A Day on Truman Lake with the Hybrid King & Jordan

Last weekend I got the opportunity to fish on Truman Lake with Gary of Gary's Fishing Guide Service (816-520-5358) and a young man named Jordan.  If you are a frequent visitor to this site then you already know a little bit about both of these guys.  Gary is an outstanding guide that focuses on walleye and striper hybrids.  He is as knowledgeable as he is hard working and has a passion for both fishing and putting others on big hybrids.  Jordan is a young man that I have known since he was in sixth grade.  He is eighteen years old and headed off to college next month.  Aside from being a bright, polite, and respectful young man, Jordan is a heck of a bass fisherman that surpassed me in terms of general bass fishing knowledge a long time ago.

Meet Jordan, bass fisherman extraordinaire.

Gary is the handsome one...or the one on the right if you need more help.

Gary and I set this trip up about a month ago when Gary invited me down to Truman to do some fishing and to help me write a post for this site.  It dawned on me after booking a date that I had mentioned going after hybrids to Jordan when we went up to our family farm to do some bass fishing.  I also remembered a conversation that we had about how Jordan has been trying to catch a largemouth larger than 6 pounds.  He has come extremely close in the past and actually landed a bass that went 5 pounds, 14 ounces.  Jordan has never been the type of person to cut corners and did not accept this as a goal that had been reached.  While a hybrid would not take the place of his lofty largemouth goal, I figured catching a big hybrid and potentially the biggest freshwater fish of his life would help appease his chase for a big largemouth if only a little bit.  It was a no-brainer that Gary and I needed to get Jordan on a big hybrid and thankfully, we were able to coordinate our schedules.

Jordan showed up at my house at 3:30 and we were on the water with Gary around 6:00.  We immediately saw shad busting on the surface and our optimism rose to levels of grandeur.  Gary got us on a couple of white bass pretty fast and we were glad to get some early fish in the boat.  While we were chasing hybrids with bucktail jigs and downriggers, the white bass were a nice addition.  As we trolled, we approached a school of shad that were being chased to the surface by some unseen predators.  I cast a fly to the school with no success but Jordan on the other hand threw his baitcaster and started walking a spook-type bait.  There was an explosion that resembled a bowling ball getting dropped in the water and the fight was on.  This was the first hybrid that Jordan had ever tangled with and was impressed with the fight that the fish put up.  He fought valiantly and even got the fish close enough to the boat and the surface for us to see it but that's when things headed south.  Hybrids fight hard and fight harder when they see the boat and figure out what is going on.  The fish made a strong run and broke free.  In true Jordan form, he didn't get down and took the experience as one to learn from.

Over the course of the morning we caught a variety of species such as walleye, channel cats, and even blue cats.  We also saw about a dozen bald eagles and in one instance, two of them were sitting on a single tree branch and were so close they could have touched each other.  We also saw LOTS of breaching spoonbill and carp.  Gary changed jig colors, we tried crankbaits, and even trolled stickbaits on the downriggers.  The big wipers seemed to be eluding us but Gary stayed optimistic and shared with us what was going on with the fish and what the electronics were telling us.  He constantly educated us on fish locations, bait locations, the proximity of hybrids to bait, and what the whole puzzle meant.  He assured us that they would bite soon and that we would be patient until they did.  He was right about everything and we eventually found a fish for Jordan.

We had just pulled up to one of Gary's favorite spots and Gary started to let out some line to attach to the downrigger when I saw the line go tight and the rod bend.  He got Jordan on the rod quickly and what happened nextl was something that resembled a saltwater type fight rather than a freshwater battle.  Jordan would pull back and reel down and then repeat.  The fish seemed to be hooked well and Gary exchanged what has now become our customary high fives when things work out the way they are supposed to.

As the fish got closer to the boat, it gave some hard pulls and some small runs, but Jordan ultimately let it wear itself out and when we finally saw the fish, it was obvious that this fish was MUCH larger than the one Jordan had lost.  Gary netted it, got it in the boat, and Jordan had landed the largest freshwater fish of his life.  The hybrid tipped the scale at just a hair over 9 and 1/2 pounds and was a beautiful representative of his/her species.  More high fives were exchanged and nobody could shed a smile.  I took pictures, Gary took pictures, and Jordan even got the entire experience on video with his chest-mounted GoPro.  Jordan then nursed the behmouth along the side of the boat and it swam away a little smarter, a little sore (I assume), but alive and able to fight another day.

It was a pleasure and an honor to spend time with both of these guys.  It is hard for me to describe how much I appreciate and can relate to Jordan's passion for fishing.  He embodies all that is RIGHT with the next generation of fishermen and gives the often criticized "Millenials" a better reputation.  While Gary shares the same affliction as Jordan and I, it is obvious to see that he has reached the point in his life where he enjoys seeing the success of others more than he enjoys his own catches.  He is the most passionate, enthusiastic, and personable guide I have ever met and that is why I continue to go out with him once or twice a year.  In the end, if you want hope for the future, then I hope you get to fish with Jordan sometime.  If you want to catch wipers on Truman however, then you need to call Gary's Fishing Guide Service at 816-520-5358.