We are at the end of June and I have yet to write a single article about fishing. The reason being is that the foraging and turkey hunting seasons are time sensitive. In other words, I needed to get them plugged into the editorial calendar before the topics become stale. But enough is enough and today I have a great story to kick off the first article of the fishing season.

About a month or so ago a longtime friend called to ask if I would take his 13-year-old grandson boat fishing the next time he came to town for a visit. I may be a little particular with my adult boat partners, but I am a push-over for young pups. In this case, it was Kailu who was born in Hawaii and now resides in North Carolina. I had met Kailu once, but we had never discussed fishing. He had told his grandfather that he wanted to get on the water to catch anything that would bite. Since he wasn’t too particular about a guide I was hired without the need to provide references.

I was prepared to walk Kailu through the basics but after he got in my boat it quickly became obvious that he was a fishhead in the making. He had already tangled with everything from tarpon to crappies and just about everything in between. In addition to that I found out that he dabbled in making a few of his own lures. It was clear that this was going to be a good day.

We hit the water both thinking that we would fish for whatever was in the mood to bite. We eased around the lake and actually found enough bluegills and crappies to keep us focused on those two species. The size of the fish caught wasn’t remarkable, but the number of fish caught was borderline epic. We got into a crappie binge where fish were landed one after another.   

The catching was interrupted with a short lesson on how to drive my boat. Going on an outing like this would not be complete without such an important lesson. We didn’t hit anything and although I’m not authorized to hand out a legal license I would offer that Kailu had enough understanding and skill to be awarded an unofficial boat driver’s learner’s permit. 

When it was time to head to the landing I awarded Kailu one more cast. As expected, that final cast lasted about 10 minutes, but I had no problem with that. When I was young, I used to beg for one more cast and then another, and another, and so on.  

At the end of the outing I could not have been more impressed with Kailu. He was polite, genuine, grateful and appreciative. It was a treat to see someone so young and so grounded. All of that will get you two important things in life: (1) your “boat” pointed in the right direction for a successful life, and (2) an automatic invite back into my boat.   

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