Fish live bait or artificials along main-river channel
Fishermen who like to catch big striped bass on the Yadkin River system will have November marked down on their calendars as a month when they need to be drowning baits on High Rock Lake.
Maynard Edwards of Yadkin Lakes Guide Service in Lexington, N.C., said it’s prime time to catch what he calls “double-digit stripers” on the 15,180-acre reservoir between Lexington and Salisbury.
“November is the time to catch a big striper on High Rock,” said Edwards (336-249-6782). “They should be on the main lake between the mouth of Swearing Creek and the dam. It will be later on into December before they move to all the creek mouths.”
Edwards said it’s a “six of one, half-dozen of the other” choice between live gizzard shad or trolling lures like bucktails in November.
“It doesn’t really matter what you use,” he said. “If you use bucktails, go with bigger ones. If you use shad, I like a 6-inch bait, a gizzard shad. You’ll go smaller later in the year when it gets cold.”
Edwards said fish won’t be ganged up in tight schools but scattered around the main river channel in smaller groups. “They can be ganged up, but you don’t catch ‘em in big schools in November. You might catch one, two, three fish in a spot, but not big numbers. But they’re better fish,” he said. “
“Fish will be all over the place, usually not concentrated in one spot. Some of the time, you can catch ‘em as deep as 20 feet — which is deep on High Rock — but most of the time they’re going to be in 12 to 20 feet of water. They rarely go any shallower.”
