‘I caught an iPhone’: Man hooks couple’s missing phone, photo in Waccamaw River

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - An avid fisherman, Jason Robinson woke up early this past Sunday morning and decided to steal some time on the Waccamaw River fishing while his family was still asleep.

He put in at Bob’s Landing and went down towards Lee’s Landing. Using his rooster tail, Robinson had luck catching brim and a few bass.

Then, he felt a good bite. With tension on his line, Robinson started to reel in only to find something else on his hook.

“It was a gosh darn iPhone,” Robinson said.

He took a picture of it and sent it to his wife to tell her about his catch. Not one to litter, and since phones aren’t exactly good for catch and release, Robinson kept it in his boat until the end of his outing.

While cleaning mud off the phone, he noticed a photograph showing a young woman carrying a young man in her arms as she stood on a board walk.

Robinson decided to take a chance and see if social media could help track down the couple.

“I was always told to do the right thing, no matter what it is, no matter what’s going on in life, so at the end of the day you know you did what you could to make life better for someone else,” Robinson said.

Within five minutes of posting on Facebook, he found the woman in the photo, Riley Johnson.

“It made that girl happy as could be,” he said.

Johnson said her husband lost his phone while out fishing with some friends and family this past Thanksgiving.

The phone - and the photo with it - had been missing for eight months.

Johnson’s husband Trinidy often works away from home and always keeps a photo in his wallet or with his phone.

That particular photo was taken in 2018, the year they started dating. It was taken at Myrtle Beach State Park during their first photo shoot together.

The Johnsons married this past April. She said her husband’s birthday was the day before Robinson found their photo.

Robinson met up with Johnson this week to return the phone and photo, which now looks a little different.

“The picture looks a little vintage, we’ll probably frame it,” Johnson said.

And although her husband has yet to meet Jason, she says he may have just found a new fishing buddy too.

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