This was posted on another site and I thought it was well put:
A fishing buddy is more than just a friend that you fish with. He is more than your best friend. Its hard to explain, he is …well, your fishing buddy.
I don’t really know how to explain it, but one thing is for sure, there is no other relationship in the world like the one you have with your fishing buddy. There is a bond there that can never be broken. You could not see or speak to him for years and know exactly the right words when it came time to say them. You have an understanding between each other about life that never has to be spoken, but yet is always understood. Your bond is greater than that of even your closest family member. I don’t know if I dare say it here, but you love him.
Sometimes your fishing buddy may have started out as another acquaintance or even a family member. I know my best fishing buddy ever started out as my father. As I grew up and proved to him I was a man of my own, he transformed into a fishing buddy. Some times they will begin as co-workers or friends of a friend, and every once in a great while they will start out as a fishing buddy. What is really cool is when you introduce two of your fishing buddies and they too become fishing buddies.
As fishing buddies you will share many different things. Perhaps it is the fish of a life time, or maybe the trip of a lifetime. It could be an awesome sunset or losing the big one at the net. You will solve all of the worlds problems more than once. From time to time you will solve each others problems. You will share thoughts that you would never share with anyone else. What is said to your fishing buddy is never repeated and if it is then he wasn’t really your fishing buddy any way. You can lean on your fishing buddy even if only for a short day at the lake, but it will help more than anything else you could do.
There are rules to being a fishing buddy, but no one really knows what they are. Its a funny thing too, they never seem to be broken. No matter what your fishing buddy is always your fishing buddy. You may have more than one, but none of them could replace the other. Your relationship will stand the test of time and everything else that will try to destroy it. It is a bond held together by Mother Nature herself and stands for all things good in the world of fishing.
I often wonder if our world wouldn’t be a better place if the world leaders spent a little more time fishing together. Could you imagine if Saddam and President Clinton were to become fishing buddies? What if Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis would have been fishing buddies? I just think the world would be a much better place if all of us had a few more fishing buddies.
I personally have several fishing buddies and wouldn’t trade any of them for anything in the world. I have also lost a few to the only thing that can take a fishing buddy away, death. That’s ok though, some day we will fish together again, and the big one won’t get away.
I hope by writing this I have made a few people think about some of their past fishing buddies, or maybe a current fishing buddy that you haven’t talked to for a while, or maybe even someone you never thought of as a fishing buddy, but you would like to make him one. Perhaps you could drop them a line or say a little something extra to them in your prayers tonight, I know that when I do it really makes me feel a lot better about life. I always do when I spend time with my fishing buddy.
To fishing buddies!