Never done no photo ops but during the 70-80s I belonged to two bass clubs in Henmphill TX whose members included John Torain, John Hall, John Dean, Villis P "Bo" Dowden Sr, Harold Allen, Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin, Rick Clunn, & Zell Roland.

Fished a dozen tournaments with Lonnie Stanley, Terry Oldham, Jerry Dean, Shaw Grigsby, Ken Cook, Todd Faircloth, Bob Sealy, Ron/Rick Pierce, & Darren "Mad Man" Mooneyham.

On a few occasions I met Gary Yamamoto, Ben Matsubu, & Takahiro Omori at the cafes and boat launches around Toledo Bend and Rayburn.

I worked for short while for The American Sportsman where I met Claude Hamilton "Grits" Gresham and Fred Bear.

Attended a 5 day seminar under Elwood "Buck" Perry.

Yeah he wasnt to full of himself to look me in the eye and personaly answwr my seeming stupid or extremely simple question

KVD's the new Bill Dance in terms of being a great ambassador for the sport. He's well-spoken and has a way of explaining. He's accomplished about everything you can in his sport, so his opinion carries a ton of weight. Swindle is the new joker of the sport. maybe not the nicest guy there is, but very funny. Could have had a career in standup.

I'll send you my autograph

 

*Wipes away a tear* *sniffs*

It's good to know someone cares.........

I've met KVD, Aaron Martens, Byron Velvick, Scott Martin, Jimmy Houston, Hank Parker, and Kelly Jordan....all nice guys.  Some at the Blue Ridge Brawl here on Smith Mountain Lake , one at Sportsmans Warehouse, and Hank at the Game Dinner in Lynchburg. Hank was the keynote speaker and he really moved us with his story and message. He's a great person and hard to forget.

 

I will say that KVD was in a bit of a hurry and brushed us off at first and we weren't impressed but later on we got to chat and he actually apologized for the brush off....pretty cool.

...where I met Claude Hamilton "Grits" Gresham...

 

"...I hooked this bass, fought him for over six hours.  All of a sudden, he jumps clean over the boat.  Broke my rod & I had to tie, now wait a minute fellas, I had to tie the line...(Lite Beer from Miller, everything you ever wanted in a beer, but less)...left me out there with nothing but a paddle!!"

Ive talked with John Crews on multiple occasions and met and talked with Randy Howell the year he won the classic

 

  tight lines

 

    Andrew

The first time i met one we almost had a minor altercation lol

He will remain nameless but he thought he could poach a spot that i was on for a good hour before him so he could film a show...i especially liked the part when he threatened to board my boat to "kick my butt"...

The couple other i met were cool. C.A Richardson is a great dude, As were Flip, Mark Sosin, and Jose Wejebe

The first time i met one we almost had a minor altercation lol

He will remain nameless but he thought he could poach a spot that i was on for a good hour before him so he could film a show...i especially liked the part when he threatened to board my boat to "kick my butt"...

The couple other i met were cool. C.A Richardson is a great dude, As were Flip, Mark Sosin, and Jose Wejebe

Ish?

No it was a saltwater guy lol.

Im also certain had he boarded me he would have killed me but he would have known i was there lol

met brandon palaniuk at the BPS north of atlanta and he was a genuinely nice guy.  i didn't ask for a pic or anything, but he was scoping out the new electronics and showing me features and everything.... really cool guy to talk to.

my fishing buddy's wife and hank parker's daughter are childhood friends.  i am told he is the most down to earth and humble guy you will meet... 

Met a few at expos.  Not in awe, but always nice to talk to an 'expert' about something I love.

 

Oh...also met Bobby Uhrig a couple months ago and he didn't even kick me in the nuts.

My son and I met Mike Iaconelli the winter after he won his first Classic.  He was at a large fishing expo.  We were the only ones to really come up and talk with him. No one knew who he was.  Just him sitting at a table all alone.  We talked for a while,  while he looked through the bag of stuff we'd bought.