It is certain that most anglers who watch Bill Dance on television lust over the lakes he gets to fish. I know I do. Usually he is filmed on tiny bodies of water, loaded with lunker bass that want to eat whatever he feels like casting.
For this very reason, I thought it appropriate to challenge Dance with Bassmaster‘s “Day On The Lake” feature written by Don Wirth. This challenge forces an angler to fish a body of water they’ve never seen before, and gives them only eight hours to catch a limit of fish. Understanding that Dance was one of the most prolific bass pros ever to hold a rod (he won seven BASS events between 1967 to 1970), I was curious if he still had it.
If you have not read the April issue of Bassmaster Magazine, you must pick up a copy. Dance’s Day On The Lake proves the legend still has mad skills. In the feature, you will ride along with Dance as he picks apart an unfamiliar lake and identifies a pattern that yields 15 pounds, 2 ounces. However, there is a part of the story that’s not in the magazine.
During this year’s Classic in Shreveport/Bossier City, La., I had the pleasure of interviewing Bill Dance at the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo. In front of a capacity crowd, I asked him to relive the Day On The Lake experience. The details he relayed made me think even more of him as a bass fisherman … if that was possible.
“I begged Don (Wirth) to tell me what lake we’d be fishing,” he grinned. “But that sucker was as tight mouthed as bass during a cold front! He wouldn’t even tell me what type of baits to pack. I got nuthin’ out of him. So, I just put a little bit of everything in my boat and headed his way.”
The two met at a gas station outside of Nashville, Tenn., and then drove to one of the small mystery lakes Wirth uses for the challenges.
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“When we pulled up to the ramp, Don had a funny look on his face and said ‘This lake is pretty high … and muddy!’ I looked at the temperature gauge and it read 59 degrees and there was a 15 mph wind. And the barometric pressure had bottomed out! I was already starting to create some good excuses in my mind for not being able to catch ’em,” Dance confided.
The two launched the boat and officially started the eight-hour challenge.”I just started fishing at the ramp, making my way up the bank,” Dance recalled
“About 200 yards up the shoreline, we ran into another boat. It was a couple of Fish and Wildlife guys for the state of Tennessee.”
Wirth knew the pair and struck up a conversation.
“As they were talking, I heard one of ’em say ‘Y’all might have a bit of a tough day today, because we shocked and removed 500 bass three days ago.'”At this point, Wirth smirked just a bit, said goodbye to the pair and Dance continued fishing.”After we got out of hearing distance from those guys, I turned around to Don and let him have it,” Dance laughed.”So, Don, you brought me to a lake that is high and muddy; we are fishing post cold front with a bottomed out barometer; and they took out 500 fish a couple of days ago! Why didn’t we just fish in the parking lot at the gas station we met at?!”
“At that point, I was just hoping to get a bite, much less catch a bass!” Dance admitted.
Even still, the man in the Tennessee hat managed to find a ledge the bass were relating to, and scraped up an impressive limit.
If you can’t find Bassmaster on newsstands near you, sign up for a free trial of BASS Insider and read the story via the digital version of the magazine. After reading, you, too, will concur that Bill Dance is a bass fishing legend for good reason!