With the spring fishing season upon us, we thought we should pay tribute to an American fishing icon, Bill Dance. Dance, 71, began his career as a professional fisherman in 1968, when he filmed his first on-air fishing show. Dance’s shows now have more than 18 million viewers.
I’m truly amazed, Dance says. I’ve been very fortunate and very blessed to be able to make a living doing something I love.
Dance seems to have bad luck with video cameras, snakes and rods, but he has great luck catching fish and many viewers feel a kinship with him.
I just be myself, says Dance, whose Outdoors outtakes include shots of him falling off a boat dock, taking a tumble out of his boat and banging his shin on a trailer hitch”pratfalls and blunders to which every fisherman can relate. I don’t put on airs, he says. I don’t try to be slick and fancy. If you fake it, folks will see right through it. Who they see is who I am.
Though the Tennessean sometimes uses colorful language, his bloopers are too funny to resist. Dance just released his 4th DVD of bloopers. Happy fishing!
P.S. Don’t forget to unlatch the boat, when you put the trailer in the water.