The amateur youth and adults fishing in the Bill Dance Giant Bass Open this weekend on Chickamauga Lake in Dayton figure to benefit from an innovative statewide program named for the Tennessee bass fishing legend.
The event this weekend presented by Bill Dance Signature Lakes launches from Blue Water Resort and offers multiple opportunities for amateur anglers, including youth, to win cash prizes throughout the two-day event, according to tournament spokesperson Shane Frazier.
With his trademark white and orange Tennessee ball cap, Dance, 83, has been a fishing legend since the late 1960s, when his fishing television show first aired in 1968, according to biographical information on Dance's website. His show continues to air nationally several times a week on the Outdoor Channel and World Fishing Network.
(READ MORE: Chickamauga Lake continuing to build legacy as national destination for big bass)
Dance will be on hand Sunday at the resort that is hosting award presentations, according to officials.
Blue Water Resort, with its marina, touts the 43-year-old business on Chickamauga Lake as the "No. 1 bass fishing destination in the nation" on the company website. Longtime assistant manager Barron Wilson said it's a calling card that took years of work to develop, and this weekend's tournament offers something quite different.
"The one thing about this tournament that's setting it apart from other tournaments that I've seen come and go — it's not so much the size of this one, it's what it's about," Wilson said in a phone interview. "This is the first tournament that adults and youth can get paid. Typically, youth anglers don't get paid — they do it in the form of scholarships and things like that — but youth can actually get a cash pay out on this one, which is highly unusual. The other big thing is that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and TVA and the state of Tennessee are backing this tournament."
Cash prizes make the tournaments fun, he said.
"Anybody can enter. No matter your skill level, youth or adult, you can enter," Wilson said. "You can win $500 if you have the big fish that hour. It's open to everyone. That's going to cultivate who's going to be able to take part in this statewide."
While Chickamauga Lake will host the first one, other Bill Dance Signature Lakes across the state will host Bill Dance Giant Bass Open tournaments going forward, Wilson said.
"To be able to have him here on Sunday, meeting the anglers to give out the final awards and do a few autographs is pretty cool for us," Wilson said.
Giant Bass Tournament
There will be seven hourly payouts each day in a big fish format tournament, Frazier in a news release. Anglers with the heaviest single catch over two days can take home a $5,000 grand prize in the adult category or $1,500 in the youth category.
Competitors checked in Friday, and the tournament kicks off Saturday with lines in the water at 7 a.m., Frazier said. Scales close at 3 p.m. each day, with seven hourly weigh-ins daily and 16 prizes every hour for youth and adult categories.
Following the inaugural event in Dayton, a full tournament schedule for the Giant Bass Open events for the 2024 season will be held on seven Bill Dance Signature Lakes across Tennessee, officials said.
Chickamauga Lake boasts the state record largemouth of 15.2 pounds, caught in 2015. The lake continues to produce record bass for top competitive fishing organizations, pumping out hundreds of 10-pounders each year, according to Frazier. Pro anglers from across the nation fish tournaments in Dayton each year.
Bill Dance Signature Lakes
Bill Dance Signature Lakes is a collaborative effort between state wildlife officials, Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development to improve and enhance Tennessee lakes, increase visitation and honor Dance's legacy, tournament officials said.
Tennesseans will benefit from increased stocking, habitat and fisheries management, as well as improved access for fishing and boating at 14 designated lakes across the state. The multiagency partnership has committed more than $15 million to improvements — both above and below the water — at lakes bearing Tennessee icon Dance's stamp of approval.
Dance retired from competition in 1980 at the age of 39 and has been credited with catching the first bass in Bass Angler Sportsman Society history. The association is most widely known as B.A.S.S. and is the organizer of the highly regarded Bassmaster fishing tournaments, including the Bassmaster Elite series featuring some of the world's best professional anglers.
Dance has won 23 national bass titles and is a three-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year — 1970, 1974 and 1977. Of 78 total B.A.S.S. entries, Dance finished 64 times in the money.
In 2021, Dance receive an honorary doctorate of natural resources from the University of Tennessee in recognition of his decades of fishing instruction, television presence, tournament success and angling ambassadorship for the state, according to his biographical information.
Dance crowed about the project when it was launched in 2021.
"You know, there's plenty of good fishing spots in our state if you know where to look for them, governor," Dance told Gov. Bill Lee in a promotional video for the project. "Tennessee's got everything from big waters to bank fishing. If I'm going to lend my name, I want anglers of all ages, from experts to amateurs, to have a legendary experience."
Dennis Tumlin, state Department of Tourism chief customer officer, said this weekend's Bill Dance Giant Bass Open, and those to follow, have a significant financial effect on communities such as Dayton that are home to a Bill Dance Lake.
Tumlin cited U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data showing outdoor recreation is a $9 billion a year industry in Tennessee and supports over 93,000 jobs.
"The largest segment of outdoor recreation in Tennessee is the recreational boating and fishing sector," he said in an email. "One in 7 Tennesseans hold an active fishing license."
Chickamauga's 'Land of the Giants'
The fish that set the state record is a hybrid of the Florida largemouth bass strain introduced in Tennessee reservoirs over the past couple of decades and native northern largemouth bass that have made the 36,200-acre Chickamauga Lake a national bass-fishing hot spot, Mike Jolley, a regional fisheries manager for the state wildlife agency, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in September.
Florida largemouth bass are the only hatchery-born largemouth bass fingerlings being stocked in Chickamauga, Jolley said. To date, the state has specifically stocked more than 3 million Florida bass fingerlings since the inception of the project in 2000.
In September, Bassmaster Elite series angler Buddy Gross said the introduction of the Florida bass strain in Chickamauga led to its stature in the bass fishing world.
"We kind of nicknamed it the 'Land of the Giants' because they're giants," Gross said in a phone interview. "There's people coming from all over the country to fish Chickamauga because of that reason."
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.
Staff Photo by Ben Benton / An angler settles in to fish a spot on Chickamauga Lake on Sept. 22. The introduction of Florida bass in the Tennessee River system has produced monstrous largemouth bass in Chickamauga Lake, where Tennessee's state record — 15 pounds, 3 ounces — was caught in 2015. The first-ever Bill Dance Giant Bass Open, launching from Blue Water Marina in Dayton, is set for Saturday and Sunday.