Today on Throwback Thursday we feature one of the lesser-well-known, and later winners of the World Series of Sport Fishing events, W.J. Dillon. In fact, the picture we’re featuring is of the bass he caught to win the 1968 event – the last of its kind held.
Turns out Bill, though young, was no flash-in-the-pan, as he would go on to win the artificial lures division of the Kansas State Fishing contest in both 1970 and 1971. With the folding of the World Series of Sport Fishing events by then, winners instead earned a berth in U.S. Open events being held in Missouri at the time. Bill finished third in that event in 1970, with Cousin Tom finishing fourth.
An article in The Salina Journal from that time said Bill and Tom “attributed their success to the Dillon Dilly lure they hope to market. It is a spinner with a rubber trailer.”
An interesting sidenote about the World Series of Sport Fishing was this wasn’t the only time it was won by a young angler. Dwight Keefer, a 19-year-old from Overland Park, KS, won the event in 1967.
