just because he won 3 aoy and was big for the sport does not mean I got to watch him or like him. Hell Gordon has won 7 championships in Nascar and has done a hell of alot for that sport and I cant stand him. Im sure Bill Dance is great guy and I know he has been huge for bass fishing. Do I like him or watch his show....no. I dont think sitting in a tracker fishing a stocked pond with stupid named lures is something I learn from or call entertaining. It just not reality. Neither is high fenced ranches blowing 200pt deer away when they are fenced in. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. On another note I love the Hank Parker show. It seems sometimes he is on private lake, always pluggin berkley......but he is entertaining to me. He usually has someone on the boat with him, he is up working the trolling motor not sitting on his butt. He just seems like reality. Not BD

People not liking Bill Dance is one thing, although I have a hard time understanding why someone would dislike a 70 year old man based on where he fishes.

But to say he isn't a great fisherman...or to claim that he couldn't catch anything if he wasn't on a "stocked pond"...is ridiculous and frankly seems to me to ooze envy and pettiness.

He won Bassmaster tour events on Smith Lake, AL...Lake Ouachita...Table Rock...and twice each on Ross Barnett and Sam Rayburn.

He finished second at Smith, Lake Eufala, Clarks Hill, Buggs Island, Lake Gaston (VA), Lake Powell, and Toledo Bend.

Are those big enough lakes for you?

Yes Bill Dance is a great fisherman no argument there at all. I just dont like or watch his show. Most of his bloopers are funny. I love the one where the trailer is still hooked to the boat and he lauches, drives it back up to the ramp with trailer still hooked to bottom. Pretty funny stuff. Simply I dont like his shows that are on now days. Im sure he is told what to do for that check.

I think Bill Dance really wants to teach us about fish behavior and habits. He no longer fishes tournaments so he can reveal all of his secrets. I usually fast forward through him fighting the 8 pounders and just watch the parts where he is talking about bass behavior and techniques and I really feel like I've learned from him.

I was fishing a private club with my 3 sons years ago and ran into BD at the launch ramp. (later found out he was invited by one of the residents to fish as a "guest"). My boys, ages 6-10 went over to talk with him...being he's a superstar of fishing. Dance gave em the cold shoulder, wouldn't even acknowledge there presence. If you're gonna profit from the sport, you gotta at least be kind the the followers...especially the younguns.
Besides, ever notice that every one of his boats has the same TN registration number on it? (TN459Y)

I met him once at the boat show.
I used to watch his TV show before that, but I thought he was pretty arrogant after I met him in person. As a result, I haven't watched his show in years now.

Quoted for truth, he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. And a true pioneer of the sport.

Jitterbugs have won lots and lots of tourneys, especially on pressured lakes. When was the last time you think a bass saw one?? Everyone today thinks only the new lures work, same with a lucky 13, it will still catch fish today.

Bass will eat anything you put in front of them that they think is food, they don't care what brand it is....

I don't care where Bill Dance fishes. He was a champion when the utmost in technology on your boat was a freakin' flasher.

Bill Dance is first and foremost an educator. Not only on his TV show and his live appearances. He and Mark Sosin wrote a book... decades ago... entitled Practical Bass Fishing, which contains more information about bass fishing than most people can absorb in their lifetimes. It's a classic that something new can be gleaned from every time it gets picked up.

Lots of pro fishermen enter the business to get a piece of the pie, and that's fine. It's what all of us do in whatever jobs we pursue. But certain fishermen do things to not only get a piece of the pie, but also to make the pie bigger. Bill Dance is one of those guys.

KVD is also a superior teacher and communicator.

I'd also include the Lindner brothers, for their magazine and videos, and for their book Largemouth Bass: A Handbook of Strategies.

And back in the day, Byron Dalrymple for Modern Book of the Black Bass, still a classic and loaded with great stuff, if you can find a copy. It's long out of print.



Tell me about it! I found an old Creek Chub Pikie Minnow at my father-in-law's lake house one time. It was old, but since it was a "beater," I tied it on and tossed it off the dock, just for laughs. Out shoots a 2.5lb'er from under the dock and nails a 60-year-old lure!!

Bill is one of the great ones.

Bill dance deserves the respect he knows his stuff and has tons of experience. All these people saying that its not fair because he just fishes small stocked ponds, I bet if u take him out to a big lake around here he would woop all our asses haha. he gives out real good tips and information. Ive learned alot of stuff from watching his show and just making me think. No I dont go run to the store to buy the bait he is usiung.

I think we are missing the point here. I'm a 50 year old fisherman. Fished every chance I've had since I was 10 years old. Back in the day when I was a kid in Louisiana we had local guys like Cajun Phil Brousard and others on local TV. They would come on early Saturday morning with a show featuring a local lake. Pumped us kids up to go fishin. It was,and still is about promoting bass fishing. Basic techniques and methods. There are no "Magic Lures" even as kids we understood that. You want to catch double digit bass you have to put time on the water. If you are too advanced to watch his show then don't. It's aimed at beginning fisherman.

It wasn't a competitive event. It was a TV show. And, quick bucks are the standard form of compensation in these matters. Whaddaya want the compensation to consist of? An annuity? Jitterbug tax break? Social security adjustment? The dude's makin' a reasonably honest living. That's good enough for me.

Why in the name of pink pea gravel would throwin' a Jitterbug be some kind of disgrace. Seriously...why?

He was talking about fishing topwater, the JB is an excellent bait that has no equivalent (I like the black jointed one), and he was catching 'em in conditions not generally believed to be topwater-friendly. I believe I recall Bill being a Jitterbug fan since way, way back.

I've seen many times a tendency for youngsters (or, at least they sound like youngsters) ridiculing proven classic products during their downtime between mad dashes to the tackle store to pick up the latest $20 plug or $7 bag o' worms. The fact that they already have enough tackle to invade Canada with is not a factor.

And, more often than not, they're paying interest on that stuff. Must be strange, fishing a bait ya ain't even paid fer yet.

I like Bill. He's taught my girlfriend, who loves bass fishing as much as any man, quite a lot. Sometimes, he's pretty funny, and yes, I suspect some of the funnies are staged. That's TV for you. Our culture itself is almost entirely based on illusion.

I detest the barrage of BS marketing (of much more than just consumer products) we are increasingly subjected to, but there ain't a whole lot of fishing shows to choose from. I'm watching for entertainment and information, and Bill's done OK with providing me that and, he really is a DAMN good angler.

People who become well-known get fed up with being bothered all the time, especially when trying to get some R&R. He don't owe nobody nothin'. He don't owe nobody's young 'uns NOTHIN' anymore than the guy on the Quaker Oats box does outside of a box of oatmeal in exchange for two bucks. That said, I've met him twice and he was quite pleasant.

Not much fisherman left in him....hes all salesman now to the highest bidder with some baits.

Do you know anyone that fishes for a living that does not go to the highest bidder? Not much fisherman left in him??? I have no doubt he can out fish any of us on here and a lot of the folks on the Pro Circuit as well.