How a Lonely Fisherman Found Companionship with a Viral Classified Ad

Ray Johnstone lost his wife. Then he lost his fishing buddy.

At 75 years old, that didn't leave him with a whole lot of meaningful human interaction. But instead of wallowing in self-pity, Johnstone did something about it, and found genuine companionship in the unlikeliest of places—the Internet.

Last week, in a post to Australian classified site Gumtree, he put himself out there and got a staggering response.

"My name is Ray Johnstone," the post says. "I'm a widowed pensioner who is looking for a fishing mate. My previous fishing mate is now deceased. I am a land-based fisherman. I have all the gear for all types of fish that is required for land-based fishing. […] If interested, contact me either at my email address or phone to arrange a meeting to see if we could get along with each other."

These words, coupled with a sad selfie and putting his condition as "used," were powerful enough to generate 115,000 views for the original post, and it wasn't long before the offers came pouring in and the hashtag #IllFishWithRay went viral on Twitter.

I'm not crying, you're crying. #illfishwithray https://t.co/jNknqoHkhU

— Liz Finnegan (@TheGingerarchy) January 30, 2017

A Facebook group called "All Things Fishing Sydney" even started a GoFundMe campaign for Johnstone, with the goal of flying Ray out to Sydney and paying for his accommodations, food expenses, and "any costs associated to get him fishing." Remaining money will go to "Ray himself or a charity if he chooses as such."

The GoFundMe campaign has almost doubled its modest goal of $1,000 and, needless to say, this feel-good story was fodder for local news stations.

With a reported 55,000 responses to the post, it looks like Ray will have plenty of fishing and companionship and seems to be getting along just fine with the people responding to the ad.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; give a lonely fisherman a chance and feed him for a lifetime.