Fishing the Blue River with My Buddy Gil- Part 1

Last Saturday, I was able to fish the Blue River near Grandview, Missouri, with my buddy Gil.  Gil and I have a mutual friend and this was our first time fishing together.  He was gracious enough to invite me to one of his favorite fishing spots and I was excited to fish somewhere that was new to me.  I will admit, when he asked me to fish the Blue River, I was a little hesitant because everything he described sounded so foreign to me.  First of all, it was in the middle of a fairly busy city.  Second, I haven't done much small river fishing in my life.  I fished the Little Blue River in Independence, Missouri, a couple of times but that was about it.  He also said we would be wading, which I had not done when I fished the Little Blue.  It all sounded as exciting as it was intimidating.  

We weren't able to hit the water until about 10:30 (because of some scheduling conflicts that I had) and by that time, it was already starting to get hot.  I also invited my buddy Joe, which I have just recently started fishing with as well.  Joe and I got rigged up in the parking lot with fly rods while Gil started fishing with some corn on a spinning rod.  From the minute we hit the water, we saw fish!  There seemed to be grass carp pretty much everywhere along with bluegill, gar, and the occasional bass.  The water was low and slow which I liked because it almost felt like a trout stream.  The water was pretty stained as well which made sight fishing difficult but not impossible.

It took us a while for us to hook into a fish and Joe was the first on the board.  He caught a small largemouth bass on a jig under and indicator and that was a big confidence boost to me.  In my experiences, any positive activity on new water can give a boost of confidence that can keep my motivation high.  The group started to spread out some and get into our individual grooves.  Gil started fishing a nightcrawler, Joe stuck with his set-up, and I changed to a John Deere about a foot under an indicator.  I had caught a couple of grass carp and a goldeneye on the Little Blue with this before so I had confidence in its abilities.  I also saw a lot of minnows in the shallows and tried to pair the greenish water with the light olive color of my fly.

I saw a few schools of grass carp that were cruising and seemed like they were on the prowl for food.  I kept telling myself that one of these were going to eventually make a mistake and that I would get a shot at one of them.  I've done the same thing at Bennett Spring State Park before and eventually the technique would produce.  This gave me confidence as well.  My strategy eventually paid off and I saw my indicator go down with the subtlety of a broken shoelace.  

From the minute I felt the hook set, I knew I had a good fish.  I could tell that it wasn't snagged by the way the fish swam and knew it was big because it used its weight to fight rather than its power.  It made some short runs at times and would try to get deep in the channel at others.  After thinking that I had him landed in the shallows on three different occasions, he eventually tired the fourth time.  I knew a lot of people look at fish like carp, drum, and gar as "trash fish" but to me, there is no such thing.  Even grass carp have some amazing qualities and to me, this one was a beauty.  Gil did some great work taking pictures and video and it was an incredible thrill!  After the fish swam off, I was excited to throw at some more fish and wanted to see Gil have some success as well.  It didn't take long for Gil to connect with a fish...but we will pick up from there tomorrow!