeded to cut a deep notch into Enrico’s foot. The notch turned out to be at least ¼ of an inch deep and, about, ¾ of an inch long. It got the splinter out and, surprisingly, there was no blood. The calluses on Enrico’s foot were that thick! The whole incident only lasted a few minutes and Enrico resumed walking, with no sign of a limp, as if nothing happened.

When we got there the lake was a good size, about 100 yards wide and it extended, out of sight, around a curve into the jungle. The good news was that there was a pretty wide beach along the near shoreline, plenty adequate for back casting. We would not have to stand in the water while fishing from that side of the lake.

I had been talking with Don about lures and I, of course, recommended the silver spoon that I had been using. However, he glanced over at Larry who had a woodchopper rigged to his line and, probably taking into account Larry’s recent 24 lb. catch, he decided that he and Carmen would try woodchoppers. Who could blame him?

At that point the chief guide kind of took over. He beckoned Don and Carmen to follow him and they strung out, single file, behind him with the other guide trailing behind. Enrico came next with me, then Larry, following. We, the four fishermen/woman, spaced ourselves about 30 to 40 feet apart and began to fish. As soon as Don, the lead fisherman, had fished a spot for a while with no success, the lead guide would signal him and they would move forward to the next likely spot and begin to fish there. If we, the following fishermen, were not having any luck we would also move, roughly taking the place of the person who had just vacated in front of him. We proceeded to fish in this manner for the first part of the morning.