It was my dad when I was young…I have nothing but happy memories fishing with him.

I’ve had a lot of fishing buddies through the years but Jeff is probably the best one. Taught him to bass fish when we were teens. Still fishing with him a few times a year.  Now approaching 50 years fishing with him. We’ve never had the slightest disagreement that i can remember. Many  of my funniest fishing stories happened with him there. ( He’s usually the reason for it too)?.

Also my son Joe. Fishing was the one common ground we had when he was in his rebellious years. He sadly now lives out of state, but hoping he comes home soon. He makes me laugh more than anyone on the planet. He’s an excellent salt water fisherman, and good bass fisherman…

What a great thread. I enjoyed all the posts and quickly ran out of likes. My dad was my primary fishing partner, but he's 92 and barely walks with a walker. Since those years with my dad, I've fished with various people, but mostly alone.

 

A good fishing partner is someone who never complains: Rain? No problem. Rising at three in the morning? No problem. Six hours in a canoe? No problem. A little hunger? No problem.

My fishing partners are gone. 
My Dad passed 12 years ago and my son who fished many partner tournaments with is in prison for the rest of his life.?

My other friend that I fished with has moved on to other stuff. 
I no longer have a boat and just a kayak so it’s hard to invite new people. I miss the conversations!

 

This is our last photo together 

I’m sorry to hear that GTN-NY. 

Like many, I fish alone about 95% of the time these days, but that hasn’t always been the case. My long time fishing friend was Lee Dilley, who was about 15 years older than I, but was an “old school” multi-species structure fisherman much like myself. Our approaches, styles and temperaments just meshed well together, and we’d usually get in about 2-3 dozen trips together every year, all year long as long as the lake wasn’t frozen. He passed unexpectedly of a massive heart attack about 3.5 yrs ago.

 

 

My other fishing buddy was my team tournament partner, Bryan Johnson. “Bryan and Brian” we were called. It’s also where the Team9 nickname stems from. We spent many days fishing together, as well as against each other, in bass tournaments as well as just “fun” fishing. Much of this was in the mid to late 90s and early 2000s. He was also part of the trifecta we had along with Jacob Wheeler, when the 3 of us were all fishing together,  mentoring Jacob. We still keep in touch and get out a couple times a year, but life just kind of moved along after we stopped fishing tourneys and Jacob got married and moved to TN. We both still live the tourney life vicariously through Wheeler these days.