THE
LAST CAST
By Ken Duke
the world ’ s greatest smallmouth angler
H aving been born and raised in Florida , I naturally cut my bass-fishing teeth on largemouths . After all , there are no smallmouth bass in the Sunshine State
( despite several stocking efforts nearly a hundred years ago ). But that didn ’ t stop me from admiring the brown bass in print or on television . As a kid , I read about them and was fascinated by the kinds of places they lived : swift streams and rocky reservoirs , deep water and glacial lakes — places that a Florida kid could only imagine . Smallmouths and smallmouth habitat certainly didn ’ t exist in the Miami canals I fished .
As I got older and had chances to travel north , I looked for opportunities to chase brown bass . And I fell in love with them .
My favorite place to chase smallmouths is Dale Hollow Lake on the Tennessee-Kentucky border . Not only is it the home of the world record and the place where I caught my biggest smallmouth , but it ’ s a gorgeous body of water and steeped in bass fishing history .
Dale Hollow looks like a postcard that one smallmouth bass would send to another . “ Having a great time . Wish you were here .” Another special thing about Dale Hollow is that it produced the greatest smallmouth bass fisherman of all time : Billy Westmoreland . You may hear people mention other names when discussing the greatest smallmouth angler ever , but if they don ’ t finally settle on Westmoreland , you can be confident they are wrong .
The Legend of Billy Westmoreland
Westmoreland was born in Celina , near the dam that impounds the Obey River to create Dale Hollow . He grew up fishing the lake , started guiding there when he was just 13 years old , and lived in a house that looked down upon its shores . He caught two smallmouths weighing more than 10 pounds and was certainly the only angler who ever caught smallmouth and largemouth weighing double digits . He also saved Johnny Morris ’ life once .
Around Dale Hollow , if you said , “ Legend of the Lake ” or just “ Legend ,” everyone knew you were talking about Westmoreland .
I count myself as extremely lucky to have met Westmoreland , though I would not claim to truly know him . I interviewed him over the phone several times , but never met him in person until around 2000 , when I was in Celina to fish with friends . We ran into him in a little tackle shop . He was holding court before a couple tourists and telling them exactly what they needed to catch the big bronzebacks in “ the Hollow .”
“ You want to start with a Hot Lips Express in Creek Craw and work those points near Horse Creek ,” he told them as he glanced at his watch . “ At 10:27 in the morning , you ’ ll need to switch to an aspirin head jig with a small pork trailer .”
The anglers began reaching for the pegs that held the baits Westmoreland referenced . They eagerly grabbed every such lure available as the Legend turned to the shop proprietor and winked .
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After the tourists left , the shop owner reached behind the counter and grabbed enough crankbaits and jigs to replenish the pegs . The locals and I had a good chuckle . I had gotten an up-close look at Legend ’ s sense of humor .
Westmoreland died unexpectedly in the fall of 2002 . I continued to make annual pilgrimages to the Hollow , mostly in winter to fish the float and fly technique .
Every time I was there , I ’ d find myself in conversations about Westmoreland . He had a lot of friends in the local fishing community and was the kind of guy who made everyone feel special .
One of the stories Westmoreland must have told at least a thousand times was about hooking into an enormous Dale Hollow smallmouth on a Christmas Day in the early 1970s . He lost the fish he believed would have set a new world record , and he told the story in a lot of detail … but without revealing the exact location .
After he passed , I would sometimes talk with his fishing buddies about the lake ’ s chances of producing another record and about that fish specifically . “ Where do you think he hooked that bass ?” I ’ d ask . Invariably — every single time — these many friends of Westmoreland would tell me that their bond with the Legend was special that he had truly shared the location with them and only with them . So , I ’ d pull out map of the lake and ask them to put an X on the mythical spot . All of them did .
But no two put their X in the same spot .
MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | JUNE-JULY 2021
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER