It was seven AM on a nice lazy Saturday morning in Boca, so peaceful one could visualize a few cows walking across the street to my house for a milking. Ah, all the snowbirds have escaped up north. After helping a buddy in Parkland retrofit his McMansion by half past noon, I decide to call up my snake head brother Dependable Dondel to see what’s aching. The minute I told him about my super secret spot for Golden Arowana Snake, Dondel was calling his traffic lawyer. I arrived at the spot a few stone throws from Parkland at two PM and did not see a soul but me and snake head heaven. Fifteen minutes into the oppressive humid thunderstorms I have already sweated two mountain dews and missed five bites with a white scum. Half past two I switched to a black red scum and I hooked into a ten pound beauty that was tedious to land and worrying about when a sprite was going to kiss me since I was holding a long all aluminum landing net. Dondel called and said he is at the school and did not see me while I was unhooking the Golden Dragon?
What school? When he told me he was out skating on this oppressive summer afternoon I knew the senior delinquent has missed it, the location was super secret and even our seasoned snake veteran could not find it on his GPS and drove thirty minutes past it. Yeah yyyouchhhh, as I told Dondel the directions step by step, like triangulating a howitzer round on an enemy counter sniper. I could not get him off the phone fast enough; Golden Dragon the ten pound snake head had decided that my left thumb was a Chinese Fortune Cookies and bit into freedom. I am normally immune to pain but this feels like a piece of RPG shrapnel going into the back of my head and the blood was flowing freely. I iPhone shot Golden Dragon and evicted the naughty Snake from my landing net before lightning could find its mark, then ran to the Brazilian bush looking for cobwebs and cleaning the wound with mountain dew.
I stuffed enough cobwebs to stop the bleeding and used my lighter to sear the flesh and sterilize the wound area and wrapped a couple of maple leaves around for a bandage with the fiber from a cattail – bleeding should stop completely in fifteen minutes. My second snake head was at a drop off and now I barely have one working hand left to set the hook and pull in Golden Jewel – a smaller six ponder who is just fighting the heck out of my good arm. I eBook it with a stick rather than my left thumb, took a picture and threw it back. One last cast before I get a call from Dondel that he is lost, I am try to reel in a small two pounder Golden Pale that was easy to land without the net to my relief , and quickly release. I back track to the rendezvous point and caught Dondel one hour late, frustrated and missing all the oppressive heat action of the early afternoon.
Quarter past three the lightning bolts were still not close enough to kill us both and we welcomed the torrential rain that cleansed our frustration from the continued missed bites. I stop fishing and gave Dondel the tour de Golden Horde. Finally by four Dondel finally nailed a snake head with his green scum. After that it rained and was so windy we had to find cover under some wild plantains and wait for the lightning fireworks to end. By five we have more missed completely, and Dondel switched to a bait he was trying to spring clean from his Pandora Box. I was making fun of him – here we go again- and he caught a bass around seven pounds. It was bleeding profusely so I did not have the heart to iPhone it.
Dondel next cast into a sinkhole and was hit by Golden Rainbow a monster so pretty, I dreamed of taking it home and putting in my pond for good luck to the ancestors, but these Giant Snakes will die of stress so we decided catch and release is always better than a trophy. Then the cloudy storm abated with a rainbow sunny disposition and heated up our disappointment in this late afternoon. We sighted twenty more Golden Giant Snake Head at this Snake Beauty Pageant – no one was interest in us judging for the evening. After a few heavenly sprites, we were getting too close to God and decide to quit at 6pm.
Some body left a whole mess of cat food around Dondel’s SUV. I did not believe him until I saw it…wow, why do strange things happen only when I go out with Dondel??? Sunday night I returned to try my luck around six pm while grocery shopping and discover an old lady driving around the strip mall feeding feral cats and ducks. She put food under my car too. Note to myself in four weeks – the ducklings she fed should be of good roasting size to bring over to Dondel and have a Peking Duck War!!!
Safeman: Sardines rule baby!!!