Fishing with Mr. Miller

Mr. Miller was my biology teacher in high school.  He made a lasting impression on me because of his passion for biology and his love of teaching.  I looked forward to his class every day and I often look back on things that I learned in his class.  After I graduated from high school, Mr. Miller and I have stayed in touch.  He has mounted a couple of deer for me (he's always an award-winning taxidermist), we taught in the same school district for a few years, and we follow one another on social media.  I am grateful to have known him for so long and to be able to call him a friend.

I follow Mr. Miller on Instagram and thoroughly enjoy his posts.  Over the summer, I saw a post from Mr. Miller which described a fly rod that a former student of his built for him.  It didn't take me long to suggest to Mr. Miller that we should hit the water and test (pun intended) his new fly rod out.  He was excited about the idea and within the next week, we were pushing off of dry land in my jon boat.

To Mr. Miller's credit, he had thrown a fly rod before albeit many years prior to our day on the water.  That is why I shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that he picked up casting REALLY fast.  The muscle memory of setting a hook and landing a fish also came back to him quickly as well.  In total, we landed four species (hybrid striped bass, bluegill, red ear sunfish, and crappie) but Mr. Miller landed three of the four!  While the fishing was good, I have to admit that the conversation and reminiscing was even better.

As I stated in my previous post (Fishing with Courtney Ball), it is a lot of fun to spend time on the water with someone that shares a passion for fishing.  While Mr. Miller does indeed like fishing, his expertise does not end there.  His knowledge of birds, mammals, and overall ecology is more than I could even hope to achieve.  He has spent over 40 years teaching young adults about the wonders and beauty of nature and is a role model that I look up to and have for decades.  As John Ashley-Cooper once said, "One thing becomes clearer as one gets older and one's fishing experience increases, and that is the paramount importance of one's fishing companions."