Being on the boat with your favorite angler can be as sweet as a good piece of saltwater taffy

Heard the one about the kid in a candy store?

Laugh all you want, but it isn’t a joke.

The well-known and often-used cliche blossomed from the excitement of things like Christmas morning, a new puppy or scoring the winning touchdown.

And, yes, especially a trip to the candy store.

If you’re having doubts, just ask Jimmy Crescini - a longtime bass angler who religiously follows some of the pros when he’s not wetting a line.

A Virginia Beach boy now living in northeastern North Carolina, Crescini was happy as you can get at the Bassmaster Elite Series stop last year on the Pasquotank River and surrounding waterways near Elizabeth City.

So much so that over the winter he filled out the paperwork to be chosen as an observer/BASS Ambassador after seeing that the organization had selected the place for a repeat performance in this year’s tour.

He got the call one evening - he’d been picked.

As exciting as that news was, things got even better when he found out which pro he would be riding with.

A phone call to a friend immediately dug up visions of a youngster walking into a shop full of wonderful, sweet goodies.

“It’s Mike Iaconelli,” Crescini said, the thrill in his voice sounding more like a kid eating a bag of fudge than a guy who turned 60 this month. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Throughout his years of fishing on Back Bay, the Currituck Sound and all their connecting waterways, the former Windsor Woods resident followed the styles and skills of anglers trying to make a name for themselves on the professional bass circuits.

No one impressed him any more than Iaconelli, a New Jersey resident competing in his 31st and possibly last ride on the train.

(Iaconelli couldn’t be reached for this story).

Throughout his career, Iaconelli became known as a fun-loving, often flamboyant personality loved by followers, sponsors - even those he competed against.

The pro didn’t disappoint the morning of the opening day, when the two met for the first time.

“We both had on Vans (a brand of checkerboard colored shoes) and he noticed immediately,” Crescini said. “He had shoes and I had flops. You never know how someone like that is going to react to you.

“But that broke the ice and from there on out, we talked and laughed.”

Serving as an observer brings a level of responsibility few anglers ever could imagine.

Crescini was more than simply up for the task.

The pro isn’t allowed to accept or ask for advice or pointers from his ride-along. Getting any help would require an observer to report the violation and would likely get the angler disqualified.

Sponsors - the folks who write the monthly paychecks - don’t like such things and money sources easily could dry up.

The Ambassador is responsible for recording catches and weight, time of day, location and other important factors.

While the day’s guest is doing their thing, anglers like Iaconelli know that they potentially pass along valuable knowledge to an observer paying close attention.

“He was such a down to earth kind of guy,” Crescini said. “I grew up watching these guys and got to see them live.

“He talked like I was a human being.”

As a youngster, Crescini and his brothers surfed and skate boarded with passion.

As Crescini grew up, he became more and more fond of hunting and fishing - especially when ducks or largemouth bass are involved.

He jokingly says he graduated from long beard high school - referring to his love of turkey hunting.

And he spends as much time as he can fishing along the region’s multitude of brackish water shorelines on his fully rigged kayak - many of the same locations the pros threw lures into during the series stop.

An IT technician, Crescini spent long hours after getting the news about inaugural Ambassadorship planning take his job seriously - getting pictures, videos, watching and learning from someone he’s admired for years.

And his few hours on the waters of the Pasquotank and nearby rivers went even better than he could have imagined, despite the need to change boats after Iaconelli’s trolling motor became dislodged and un-useable.

“It all still hasn’t sank in,” Crescini said. “I had a blast and I’d definitely do it again.

“That guy is a legend and you don’t know how he’s going to react to you. So I tossed and turned all night and it turned out to be the best thing.”

Despite the combination of fun and responsibility, Crescini used some of his own fishing knowledge to absorb what he was witnessing. He even did some work on his kayak to honor Iaconelli.

One thing especially will stick with him.

“I’m going to fish like Jimmy normally does,” he said. “But I learned about new baits and am trying different things. And I always knew it, but never more than now.

“Never give up.”