As long as I’m writing about still-active members of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame this week, I might as well bare my feelings about one of Clunn’s contemporaries, Yamamoto pro and 1983 Bassmaster Classic winner Larry Nixon. As most of their peers – and even some who came later – have called it quits, those two just keep on keeping on. Clunn may have the more recent victories, but on the whole Nixon has remained more consistent over the last decade or two, albeit on a different tour.
As I’ve written before, Nixon is one of the truly nice guys in the sport – someone who is always a pleasure to speak with, and who makes the rest of us look good. Accordingly, the biggest disappointment of my offseason was when the Elite Series roster came out and his name was not on it. I had no firm reason to believe that it would be there, but I’d heard a handful of unreliable rumors saying that he might try to use the “Legends” exemption to get back. That’s something I would loved to have watched from afar.
I suppose he also could have found a way onto the Bass Pro Tour, and while I’m admittedly a B.A.S.S. loyalist, I still would have reveled at the possibility of him competing against KVD and Morgan and Thrift and Jordan Lee at the same time. Nevertheless, I also love the history and the tradition of the sport, and seeing him return to the top level at B.A.S.S. after a 15 year absence, and over 37 years since his Ohio River win, would’ve been just a little bit more satisfying.
