FLY FISHING IN ARUBA

by

Lad Mingus

Of the many stories my father, Odis Mingus, told me about the early days when he arrived in Aruba, one in particular has stuck with me. His story follows:

I had arrived in Aruba a few days earlier.  You cannot imagine how stark Aruba or more accurately, "the Colony" was.  We had taken over the eastern tip of the island which eons ago had been a shallow lagoon which had risen leaving a solid mass of dead coral.  Gray in color with some desert vegetation here and there, truly it had the starkness of a moonscape.  The "Company" had spread caliche over the top of a piece of this coral and built a few "bungalows" for the staff employees and their families.  It was hot, dry and incredibly bleak. The one saving grace was the beauty of the lagoon which the houses overlooked.

On my first day off, I started out early in the morning to explore this Colony.

Shortly after beginning my walk, I observed a man sitting on a wooden box out in the middle of a patch of open coral.  He appeared to be fly fishing and best I could tell he appeared to be sitting in his pajamas while he was doing so.  Now this struck me as bizarre.  Here is a guy who appeared to be fly fishing on dry ground using a red ribbon tied on to a hook, casting it out, and waiting for a bite. Curiosity overcame my caution which forced me to walk out to him and ask, "Having any luck?" He glanced up, hesitating only a second and said, "Yup, got two earlier." Suddenly, the line went taut and there was a flash of blue at the other end and with great care, the "fisherman" reeled in a lizard. He gently took it off the hook and set it free, straightened the ribbon and cast again.
The fisherman or Lizard-man was Jimmy Bluejacket. He was a marvelously interesting man, an American Indian from Oklahoma. He was one of so many characters who populated the early staff of Lago Oil and Transport Company.