Fishin' with Nixon - The Road to Recovery

By Larry Nixon

Having shoulder replacement surgery in January has been a good news, bad news situation for me. The bad news is I had to miss almost all of duck hunting season while my buddy George Cochran was down at the cabin shooting all sorts of ducks and sending me photos. Shoot, that was tough. I also missed two of my favorite FLW tournaments at Rayburn and Harris Chain.

The good news is, my shoulder feels better right now than it has in years. Just in the last 10 days or so I’ve been back out fishing for crappie and even some bass. I hope to be back to fishing tournaments again in June, but if the right tournament happens at the right time on the right lake, I might even go fish one in May.

Right now, I’m not really worried about bass tournaments, though. I’ve been through surgery rehab before: I’ve had both thumbs done, my elbow worked on, as well as my heart. So I know how this works. I’ve got a lot of patience for rehab. I’ve seen guys come back from surgery too soon and don’t want to make that mistake.

I was in a lot of pain for several years before the surgery and probably should’ve had it a long time ago, but I was just too busy having fun catching fish. I would get shots every time the pain got too bad, and those shots would last me a few months. The last one I got was before the FLW Cup last year, and it only lasted a few weeks. So I knew it was time.

I had the shoulder surgery on Jan. 6 – after Kansas deer season. I had a Kansas tag and wasn’t about to miss that. Mine was what they call a reverse shoulder replacement. Normally, the ball of the joint is on your arm, and it goes into the socket on your shoulder. In my case, the new ball is on the shoulder side, and it goes into the socket on my arm. I had to do a lot of reading to understand all this stuff.

The shoulder itself is strong. I feel absolutely no pain. This really is as good as it’s felt in years. I just can’t use my arm the way I’m used to yet.

If you think about it, the shoulder isn’t like a knee. A knee pretty well bends just forward and backward. A shoulder – my gosh, it moves every direction in the world. There are different exercises for getting every one of those muscles in shape, especially around where they cut to get the shoulder in there.

I’m in week 14 of my rehab. I do 13 or 14 exercises for 15 reps each day. When I get through with my exercises, I take a 30-minute rest, and by then I’m ready for my nap. I’ve got a pretty good habit for killing time because I’ve done nothing but rest for three months.

The worst thing is trying to eat. You think about how simple eating is with a piece of meat on the end of a fork. But that one muscle that you turn to get that fork to your mouth is one of the last I’ll get back. The doctor says it’s because of where they made the incision.

It’s the darnedest thing I’ve ever seen. I can do anything I want to do, but I’ll be darned if I can get a spoonful of cereal in my mouth without almost all of it falling out of my mouth.

It’s getting easier though. This morning I picked up a cup of coffee and brought it right to my mouth. I just smiled.

The doctors told me I’d be back to fishing within three months of surgery, but I don’t think they get it. I’m not out there just relaxing when I fish. That’s why, for the first 12 weeks or so of my recovery, I didn’t dare even step in a boat. Even now, I don’t go alone. I can’t even pull the trolling motor cable with my right arm right now. Even opening the compartments on my boat is tough. Launching a boat is a two-person job right now.

I’m pretty darn bad at casting right now, too. I had to switch the handle over to the other side of my reel to cast my crappie jig because my right arm just isn’t strong enough yet, and I didn’t want to set the hook and risk hurting something. It’s pretty ugly, but, boy, it sure does feel good to be out on the water and having fun again.

That’s what it’s really all about for me. I’ve been fishing for a living for 43 years, and I plan to keep fishing as long as I can, just so long as I don’t start embarrassing myself. Last year, I made the FLW Cup, so I know I can still compete.

With all that’s going on with Coronavirus right now, I guess it’s not a bad time for me to be laying low. They’re wanting everybody to stay home. Well, I’m pretty easy on that one. I live out in the middle of the woods now. I’m sitting here surrounded by animals. There’s always something to look at out my window.

This whole thing might be pretty good for tackle sales, too. Coming back from the lake the other day, I saw things I’ve never seen in years. It was like every pond had trucks around it and people fishing off the bank. I’ve looked at some of these ponds for 10 years and no one was fishing them. I guess people are taking their kids fishing because they don’t have much else to do. Back when we were kids, going fishing was no big deal. Daddy took us all the time. As long as people are being safe, I think it’s great.

Other than rehab, I traveled a lot this spring. I flew to Cincinnati, Columbus twice, Indianapolis. I went to the Classic. I worked boat shows for Ranger and Evinrude and Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits. I stayed visible. I didn’t just hide. I stayed out there working. Let me tell ya, I couldn’t write my name very good, so some of my autographs were pretty sketchy, but I had some great seminars.

It was a very good seminar season for me. For the last 15 years I’ve pretty much cut back on that part of it simply because I’d be fishing tournaments that time of year. I’d really gotten pretty lax on it. I enjoyed getting back out there, seeing people and talking fishing.

That’s really what I’ve missed the most throughout this rehab is seeing all my fishing buddies – John cox, Joey Cifuentes, everybody on the tour. I miss being around good fishermen and miss the sport. I miss Bill Taylor, Kathy Fennel, all of them. That’s just part of a fisherman’s life. That’s what I’ve missed the most.

But I’ll be back soon. I’m getting real close. I’m so happy with it. I just love fishing. I still work real hard at it. I want to make that championship every year.

Of course, when the time comes that I’m able to get back to competing, I won’t be worried about any championships or points titles or any of that stuff. I’ll just be happy to be out there having fun fishing and spending time with my friends. I really can’t think of much anything better.