With the fishing opener just weeks away, anglers across Wisconsin’s Northwoods area are getting excited to hit the water.

But for one particular area fisherman, this might just be the most excited he’s been for a fishing opener in a long time.

Russ Smith’s been a fishing guide for more than 30 years, but this year’s fishing opener will be more special to him than any. That’s because last October his thumb got infected after a musky’s tooth cut it.

Smith says, “If you would have seen my hand when I came in here it was a pretty sorry sight.”

After having surgery and getting rid of the infection, Russ’s future in fishing and guiding looked grim.

Patience Lamers, an occupational therapist at Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff, Wisc., says: “He was basically completing his day to day activities with his right hand. His left hand was not functional at all.”

But that all changed once he started occupational therapy at Howard Young Medical Center.

Lamers says, “He’s definitely come a long way.”

Smith’s injured thumb is about 90 percent as strong as his good thumb now, and come the fishing opener in just a few weeks, he’ll be out here doing what he does best.

“I’m going to be fishing and guiding people for walleyes and hopefully catching some,” Smith says.

Even when Smith wasn’t able to cast a line, he was giving fishing advice to his occupational therapist Patience, and once I got him close to the water, he couldn’t resist teaching me a thing or two.

Smith says guiding isn’t just his job, it’s his passion. And even if some of his students are less skilled than he’d like, he’s just happy his injury isn’t keeping him from sharing his love of fishing with others.

Smith says there are numerous tools anglers can use to make sure they don’t get injured the same way he did.

He says on a scale of 1 to 10, his thumb is an 8 as far as feeling back to normal.

Source: WJFW TV-12 in Rhinelander, Wisc.