Skid Row
“i was 25 years old before i ever got
high,” Mccombs says, revisiting the
genesis of his addiction. “i was sitting
around one day, and a buddy of mine
came over and said, ‘hey man, try these
pills.’ he didn’t push me on it, but he
put it in my head. Wh en i took them, i
wanted to feel that way all of the time.”
for the next several years, Mccombs
casually dabbled in lortab usage. similar
to vicodin, the combination of acetamin-
ophen and hydrocodone is a commonly
prescribed narcotic pain reliever meant
to reduce moderate or severe pain.
Mccombs says the effect feels the same
as drinking seven or eight beers one after
the other. casual usage for Mccombs
meant popping the pills recreationally
every few months, or whenever he didn’t
want to feel any human emotions, such
as fear or pain, that come routinely with
the stress of daily life.
the drugs were an escape mecha-
nism that Mccombs used even on the
water near the end of his first run at the
pro tournament trail in the early 2000s.
36
“i don’t think anyone knows that,” he
says. “But it’s true.”
for Mccombs, lortab was the
launch pad to the more potent lure of
oxycontin and heroin, plus codeine.
that mix of drugs would fuel a nonstop
chase for the next high after what had
seemed to be a solid relationship fell
apart with earth-shattering finality
when he was approaching his 30s.
“When we split, i just said ‘screw it.’ i
went to using drugs every day.”
the town of Morris, ala., is situated
about 15 minutes north of Birmingham.
its western boundary just nudges
interstate 65, and the two main
entrances to town are guarded by a
chevron on one end and a farm supply
store on the other. Morris – population
1,933 – is the kind of country town that
legions of professional anglers call home.
“We’ve got one red light and a cau-
tion light,” Mccombs says. “But the red
light hasn’t been here for long.”
small rural towns have become
another casualty in america’s ever-
expanding opioid crisis. according to
the center for disease control (cdc),
in 2016 the number of overdose
deaths involving opioids was five times
greater than in 1999. sales of the pre-
scription drugs quadrupled over that
period. Mccombs’ home state of
alabama had the highest level of pre-
scription opioid use in the united
states in 2015, at about 1.2 prescrip-
tions per person.
“You hear about people dying every
day,” Mccombs says. “Young people,
old people – they all die from that stuff.
it’s got no conscience, and you can find
it anywhere.”
Back on Tour
Mccombs made his return to fish-
ing in the fall of 2016. clean for the first
time in years, with no long-term expec-
tations and just months removed from
the humbling walk to his mother’s
house that changed his life for the bet-
ter, he entered an flW tour invitational
tournament at norris lake and cashed
a $7,840 check for a 13th-place finish.
it was his first taste of flW success
FLWFISHING.COM I MAY-JUNE 2018