Daily Limit: Hartman back from abyss

The Hammer is back.

Just over a year ago, Jamie Hartman was laid up with debilitating back pain and had to end his season prematurely. Two weeks ago, Hartman claimed his second Bassmaster Elite title in two months with a comeback victory on Cayuga Lake.

Hartman, one point shy of winning the 2017 Rookie of the Year title, reported back pain in the early going of his sophomore season, then he went down for the count with a ruptured disk in June 2018 at La Crosse, Wis. Unable to stand, and even pained to sit, he received a medical hardship for the season, and thoughts crept in that he might never fish competitively again.

“I tried to stay as positive as I possibly could, but it was wearing me down, mentally, physically,” Hartman said. “The pain was just so bad and it was just almost constant. It just took a toll on me. Yeah, I questioned (ever fishing again). I know backs are a bad deal. I watched my brother go through it and ultimately lose his life to it.”

Seeing his younger brother, Chris, die at the age of 34 was a brutal experience Hartman calls the worst thing that’s ever happened in his life.    

“There’s more to it, but it was back surgeries and tons and tons of pain, which led to pain killers and all sorts of stuff,” Hartman said. “Just so many years of doing it took a toll on him. It was an extremely rough 2009.”

Being so close to that tragedy gave Hartman the impetus to remedy his problem, vowing the same thing wasn’t going to happen to him.

After making the cut at the Sabine River in early June of 2018, Hartman’s back worsened, even putting him in a Little Rock hospital for a night. He still wanted to try to compete, so he had someone drive his rig as he lay in the bed of his truck for a 13-hour ride to the June 21-24 event on the Mississippi River.

“I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t walk,” he said. “At that point I didn’t know what was going on. I thought it was sciatica — I’ve dealt with it before.

“I tried to fish the last day of practice at La Crosse just to get something going. I made it 2 1/2 hours of practice, and I was collapsed on the deck in so much pain. I couldn’t even drive my own boat back to the ramp because I couldn’t put my foot on the hot foot. The pain was just so excruciating. I was done at that point.”

Laid up back home, he began to wonder what fate would befall him, and although he hoped and tried to keep a positive outlook, he contemplated a future without fishing.

“The unknown was at that point,” he said. “Is this even possible? How severe is this problem I have? I hear of all these people, I see all these people and know what my brother went through, and of course that’s running through my brain. Am I ever going to be able to get back to it?”

Work to recover from the injury wore on him. He got a little stir crazy, not being able to leave the house for a month. An MRI showed he had a completely ruptured disk that pinched nerves and created the debilitating pain. The mission was arduous but he took steps to recover.

“Time was one of them,” he said. “Once I had so much time on my hands, I was doing research and talked with doctor friends, and I found out I have options. Opting out of an operation was an option.”

The first mission was getting the pain under control and relieving inflammation. Medicine as well as changing to an anti-inflammatory diet allowed him to feel well enough to begin a series of stretches and exercises, which he can still be seen doing before morning launches.     

“I sucked up the pain and started doing that stuff and it slowly, slowly got better where I could manage it,” he said. “They told me the body will heal itself, and I did not have to do the surgery.”

Even though he had a tremendous itch to fish again, it wasn’t until four months after starting his rehab that Hartman felt good enough to get back in a boat, and even then he said he took it extremely easy.

Improvement continued and he was able to start the 2019 Elite season, although something was still missing in his first two events. He didn’t crack the top 50 at either the St. Johns River or Lake Lanier, then a two-month hiatus in the schedule allowed him to re-examine and find his fishing stroke. His eighth-place finish at Lake Hartwell started his gradual ascent from the depths of the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings.

At Lake Guntersville, Hartman climbed daily in the event, from 46th to 17th then he went into Championship Sunday as the 10th and last qualifier. His big bag of 23 pounds, 15 ounces, saw him make up 7-2 on the leader and take the title. Almost two months later, Hartman repeated the feat at Cayuga, and while he only had to climb from fourth, he started 5-12 back of leader Jeff Gustafson.

“If (Gustafson) is the only one that stumbles, that if he has a bad day, we all have shot,” he said. “I knew I had to crack a big bag. I was thinking 23, 24 to have a chance.”

An early 6 1/2-pounder sent him on his way to another Championship Sunday big bag of 22-4. With Micah Frazier coming from 10th to win at the week before at the St. Lawrence River, Hartman said the early big bite was inspirational.

“You just never know. Being so far back, it was more, ‘Alright, you have a good start.’ It was more like an urgency to fill this bag out,” he said. “But I had to keep my head straight at the same time because I knew it was coming slow.”

Hartman caught around 20 pounds before leaving his area when the bite died, but he later came back and culled with the decisive 4-pounder to win by 10 ounces.

The victory moved him to 11th in the AOY standings, well within his goal of qualifying for the 50th Bassmaster Classic next March. While an approaching storm cut short his celebration at Guntersville, Hartman got to enjoy his victory among a crowd that included friends from New York. The past weeks have been great, he said, except on his waistline — reconnecting over incredible food has him ready to return home after taking third at the Basspro.com Oneida Eastern Open last week to get back into his health regime.

Thinking back to a year ago, he said would never had imagined he’d leave the state with another come-from-behind victory.

“Absolutely not. I guess I kept myself positive,” he said, understating his return from the brink.

Overcoming back issues and success after the possibility of never fishing again made him emotional on stage with emcee Dave Mercer, who introduces him as Jamie “The Hammer” Hartman.

“That’s what really hit me on stage,” he said. “All that stuff came back to me and Mercer was bringing it up. It just hit me, that’s all. To think that it was almost over — it could have been over. It’s not, I persevered through it, thank God, and I’m back on track.”