The Billy Westmoreland Tournament: It’s cold water Bassin’

By Chris Erwin

While most of us are throwing another log on the fire, there is a breed of fishermen who embraces the cold, and in fact looks forward to it. Such is the case with Chad Snider and Jason Bridwell winners of the Billy Westmoreland Tournament on Dale Hollow Lake.

The weather was bad. Rain, wind and cold would set the stage for the tournament and the team of Chad Snider and Jason Bridwell would find what little practice time they had to be mostly unproductive. Dale Hollow has odd smallmouth rules: Anglers can keep one smallmouth shorter than 16 inches and one longer than 21 as part of their limit, but no smallmouth between 16 and 21 inches long may be kept.

The tournament is quite a challenge considering it is fishing in the middle of winter. The team set out the first day to try to fill the bottom end of the limit, each fisherman could keep one fish a day under 16 inches and that is just what they did. On top of a 15 ¼ and a 15 ¾ smallmouth they managed to land one fish just over 21 inches. The three fish totaled 8.65 pounds.

They caught their fish using a tail-spinner under a bobber. I know many of you have heard of the Float & Fly, and while this is a variation, the concept is the same. You can suspend a lure right in front of the fish. The bobber provides the rocking movement to entice an otherwise dormant fish to take a crack at what looks like dying prey. This kind of fishing can be tough, especially when the weather is bad. Snider and Bridwell were marking shad on their electronics and then moving to the area where they knew they were bait fish.

The second day the team of Snider and Bridwell would catch two more fish under the 16-inch mark totaling 3. 72 pounds, bringing their grand total to 12.37 pounds. The second day total would be enough to push them into first place. Now and forever the team of Snider and Bridwell will be in the record books as winners of the 2013 Billy Westmoreland Invitational Tournament.

This tournament is sponsored by Horse Creek Marina. In the photographs, you can see Jack Huddleston, a great supporter of fishing in the area through the years. My good friend Soc Clay, three times Hall Of Fame recipient, had a few things he wanted to say about Jack when I told him I was going to write this article on the Billy Westmoreland Tournament.

“Jack Huddletson was never an avid fisherman. For most of his adult life, he drove a milk truck for a living. When he had the opportunity to acquire Horse Creek Dock, he would establish one of the most important fishing facilities on the 25,000-acre reservoir, one of the first. He would become a lifetime friend his neighbor, Billy Westmoreland.

“Westmorland was one of the bass fishermen who joined Ray Scott and his to be famous B.A.S.S. organization. Westmoreland soon became acclaimed as the most knowledgeable smallmouth bass fisherman in the world.

“His vast interest in the smallmouth bass was quickly passed along to his friend Jack Huddleston. A powerful politician, Jack would support the new regulations on Dale Hollow that were designed to create the best trophy smallmouth lake in North America. The lake owned the all-tackle world record that was caught in 1955. The record would be challenged and eventually the Fresh Water Hall of Fame and the IGFA (International Game Fish Association) threw the record out and Huddleston went to work. He insisted the old record was legitimate and demanded that an extensive investigation about the catch be done by officials of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

“It took a year but the agency finally proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the 11 lbs. 15-ounce smallmouth taken by David Hayes on a hot July morning was indeed the largest smallmouth ever recorded, period!

“The Billy Westmorland- Horse Creek annual tournament was established more for winter bass angling in America, and it stands out more than any other event on record,” Clay said.