Why do we seldom say where we’re fishing during our shows?

Posted: August 5th, 2015 by Bill Dance

One reason is that for many years, my film crew and I traveled across North America getting back home far less than we would have liked to. Then, over 20 years ago, as a result of sponsor surveys and asking a lot of questions of viewers ourselves, we realized that a very high percentage of our viewers preferred that our TV time be spent on fishing education, not treatments on “where-to-go.” Besides, plenty of other shows were making “location” their prime objective and they still do.

As a result, and at the request of some of our biggest sponsors, we decided to change Bill Dance Outdoors to a totally educational format. And when you do how-to, it doesn’t make a lot of difference where you’re fishing as long as the terrain and conditions are correct for what you’re trying to teach.

But there was another very important reason for our decision that might surprise you. When we were still always giving the taping location of our shows, we would get a ton of mail every week from area fishermen chastising us for publicizing their favorite holes! Some of this was often to the point of being threatening, believe it or not!

On rare occasions, when it tends to serve some purpose, we do still point out where we’re fishing, but as a general rule, we don’t. And hey, I’m also proud to say that an added desirable result of this was that it also cut down some on our time away from home. Before long, my own dogs even began to recognize me again when I drove in the driveway!

As always, catch one for me.