W. Kerr Scott Lake’s unique combination of sportfish offers year-round appeal.
The sky was gray during a mild January day last year, as Tracy Adams launched his bass boat at W. Kerr Scott Lake near Wilkesboro.
But after the boat was in the water, getting his truck up the hill the access area parking lot near the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters building was tricky because of sand on the long concrete ramp.
The Corps already had completed its winter drawdown at the lake, and the water level was about 7 feet less than normal pool. That lowering of the lake revealed slippery granules covering the the ramp’s lower section, so Adams spun his tires while trying to drive back to the top.
“It’ll be OK when we pull the boat out,” he said. “I’ll just use my four-wheel drive.”
Winter fishing at W. Kerr Scott Lake (not to be confused with massive John H. Kerr Reservoir, aka “Buggs Island,” at the N.C.-Virginia border) is unusual because except in the coldest conditions, anglers can fish for almost every freshwater species found in North Carolina.
“The lake level is really down,” Adams said last January. “But that makes finding fish a little easier because there’s less water to search.”
A quick look at the shoreline of the cove that harbored the Dam Site boat ramp revealed cuts, veins and rows of sharp, jumbled rocks that angled steeply and disappeared into the dingy water. When the Corps excavated the lake from the rocky Yadkin Valley, it had its hands full.
“It’s really deep just a few feet from the shore where the water reaches,” Adams said. “Every cove in the lake drops off like this, but there are some shallower areas with humps that rise up we’ll try that usually hold fish.”
The dropoffs are so steep, in fact, the Dam Site boat ramp, unlike most launch facilities, doesn’t allow boaters to back down directly into the water but instead was constructed parallel to the northeast side of the cove. As Adams backed and looked out his driver’s side window, he could see a steep bank instead of water.
Although he was going after smallmouth bass — which often hang out at steep, rocky dropoffs — the bronzebacks weren’t cooperating that day. However, that didn’t mean the fishing would be a bust.
“Smallmouth fishing usually is best from October to the end of February,” Adams said. “It seems to kick off best during the colder months of the year; they seem to bite better then.
“The best water temperature for smallmouths is from 48 to 55 degrees. In fact, when it’s closer to 48 degrees, that’s the best time to catch smallmouths. The cold water doesn’t make them turn off like it does the spotted bass and largemouth bass.
“In the summer, when it gets hot up here, there’s two places to find smallmouths — up the (Yadkin) river and in the really deep channels of the river in the lake.”
Adams said most smallmouth bass caught at W. Kerr Scott are in the 2- to 3-pound range, but 4-pounders aren’t unusual.
“My best smallie was a 4-pounder, but I return all of them back into the lake, so that’s basically an estimate,” he said. “One of my buddies, Mike Simpson, caught a 5 1/4-pound smallmouth two years ago.”
W, Kerr Scott Lake, covering 1,475 surface acres at full pool and located in Wilkes County it’s a relatively small lake for North Carolina compared to some of the state’s other impoundments.
But tucked into a valley along the upper reaches of the Yadkin River, the lake is a little giant — or better yet, a mountain gem — when it comes to providing good year-round fishing opportunities. It contains nearly every species of N.C. freshwater fish commonly found in the state. And most other Tar Heel reservoirs don’t feature a trifecta of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass.
Maybe because of that variety of freshwater denizens, W. Kerr Scott was the perfect place for one of the top professional anglers in the state to cut his angling teeth.
“I started fishing at the lake with my dad when I was 15 years old,” said Adams, 33, who lives in nearby Wilkesboro.
Adams’ father, David Adams, owned and operate a convenience store off Old U.S. 421 when his son was growing up.
“We fished Tuesday and Saturday night summer tournaments a lot and had some success,” said Adams, who worked for his dad in the store before becoming a full-time tournament angler.
Mostly the pair caught largemouth and smallmouth bass during spring, summer and fall. But the good thing for anglers at the lake is fishing never really turns off, except during extremely cold winters — which have been rare in North Carolina.
Adams turned all those years of fishing local tournaments with his dad and a few close friend into battle-tested experience. As a FLW regular, he’s fished in 97 tournaments since 1996, finished 10 times in the top 10 and banked $432,201 in career earnings.
His best effort included his lone victory during the June 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s final stop at Lake Champlain, N.Y., where he won $100,000.
“It’s a good thing I won that tournament,” Adams said with a chuckle, “because I’d had a terrible year up to then.”
During 2007 he improved tremendously with five top-50 finishes in six FLW tournaments. His fishing expertise also allowed him to obtain sponsors such as Hot Shot Lures, BP, Evinrude, Ranger Boats, Gamma Fishing Line, Tru-Tungsten and Gloomis rods.
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise Adams won at Lake Champlain, which has many of the characteristics of his home lake, although W. Kerr Scott is much smaller.
The Wilkesboro lake, with 55 miles of shoreline, has the profile of a salamander, with its head at the W. Kerr Scott Dam on the east and the main body of water running west, with legs created by coves fed by White’s Creek, Blood and Warrior creeks and the Yadkin River.
Originally known as the Wilkesboro Dam and Reservoir Project, the lake was authorized to be built by Congress after devastating downstream floods of 1899, 1916 and 1940. Construction by the Corps began in 1960 and was completed in 1963, at which time the impoundment was renamed W. Kerr Scott Reservoir and Dam in honor of a former governor and U.S. senator from Haw River.
It didn’t take long for W. Kerr Scott to fill with water. Through the years, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has stocked the lake with freshwater game and forage fishes, including spotted bass, largemouth bass, alewives, blue catfish, blueback herring, channel catfish, rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, threadfin shad, tiger muskellunge, walleye and white bass.
Not only that, but the Corps and WRC later placed fish habitat improvements in the lake, including Christmas trees, gravel spawning beds, wooden pallets, hardwood tree tops and cut and cabled trees. Those habitats act as fish magnets
“(The lake) has lots of structure to fish,” Adams said. “It’s just a matter of knowing where. Of course, some of the places are better than others.”
Last January, Adams searched out submerged rock piles that rose from deeper surrounding water.
“I like to fish the rock piles because they hold largemouths, spots and sometimes smallmouth bass this time of year,” Adams said. “But you can fish anywhere (at the lake) that’s got rocks, including rocky banks and the rip rap at the dam.
“Sometimes (fish) get on the red clay banks, especially after a few warm, sunny days. We usually have a few warm spells each January, and I think the sun warms up those red clay banks. I don’t know if that’s what attracts baitfish and then the bass or if the bass just like the warmer water. But I know that sometimes you can hit a red clay bank and have a lot of fun.
“The lake’s got a lot of crawfish, and I think crawfish live in holes in those red clay banks. That might be the reason you’ll find bass there after warm spells.”
For fishing rock pile “humps” at the open lake during January, Adams uses Chronarc reels with a 6-to-1 retrieve ratio.
“You don’t want a fast retrieve because even though these fish are active, it’s still winter, and they’re not revved up like they are in spring and summer,” he said. “A slow, steady retrieve with crankbaits, using the same speed for every lure, is what you need.”
For fishing line, Adams prefers 10-pound-test Gamma co-polymer, which he said is similar to the best monofilaments but is a little more supple and has good abrasion resistance, a key when fishing rocky structure.
His favorite bass lure for winter fishing is a Norman Deep Little-N crankbait.
“It’s basically a homer-colored (chartreuse) crankbait,” he said. “I like the one with fire-tiger stripes or sometimes I’ll throw the Bumble Bee model. But if the water is really clear, you’ll want to go to a shad color.”
The Deep Little-N will run from 9- to 12-feet deep with the correct line, making it perfect for banging off rocks. The lure’s fairly well-built, Adams said, and holds up well to collisions with hard surfaces.
“That’s the key to fishing this lake in winter when you’re going after bass that’re on the rocks — keeping the crankbait in contact with the bottom, banging it off rocks,” he said.
Another lure he sometimes uses when he locates a school of bass is a brown FLIRT worm, a soft-plastic worm made by Reaction Innovations.
“I use it with a Hot Shot lures round-ball jighead,” he said, “in 1/4- or 3/16-ounce sizes.
“That worm works best when the water’s clear. If you find fish in clear water, that jig is really a good lure. If you’re fishing after a rain, though, it’s best to stick with the crankbait because the red banks at this lake really stain the water.”
Adams motored near a mound of rocks that rose up from a flat to about 7 feet from the surface and began to cast the Deep Little-N.
“My best bass largemouth from this lake weighed 7 pounds,” he said.
Adams threw the Deep Little-N only a few times when he set the hook on a fish.
“If this is a smallmouth or a spot, it’s the biggest one I’ve ever hooked,” he said.
After a few minutes, he landed a big largemouth bass that weighed 7.02 pounds on his digital scales.
“My biggest one out of this lake,” he said with a grin.
Adams said the top largemouth caught from the lake in recent years weighed 12 pounds.
“Somebody caught a 13-pounder years ago,” he said, “but the average fish is probably 2- to 2 1/2 pounds. But this lake has a lot of 3- to 6-pounders in it.”
Later that morning, Adams caught several spotted bass in the 2-pound range.
“The best spotted bass, probably the state record, was caught here a year or two ago, but the guy (Tommy Ireland of Hamptonville) didn’t weigh it,” Adams said. “It also hit a crankbait.”
Ireland’s spot weighed 7 pounds, which would have eclipsed the 6-pound, 5-ounce spot caught at Lake Norman by Eric Weir.
Weir also caught his bass in winter, Dec. 26, 2003.
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