Moss Lake and Lookout Shoals, two small western piedmont lakes, can hold their own when prespawn bass are the target.
Standing on the casting deck of his boat, Andy Montgomery made a tight swing with his casting rod and deftly flicked a spinnerbait between the edge of the dock and the old boat moored to it.
Allowing the bait to settle for a second or two, he began a steady retrieve back when he felt the tell-tale skipped beat of the thumping blade. Montgomery set the hook and began steering the fish out from beneath the dock.
Catching bass is a way of life for Montgomery, a pro angler from Blacksburg, S.C., the Bassmaster Southern Open points champion last year who qualified for last month’s Bassmaster Classic. Like all pros, he spends time practicing and honing his craft — but not always on some big-name reservoir.
The bass that grabbed his spinnerbait called Moss Lake home. A 1,700-acre lake in Cleveland County, it’s also known as Kings Mountain Reservoir because it provides that city’s water supply. For Montgomery, it’s a great practice lake. He said if you can catch bass here you can catch them just about anywhere.
“Moss Lake probably fishes more like a big pond than a large reservoir,” he said. “There’s not much current, and that can make it tough to fish. I like it because it’s close to home and provides some good practice, and March is probably the best time to be out here fishing, when the largemouth are starting on their prespawn patterns.”
Moss Lake’s average depth is between 40 and 50 feet, but Montgomery turns his back on the deeper water and concentrates on two types of shoreline cover: rocks and boat docks. He finds rocks, both natural and man-made, all around the lake’s 57 miles of shoreline. Most natural rock is located on long points, while the made-made rock, mostly banks rip-rapped for erosion control, are becoming more prevalent as the lake’s shoreline is developed.
“Fishing around rocks is better from late February until early March, when largemouth bass move up into the shallows and begin thinking about spawning,” he said. “That water will warm a little quicker and makes for a great place to throw a No. 7 Shad Rap or a square-billed Lucky Craft RC 1.5 crankbait. I love a crawdad or natural shad color for these baits, because that’s what the bass will be feeding on around the rocks.”
Another important factor at Moss Lake is the color of the water. When the lake was originally built in the 1970s, it was often referred to as “Mud Lake” because the runoff from local agricultural lands and the undeveloped shorelines kept it muddy for most of the year. With the decline in agriculture and increase in shoreline development in recent years, the lake has more clear-water characteristics but will still stain up after spring rains.
“If the water is stained, I’ll swap over to a gold-bladed spinnerbait,” he said, “either a big single Colarado blade or a double willow-leaf blade combined with a white and chartreuse skirt. This is a do-all bait that can be slow-rolled around the rocks or skipped underneath a boat dock and brought back with a steady retrieve.”
Montgomery has a passion for finding prespawn largemouth hanging out around boat docks; he likes shallow docks sitting in four feet of water or less. Over time, as Moss Lake was developed and drawn down, many residents removed the natural wood cover along the shoreline in favor of clean bottoms for recreational use. Fortunately, many dock owners also replaced the missing wood with brush tops and timber to attract crappie. These locations are prime targets for slow-rolling a spinnerbait when the water is stained.
“If the water stays clear, the bass will still be under the boat docks, but they will be tight to the cover,” said Montgomery. “Under these conditions, I use a crawdad-colored Shooter jig combined with a Zoom Big Salty chunk in green pumpkin and put it right in the brush.”
According to Montgomery, the average largemouth caught from Moss Lake will be in the 2- to 3-pound range. A good day may produce 15 to 20 fish, especially when the water is stained. A 5- to 7-pound bass is not uncommon, he said, especially during March when big females move shallow.
About 50 miles northeast of Moss Lake is another smallish impoundment that’s often overlooked, despite it fishing big when it comes to quality bass.
Lookout Shoals Lake, built in 1915, covers 1,305 surface acres and has 37 miles of shoreline. It is downstream from Lake Hickory and upstream from Lake Norman on Duke Power’s Catawba River chain.
Andy Fox of Claremont guides bass fishermen on many of the Catawba lakes, including Lookout Shoals. He cut his teeth bass-fishing on Lookout Shoals and credits much of his success on other lakes to what he has learned on his home water. He began fishing Lookout Shoals in 1986 and has guided for 15 years on it and other neighboring lakes.
“Lookout Shoals has changed some over the years,” Fox said. “Much of the aquatic grasses and weeds have been killed out over the years, but it still has a lot of big bass in it. It’s not a very big lake; it takes less than 10 minutes to run from end to end, but it’s deep and has a lot of cover. One of the most important things I learned from Lookout Shoals is how to fish current.”
Fox expects to find bass at Lookout Shoals in a prespawn pattern as late February eases into March. The lake has a number of small cuts and coves, especially along its northern bank, and that’s where the guide looks to find bass early in the month.
“Fishing the rocky points with a jerkbait is a good tactic,” Fox said. “Water color is important in determining which colors to fish. If the water is stained, as it usually is in the spring, a fire tiger or crawfish pattern may work best.”
As the water warms, Fox finds bass moving towards the backs of coves, where they may gather around boat docks to prepare for the spawn — which usually takes place the first to second week in April. That’s when he changes lures to medium-running Bomber or Bandit crankbaits, or he may use a floating worm if bass are holding around rip-rap.
“The Catawba County side of Lookout Shoals has more old docks than the Iredell side, with deeper water and better cover in the form of brushpiles around them,” he said. “These places are ideal for throwing a crankbait around the dock or a black/blue jig under the dock.”
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