I took off Friday to fish by myself. About 20 minutes in, I saw a guy fishing from shore. He had a couple of rods and a tackle bag and seemed to be bass fishing. As i came down the bank I watched him make a few casts. He was pretty skilled so I said what the heck and invited him to fish off the back. He accepted my offer; we shook hands and away we went. We had a good time fishing weed lines and flipping wood. In fact, we caught enough fish to keep us busy for several hours. The guy was a veteran and an all around good dude. At the end of the day, I left him where I found him, but not before we exchanged numbers. Fast forward to yesterday morning... I was fishing solo so I sent him a text to see if he wanted to come out. He immediately responded in the affirmative and met me at the ramp; however, he couldn't fish long. Due to his time constraints, we headed to an area I hadn't fished in years. We caught some solid fish in short order, but two hours later he had to go. So I drove him to the ramp and went back to where we left off. The fishing picked up and I caught several threes and fours. About 15 minutes before I had to head out, I landed this fine specimen. All day long I was surrounded by swarms of pontoons, walleye boats and kayaks. Alas, when I landed the fatty, no one was around. I threw her in the box and eventually came across a couple of gracious pan fishermen. They took some pics for me and away she went. Afterward, I sent my new friend a text letting him know that he brought me some good luck because without him, I would have never headed to the area where we fished. He was genuinely happy for me but slightly bummed he missed out. I assured him he is welcome in my boat anytime.