Leopard thongs and screaming reels

Yep it’s full moon time in the Rupununi again, and par for the course things are going crazy.
Ok 4:30 am, I’m awaken from a sound sleep by the scream of the reel….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz hell I’m not even dreaming about fishing, the fine young thing that was the dream will have to wait, Fish ON……… Never mind the fact that I’ve misplaced my torch lite, and all I have is the little reading lamp on the book I fell asleep with. Jump out of bed to see one Bandit, zipping across the floor with my broken 8wt. fly rod in tow. Whaaaa, hang on a minute Bandit, what broken fly rod, looks as though the ole gal has finally lost it.
Ok, so there was this fishing show film crew and host here a few days ago, this young thing was a real bubba as will be shown later in this story. Anyone who knows me or should know you never lend your favorite 8wt to someone you don’t know, hell I don’t even loan that rod to good friends. Mainly because they invariably wind up catching some record breaker on MY ROD.
Anyway I had, notice I said Had an extra 8wt. fly rod and reel which I agreed to loan along with some most wonderful flies. The long and short of it was the fool broke about 6 inches off the tip, brought it back agreeing to replace with a rod of my choice. SWEET!!!!!
Now, I make it a point to mash down the barb on all the flies I use, and of course take the fly off the line when returning home. This I neglected to do, when the broken rod was returned instead I just placed the broken rod up against the wall, the fly which happened to be one of my better gurglers, (a foam job that floats on top of the water)still attached to the line. The film crew and host of the fishing show the “Bubba” had spent the day fishing, a few nice fish caught, the night catching caiman. Next day there was to be a charter flight into here at Karanambu to pick up the guys and transport to the next destination. Now bear in mind that these guys are from the US, and don’t know the meaning of packing light, (300Lbs. baggage left behind) small Cessna lands at the compound, and what is pilot met by????? 6’ 8” camera man in a leopard pattern thong, waving a bow and arrow yelling buga buga or something of the sort. Once again, let me remind you I don’t have to make up this stuff , it just happens.
Only after being reassured that this fool in the leopard thong would put on proper cloths and act half way human were they loaded up with camera gear, I’m left with two state of the art graphite spinning rods and newest reels, a couple of lures, I’m happy, and we promise to have the rest of their baggage on the charter that will arrive tomorrow to pick it up….this is Saturday, and they leave for the states on Monday.
Sunday am, we are notified that the charter has been canceled so the scheduled TGA flight will pick up the baggage on Monday when they drop off 2 unsuspecting guest…..no problem……right…..
Monday morning 4am….One Shefishs is jarred awake by the sound of a screaming reel.
But before I start that saga, let me tell you a little about my furry roommate. He’s maybe 6-7 months old, wears a little black mask over his eyes, and is 5lb. of holy terror in the form of a crab eating raccoon, who of course was rescued by Diane McTurk, taker in of all beloved beast. Said raccoon was bottle fed until he started eating the nipples and she decided he had enough teeth to eat fish, shoes, computer cords, and world famous gurgler flies. This darling little creature of course is nocturnal, so he sleeps most of the day and raises hell most of the night that is until one Shefishs decided he should be kept awake most of the day so that at least he would sleep some at night. After much discussion of the advantages of letting me keep him in my room at night so she could get some much needed rest, Diane finally agreed that he could do some overnighters with me. This usually takes the form of me threatening to make a coon skin cap out of him before he sees the light and goes to sleep, only to wake about 4am every morning and start his daily hell raising. You see the picture yet?
That’s right, he gets the damn fly in his toothy little mouth, barb not mashed down for easy removal, me with no proper light, no pliers and it’s still dark out side. So there I am tying to find something to cut the line at least, this critter biting me and the hook, I run outside in my night shirt yelling for help, and all I can raise is hell. Finally one of the kitchen staff comes in, to start coffee, hell I ain’t even had a cigarette yet, and your worried about coffee. Just get somebody here with a pair of pliers. One of the boys finally comes to my rescue, we get the pliers, the hook removed, no blood except where the little devil bit me. One bandit released, to scamper off looking for something else to get into.
Still Monday morning
Several hours later, radio message is received that the local health team is to be in the near by village to do inoculations, and we learn we’re out of cooking gas in the staff kitchen, I’m informed I should notify the guys who are going to Lethem to hire a vehicle and we’ll pay half and get the stuff here….in the mean time 3/ 4 of the staff take off in our landrover to get their shots…..we’re trying to find out what time the flight to pick up the luggage will land because the rover will have to be back to pick up guest coming in on that flight. Now bear in mind this is all before 8am. Guy in the village are notified, never mind, we’ll take your vehicle, send the driver back in a boat, so he can use the other rover to pick up guest….oops…wrong, your vehicle doesn’t have enough fuel, your driver will drive back, and we’ll just get cooking gas. Ok….now the guest that is here wants to go fishing….NO PROBLEM> Off we go, I THINK ALL IS WELL…..
We arrive back at the lodge after a leisure morning of fishing….to find Diane having Kittens….the land rover is not back, the film crew baggage has to be at the air strip, the radio is going crazy, seems good ole Bubba left his pass port in one of the bags, and he couldn’t leave the country on the flight back to the states early this am. We have to get the bags on the plane. Ok so we all get out and push the old green bomb to start, the guest who just came in from a most excellent morning of fishing, and what few people who are left here, and we push, just as we are getting a good roll on the thing, the driver runs up from the water, telling us the other land rover went to Lethem after all they found fuel, he’s there ready to go to the air strip.
Mean while at the air strip, sits one TGA flight, with 2 new guest go to the VIP lounge only to find it inhabited by a sleeping anteater. Never mind the other passengers on the plane who are steaming.
Huston I think we have a problem,well maybe not, in a cloud of dust, belching black smoke, a green Landrover arrives luggage off loaded onto the plane, guest seem to be happy to know that they will not have to share the VIP lounge with steamed passengers on the plane from economy class, and yes there will be rum punch awaiting if the Green bomb doesn’t give up the ghost before we get back to the lodge.
Stay tuned…..will coonskin caps come into vogue in the Rupununi, will the charter pilot ever return to Karanambu, did bubba make his flight back to the states, or is he spinning some tale to the locals in Georgetown? Stay tuned the spin continues:::::::::