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FISHING WITH PAIN
Almost every fisherman has dealt with some sort of pain while fishing from a boat. Back pain can be particularly handicapping to say the least.
by Terry Lacoss

It wasn't a particularly windy day, but the falling tide was bucking up against a west wind that caused our shallow water skiff to pound in the Texas Bay.
"Slow down," shouted my son Terry David Lacoss. "My back just went out and I am in a whole lot of pain!"
Terry David virtually crawled from his seat to the floor of the boat where he tried to lay down flat in hopes of reducing his back pain.
However he got about halfway to the floor when he became locked up in a dreadful position of pain and could not move either back to the seat or to the floor!
"Don't move the boat, or this pain might just kill me," Terry David said.
I was in shock, as I did not know how to help my son obtain any relief from his horrible lower back pain. So for the next five minutes I tried to keep the boat as stable as possible, while Terry David painfully worked his way to the floor of the boat.
It was 7:00 AM in the morning and we had just left the boat ramp to enjoy a full day of fishing and were now some twenty-miles from any help.
"Go slow, real slow," Terry David said. "Take me to that bay where all the fish are and just maybe my back pain will go away."
I once again engaged the Mercury outboard in gear and eased our way to the nearby bay. As Terry David lay in the bottom of the boat, I began to catch a variety of shallow water species, including a ten-pound redfish that brought T.D. right off the floor of the boat! Suddenly his back pain had left with the arrival of a nice school of redfish. However back at the motel room later that night, the nagging back pain once again returned and caught his attention.
"Let's go purchase a back brace and some 'Advil'," Terry David said. "There is no way that my back is going to keep me from fishing!"
Fortunately Terry David's back did get better with the help of a good pain medication and the support of a good back brace.
Back pain is very hard to deal with for many fishermen that put their bodies in a multitude of painful positions during a day of fishing.
"You know everyone experiences some sort of back pain during their life," Dr. Peter Arabadjis said. "That silicone-like cushion that surrounds the discs begins to actually dry up and deteriorate as you grow older. Of course, this process can be faster in some patients than others. Fortunately, today we have new operations that can correct this situation and offer some sort of pain relief for our patients."
Obviously hard-core offshore fishing is not what the doctor ordered for having a healthy back. Fishermen are constantly doing things to injure their back during their day out on the water.
A main factor is running a boat in rough seas. Here the boat is continually leaving the water and re-entering with a backbreaking series of slams. These hard jolts are continually compressing and decompressing your back and discs. A good back brace is certainly the best cure for not only protecting your back that may be already injured, but also to also protect a healthy back from becoming injured.
Most chain discount stores will carry a wide variety of back braces, which run in cost from fifteen to just over twenty-five dollars. Most doctors recommend back braces that have a high back support, which gives most of your back support from those pounding seas.
The one important factor to keep in mind concerning back braces is that a good supportive brace will stabilize your back and keep it from shifting during a rough boat ride. Fishermen that do not wear back braces are leaving their spinal column open to violent jolts from angry seas where their entire spinal column can be twisted like a pretzel!
Obviously the best place to ride in a boat when the offshore winds are blowing and the seas are rough is at the transom of the boat. The transom of the boat offers the softest ride in most instances, where the bow of the boat is constantly hammering into waves and taking a beating. Bringing along a beanbag and sitting at the transom of the boat also offers a more comfortable ride during rough sea conditions.
Another consideration is being completely dry and staying warm during your day on the water. Certainly if your back is hurting, getting wet and cold is only going to add to the pain that your back is already giving you. So make sure that you dress properly for the occasion.
I would also recommend watching the marine forecast the day before and the morning of your fishing trip. Simply avoid getting caught out on the water when small craft warnings are out. Try and pick your days for fishing when the weatherman is calling for seas less than two feet and your back will love you for it!
Your doctor can also prescribe a variety of pain medicines for you to help relax your back muscles and relieve your back pain too. Like my son, Terry David, I have also had to deal with back pain through my lifetime. In fact, one of the reasons that I started making a living fishing was that a bad back was handicapping my career as golf professional. Every now and then it goes out and I have a supply of pain pills on hand that gets me back in working condition in a few days, along with a lot of bed rest. Like a lot of people with back problems, mine is related to my back muscles.
When the pain begins to go away, I will slowly begin to go through my back exercises which include leg-lifts while laying flat on my back and reaching down and touching my toes from a standing position. Certainly I am mainly at fault for my lack of continuing my back exercises when my back is not hurting.
During a recent trip to the Miami International Boat Show, I soon found that all of the motel rooms were rented out from Daytona Beach to and including Miami Beach. I had made reservations for three nights in Miami, but failed to make a reservation on the road.
After stopping at various exits from 9:30 PM to 11:30 PM and finding all of the rooms were taken, I finally decided to sleep in the back seat of my extended cab truck at a rest stop. I have to tell you that this was the worst night that I have ever spent in my life. I virtually slept with one eye open and one eye closed! For the next three days I was giving guests rides in the new Triton 351 saltwater boat and during my final night in Miami, I had severe neck and upper chest pains. Later back home the doctor said that I had strained a neck muscle and irritated a disc in my neck by the way that I was sleeping in my truck. It wasn't the boat ride!
There was one valuable back saving tip that I learned from Triton's Roark Summerford.
"If your boat has large trim tabs, trim them all the way down when your boat is not running and they will actually work like stabilizers," Summerford said. "A large set of trim tabs will keep your boat from rocking during rough seas. This rocking motion is very bad for anyone with a bad back."
A good set of trim tabs will also smooth out a rough ride during a windy day for most sport fishing boats. By having a large size set of trim tabs installed on your fishing boat, they will keep the bow of your boat from bouncing up and down, which promotes a smooth ride.
A boat that has a sharper entry into the ocean will also provide a softer ride for those fishermen with back problems. Most of the larger blue water fishing boats are building a twenty four-degree entry into their bow, which affords for a super soft ride in rough seas. Certainly if you have ongoing back problems, I would not recommend a blue water fishing boat with less than a twenty-degree entry.
Unfortunately there are many duties during a day of blue water fishing that can aggravate your back. Pulling the anchor is the worst thing that you can do to injure your back! Let someone else pull the anchor, or install a windless on your boat!
Tossing a heavy cast net is also very bad for your back. These nets often weigh over twenty-pounds, and when coupled with the twisting motion that is used to toss them, your back can become injured while tossing a cast net. Let someone else throw the net!
Another thing that I found out is extremely bad for your back is pushing your boat off the trailer when the trailer is not backed all the way into the water. Instead of taking the time to back my boat further into the water, I pushed too hard recently and put my back out for a good week!
Take the time to exercise your back each day, wear a back brace when fighting a fish and running in rough seas, be sure to avoid those fishing tasks that are likely to injure your back and you will enjoy pain free fishing for years to come!