Widower who wanted a fishing mate had a great time with his new BFF

See folks, the internet can sometimes be a lovely place.

Take the story of South Australian man Ray Johnstone, who two weeks ago posted an ad searching for a fishing buddy on a classifieds website.

"I'm a widowed pensioner who is looking for a fishing mate," he wrote. "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." 

The ad resulted in plenty of melted hearts, with the widower scoring himself a heap of free fishing equipment and an even bigger legion of mates who wanted to fish with him.

Mati Batsinilas and his family were lucky enough to be graced with the company of Johnstone, as they took him on their boat for a fishing trip off Stradbroke Island, Queensland on the weekend.

Johnstone claimed he was "not as young as he used to be" as he hopped on the boat, but gave it his all when it came to fishing.

"It's been good today. Caught a few whiting, a couple of a little other ones [but] had to chuck them back," he told 7 News.

And so they fished, laughed and ate a lot. Batsinilas even joked that Johnstone would leave a few kilograms heavier thanks to his mother's cooking. How good is this story?