By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

It’s the Friday of Father’s Day weekend 2021 and native Bill Dance is hanging out on a Mulberry Street porch just below the historic Lynchburg Square enjoying the afternoon air when he spots several kids fishing off the bridge. Locals Cooper Dickey and Kolby Williams stand hot and frustrated trying to fix a backlash – a tangled mess of fishing line on a reel that often resembles a bird’s nest – from their rod. Dance watches them struggle for a moment then decides to walk down and see if he can help – giving them a little well-earned wisdom.

“When you first get a backlash, don’t pull on it. That won’t do anything but tighten it,” Dance instructs. “Instead, let me show you a trick.”

That’s when Dance puts his thumb over the spool and reels very slowly forward. To the young fishermen’s astonishment, the backlash magically corrects. Despite the aviators and signature bright orange Vols baseball cap, the two have no idea that they’re standing in front of Lynchburg royalty and a world class bass angler.

“Do you fish?” the boys ask.

“A little bit,” Dance says modestly. “In fact, I used to fish this very creek when I was your age.”

That’s when Dance looks up and spots a half dozen lures stuck in the trees overhanging the creek. Noticing Dance’s gaze, Cooper explains that his dad, Chris Dickey, is on his way with a pair of tree cutters to try and get the lures back just as soon as he finishes cooking lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Restaurant. About that time, Chris walks across the bridge, and stops in his tracks.

” Well, I’ll be. Boys, do you have any idea who you are talking to?”

“No,” the boys say. “But he’s a really nice man. He taught us how to get a backlash out.”

“I bet he can teach you a lot of things about fishing, son. That’s Bill Dance,” Chris says.  

This is what we call a full circle moment here in Moore County – where the past and present blend together in a way that lets you know though many things have changed here in Lynchburg over the years, some things remain constant like the joy and wonder of fishing on the Mulberry Creek.

{Editor’s Note: This article will remain free for seven days. After that, it will go into the Humans of Lynchburg archive, which is available to subscribers only.}

Learned how to fish on the Mulberry Creek

World-famous bass angler Bill Dance learned how to fish right here in Lynchburg on the Mulberry Creek. His grandfather, Paul Parks Dance – a physician and the son of a physician – took a scientific approach to the ubiquitous southern pastime. He taught young Bill to be an angler by teaching him about the anatomy of fish.

“He was an excellent fisherman himself,” Dance says. “He took the time to not only teach me the mechanics of fishing but also how they worked.”

It’s that “cheat code” that eventually led Dance to turn his favorite pastime into a career that’s spanned over sixty years. In 1967, he signed up for the first-ever Bass Anglers Sportsman Society’s (B.A.S.S.) Bassmaster tournament. In fact, Dance enjoys the honor of catching the first bass ever caught in a Bassmaster tournament. Three short years later, they named him as the first B.A.S.S. Angler of Year – an honor he’d win again in both 1974 and 1977. In total, he’d go on to win 23 National Bass Titles during his tournament career.

Then in 1968 a fishing lure manufacturer that sponsored him suggested that he start a TV show to promote their products. Soon, Dance, wearing his signature aviators and bright orange UT baseball cap, launched Bill Dance Outdoors. Originally, it broadcast regionally on WHBQ-TV, an ABC affiliate out of Memphis, but soon stations across the U.S. picked up the show. Today, it’s the longest-running and most successful fishing show on TV.

Hooked at the age of seven

Dance’s grandfather may have taught him how to fish, but his grandmother, Mary Lou Dance, bought him his first artificial lure, an Arbogast jitterbug, right here in Lynchburg at the Lynchburg Hardware and General Store when Dance was around seven years old.

Usually Dance says he’d just put on a pair of his grandfather’s oversized boots and stomp up and down the creek stirring up crawfish for a day of fishing.

“Back then we didn’t have Bass Pro, Academy, Walmart, or any other big box tackle stores,” Dance said. “I’d wade up the shallow parts and kick my feet left and right until crawfish floated up and I could catch them with my net. It wouldn’t take long to have a bucket full – more than enough for a day of fishing.”

Though young Bill Dance spent his childhood wandering up and down the Mulberry Creek, he says he knew to always stay within an earshot of home. Each day, his grandmother would summon him to lunch by beating on a pan from her front porch. The home once sat just outside the Lynchburg Square on what’s now Dance Avenue named in their honor.

“I really could hear the sound from the Stone Bridge all the way to the next bridge behind what was then Hills Grocery,” he says. “Whenever I heard that sound, I knew to come running.”

One day, Dance’s grandmother handed him three shiny quarters and told him that Connor Motlow – who ran the local hardware store at the time – had mentioned that young Bill had been looking at this one particular lure for several weeks. After lunch, the two of them went down and purchased the “bug bug” – her name for the jitterbug.

“I’d been there so many times looking at that lure. As soon as she put the money in my hand, I took off,” Dance jokes.

When he returned, his grandmother informed him that they were going to the “big lake” that day to fish – referring to the lake at Cumberland Springs just up the road in Tullahoma. As she spread out a handmade quilt and crocheted from the bank, Dance caught his very first largemouth bass.

Dance says the crystal-clear water of that lake allowed him to watch the fish. As a three-pound bass swam by, he made his first cast.

“It wasn’t a great cast. It landed about 10-12 from the fish, but when it hit the water, he heard it and stopped” Dance explained. “That’s when I remembered what Grandaddy told me about how well fish can hear. There was no way the fish could see the lure at that distance, but he heard it.”

Dance says as he moved the lure in the water, the fish turned in the direction of the sound.

“When I’d reel, he’d start swimming towards it. When I stopped, he’d stop. That’s when I started to put together everything that Grandaddy taught me and it absolutely flipped the switch in me. That sent me down a road that’s been incredible to this day,” Dance says. “It’s ironic. Back then, I thought maybe I could make a living designing lures based on what he taught me. I never dreamed it would lead to all this.”

Childhood memories of the Mulberry Creek

Dance says some of his fondest memories of his childhood fishing on the Mulberry Creek revolve around Reagor and Jeanie Motlow. Reagor – the son of Lem Motlow and the great-nephew of Jack Daniel – served as president of the distillery from 1939 until 1963. When Brown-Forman acquired it in 1956, Motlow continued to serve on the company’s board of directors.

Dance’s favorite local fishing spot sat in the cooler waters created by the now-famous cave spring in the part of the creek that ran right behind the Motlow’s house.

“Miss Jeanie would send the woman who worked for her down to the creek to fetch me for lunch,” he said. “She’d hand me a tuna or chicken salad sandwich and a Double Cola, and I’d sit at their kitchen table and eat. She had a personality like Paula Dean. She just bubbled with excitement and was always extremely kind to me. They taught me that just like the current, whatever you give flows back to you.”

After he ate, Miss Jeanie would instruct Reagor to drive young Billy back to town, but he’d usually just head right back down to the creek.

One of his most vivid memories involves tangling with a copperhead snake one day while fishing with his sister, Ann. Dance says he’d spotted the snake swimming on top of the water and immediately told his sister to get out of the water, then he attempted to wash the snake down the creek but lost him in the current. Unknowingly, the snake had washed into his net. When Dance went to pick up the net, the snake coiled around his ankle and bit him.

“I looked at my ankle and there was a very small puncture wound,” Dance says. “My sister wrapped my leg up above my kneecap to keep the poison from flowing up, and we ran back to Grandaddy’s house.”

His grandmother sent him to Lynchburg’s then physician, Dr. Brewer, who was returning from a day of golfing. By then, Dance’s leg had swelled so much that the country doctor had to cut his jeans leg down the middle to look even at the bite. He suctioned out the poison, wrapped the bite, and sent him on his way. When he got back home, Dance’s grandparents instructed him to rest. After about an hour, Dance says he felt great and headed right back out fishing.

“We headed to Rambo Lake that day and caught a big pile of bluegill,” Dance says.

Bridge renamed in his honor

Little Billy Dance from Lynchburg’s made a household name for himself. Not only has he earned honors like the 2024 Tennessean of the Year and an honorary Doctorate of Natural Resources from his beloved University of Tennessee, in 2022 the state honored him with the Bill Dance Signature Lake Initiative – a multi- million investment on 18 lakes across the state including nearby Tims Ford.

On October 1, he’ll add one more honor. The old stone bridge – the one that he fished under his entire childhood – located right in front of the Jack Daniel’s Visitor’s Center at the corner of Majors Boulevard and Main Street – will be renamed in his honor.

It’s an accolade that really hits home for the 84 years young Dance. He’ll turn 85 just days after the renaming ceremony

“Lynchburg was the perfect place for someone like me to be spawned,” Dance says. “It was a heck of a classroom for young Bill Dance and now, in a way, with my name on it, it’s a place that will always be. It’s just my happy place, and a heck of a great place to fish.” •

About The Lynchburg Times
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