Fishing with Miles- Part 1

Meet Miles; a 14 year old young man that is a good student, incredibly polite and respectful, and a guy that loves to fish.  He earned the title of Angler of the Year and won the One Fly Tournament in the middle school fly fishing club that I sponsor.  He has fished for trout, bass, crappie, wipers/hybrids, and catfish in many parts of Missouri and has aspirations to accomplish a lot more.  Miles is the type of young man that I hope for my boys to grow up to emulate and that is the highest compliment that I can pay Miles.  Now that you know a little bit about this young man, I can tell you...the rest of the story.

I ran into Miles's dad recently and he commented that Miles had been doing some fishing over summer break and if I ever needed a fishing buddy, to please contact him.  So when I had an opening in my schedule last Wednesday, I contacted him to see if he would want to join me on a little fishing excursion.  After kicking around a few options, we decided to fish for bass at Legacy Lake in Lee's Summit during that afternoon and for white bass and wipers/hybrids in the evening at Blue Springs Lake.  We planned to fish soft plastics and crankbaits at Legacy and hopefully fly fish at Blue Springs Lake with the hopes that we would encounter some fish chasing shad to the surface.  What we didn't plan on was an air temperature of 97 degrees and a heat index of 105.  Obviously, it was hot but there was a little breeze that took the edge off and the temperatures started to cool into the evening.  Also, it is important to note here that I decided to hedge our bets a little bit.

I have to admit, I kind of felt like a guide.  Miles was a "client" of sorts and I felt like it was my duty to make sure that we got some fish on his line and to avoid getting skunked.  I didn't want Miles going back to his buddies and telling him that we didn't catch anything or simply not having a good time.  It was with this in mind that caused me to make a pit stop on the way to pick him up.  While I am a little embarrassed to admit it since I have the audacity to go by the "Fly Guy," I also have to admit that if there is one thing that is almost guaranteed to put fish in the boat, there is one that that out-fishes everything else (in my opinion).  That's right, I picked up an insurance policy: live bait.

Hey, I'm not afraid to admit it, live bait works!  On top of that, I feel that it is my DUTY to help a kid hook some fish and have a good time.  While I have no problem fishing live bait (nor do I have a problem with anyone else who chooses to do so), I would prefer to catch them on a fly.  However, if the conditions dictate that live bait is the better option, then sometimes I am willing to make the switch.  Hopefully my justification makes sense and you will see later that it paid off...really, really well.

So I picked up Miles and we were on Legacy Lake in no time and quickly got into some 1-2 pound bass.  We actually starting catching fish on our first casts respectfully and each of us ended up catching at least 6 fish apiece.  Most of them hit on soft plastics (worms & crawdads) and they were a lot of fun.  While we didn't catch anything big, there were enough bites to keep us happy and the possibility of getting skunked was a distant memory.  Again, I would have preferred to be fishing with fly rods, but with the wind and the fact that my boat is a little crammed with two people throwing flies, I thought it would safer to fish with spinning rods.

With the sun getting lower in the sky, we had to make a decision.  We could either stay at Legacy where the fish were biting but all seemed to be the same size, OR we could go to Blue Springs Lake and take our chances with multiple species but unsure of the activity or location of the fish.  We were having fun at Legacy but the prospect of having MORE fun at Blue Springs lake loomed on the horizon like the setting sun.  I have been told in the past that you never leave fish to find fish but the prospect of better fortune is a hard proposition to turn down!