Big Bend Sportsman Guide Fishing Stories
"Stories from the
Caribbean"
From a Series of Short Stories
By: Capt. "Tato" Reyes
You need to Meet Don Jimmy
There is no way you can enjoy the
reading of these stories from the Caribbean without getting to know
some of these characters that I will talk about. The first one needs
to be Don Jimmy. Don is a title like Sir or something like that, when
you want to show respect to someone like him you would not call him
just Jimmy, you would add that Don in from of the name to indicate
some special dignity to this person.
Having said that I must say that
he has been living in the Hyat Regency Complex for many years since he
retired as the master Chef of the three hotels in our complex. The man
from humble origins made his way up from a bus boy to the point were
the hotels paid for his schooling finishing at Cornell University in
New York where he received the degree in Culinary Arts.
The house next to Don Jimmy’s
belonged to my brother in law and after Ivette and I graduated we ask
him to sell it to us. We fell in love with that house the first time
he let us spend our vacations there. It was just paradise.
One good day I showed up in front
of the house with a truck and all our stuff and became his neightbor.
The man did not took long to show
up at the door and offer to help and brought us some food. This was
not just any food of course, the man was not capable of any simple
dish, he was all about exquisite dishes that you could only dream
about.
We became great friends even when
he was quite older than me, but we both loved great food, excellent
wines and cooking.
We moved in with Ivecita who was
less than a year old and as soon as we moved in Ivette was pregnant
again, this time with my son Tatito.
Before you know there is a boat in
my driveway and I am ready to go fishing. Because of having Wednesday
off and Ivette having to take care of Ivecita and being pregnant I had
no one to go fishing with me. Fishing by yourself is a very
challenging enterprise and I enjoyed it many times catching up to a
375 pounder by myself. But good company is even better once you have
proven the point that you can catch them alone.
Don Jimmy was the answer, he was
retired, had all the time of the world in his hands and never
questioned what I said.
Never been fishing before, never
been out at sea before, and needless to say did not know how to swim.
At the beginning I took him out
for short rides and after a few times he would not get seasick anymore
and he also stopped wearing the life jacket all the time. Believe or
not, he would strap that life jacket as we left the house and before
we even got close to the water.
I took him several times bait
fishing along the coast as we caught Skipjack Tunas and Mackerels on
spinning gear trolling Mirrolures and yellow feathers . He learned the
basics of boat handling, gaffing, netting and driving the boat with a
“fish on”. One thing he refused to try was to grab fish by the tail
because that would involve a very risky move overboard he was not
willing to try without his life jacket.
Needles to say he could clean fish
faster than anyone I know, he was a master with the knife. He proved
himself on small fish and with the big ones too.
Don Jimmy was great company and
once exposed to the first “monster fish” he was an excellent mate. It
took him a little bit to handle the Marlins trashing along the side of
the boat. Later I learned that he was never afraid of the fish but of
the damage they could inflict on the boat. “What if the boat sinks,
who is going to come and get us?” That was his concern.
We had endless hours of fishing
together and he never ceased to amaze me with his comments. I remember
saying on one of those flat days as I look to the horizon,”God there
is a lot of water out there” and he said “and you are only seeing top
one…”
I will never forget the day he is
about to gaff a small 200 pounder I brought to the boat to fast when
the fish jump vertically next to the boat. It was so straight up and
high that he could have fallen either way but Don Jimmy let go of the
flying gaff and push the fish with both hands away from the boat as
the fish reached the high point of is jump. The he looked at me and
said: “That son of a bitch was going to fall inside of the boat and
beat the shit out us”, “it did scare the shit out of me…”
I let the fish run a little bit
more and then it was ready for the gaff, it was boarded without
consequences but Don Jimmy gave him a few extra hits with the club
just in case.
You will hear a lot about Don
Jimmy across the book, I just wanted you to meet him. He is enjoying
good health and still living in Puerto Rico. No fishing though… once I
moved he retired as a fisherman and picked up golf.
From
a series of fishing stories submitted by Capt Tato Reyes
copyright Capt Tato Reyes
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