Larry Legend — Something Special About Our Sport

I’ve been throwing a non-Jack Hammer vibrating jig a lot lately, and Larry Nixon has been letting me know about it. As I post pictures of the fish I catch, bait still draped in their mouth, he typically replies that I’d catch more and bigger bass if I just used the right cricket.

Now think about that for a second, bass fans. If you were out on the links, posting shots and videos of your sand wedge skills, would Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus be offering feedback? Does LeBron James care one iota about your dribbling prowess?

You might think that Nixon’s attention to me stems from the fact that I write about fishing, but I think you’d be wrong. First off, while I’ve interviewed him a number of times, we’ve never spent time in the boat together, or even shared a meal. Furthermore, I’ve seen him engage in the same way with other non-writer, non-pros. He’s not the only one. I’ve seen pros like AMart and Ike stay long after a weigh-in to sign autographs and talk fishing. I’ve seen others answer questions on social media. Sure, there are some standoffish pros, but I’d say that their friendly counterparts comprise a higher percentage of the field than in any other pro sport.

Indeed, that was what helped me engage with pro bass fishing to begin with. In September of 1994, I was home on a break from law school and I decided to attend the final weigh-in of the Bassmaster Maryland Top 100. To that point I think I’d been in a bass boat once, maybe twice. I had subscribed to Bassmaster for a decade, but I was about as far from an “insider” as you can possibly be. I didn’t talk directly to the pros, but I watched carefully as living legends like Roland Martin took their time to engage with the fans. At that time, I had just gotten my first email address through school, and while I didn’t use it for anything “official” I did decide to reach out to Ann Lewis, the communications director at B.A.S.S., to compliment the organization. She in turn introduced me to my fishing mentor, who thereafter introduced me to a number of pros. In other words, I would not be writing here today but for the kindness of strangers.

As the sport got closer to “big time,” the divide between pro anglers and their fans threatened to grow, but social media has kept it close. You can still reach out to the pro of your choice and there’s a pretty good chance that they’ll respond. The fact that The General — who was already a legend 30 years ago — still takes time to call me out is one of many things that keep me engaged, interested and excited about being a small cog in a big machine.