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I first met John a few years ago at one of the Mass bass shows. Actually, I met a lot of guys there that year that are dear friends to this day. Anyway, I ended up hanging around a bit with Habs, Tattoo, and a couple others after the show closed. We proceeded to empty the cooler of Guinness one of them had brought, took some "funny" pictures in front of some of the other displays, and then moved on to another establishment. Iron Mike somehow made his way into the mix, as did Laptew. We drank and laughed and told stories for the whole night. At one point, the how still escapes me, we ended up at some jazz bar watching a live band. Just sort of a blurry, crazy night that led to many years of friendships with John and others. As mentioned before, he would always ask how your family life was going before you would get on the topic of fishing. He called me a few weeks back just to see how I was doing. We hadn't talked in a while, and he genuinely cared how I was and how things were. That was what was so special about him, he really cared about you as a person. I had dinner with him, his son, and his wife a couple nights of the RISAA show this past winter. We all sat around the pub just talking for hours. He never let the "fame" of being HABS take over.
He will truly be missed. We lost a great part of our community this past weekend, and it will never be the same.
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Hybrid Mode
