Topwater bite shines for Lake Gaston bass

Bass schooling in open water on lower end, around grass from mid-lake up

Although some anglers don’t think Lake Gaston and August go together for great bass fishing, one guide has no problems with what he’s seen lately on the 20,300-acre Roanoke River lake, especially the topwater bite.

“Lake Gaston’s been pretty good recently,” said Kernersville’s Joel Richardson. “It’s actually got two fishing patterns going on at once.”

Richardson loves fishing with topwater lures, and he said both the upper and lower halves of the lake have good surface bites going – one in open water and the other near the edges of grass beds in shallow water.

“From the Eaton’s FerryBridge to the dam, you’re subject to see largemouth bass and stripers schooling off the shoals over 30 feet of water or more,” said Richardson (336-643-7214). “And you can get into some good (larger) fish, too.”

Richardson said he believes for the most part bass and rockfish are chasing threadfin shad, “But there are blueback herring in the lake, and they could be after them, but I’ve just seen the threadfins.”

Bass and striper bites also aren’t restricted to early-morning hours.

“They’ve been biting right in the middle of the day,” he said. “But if it’s windy you won’t see them. You’ve got to visually spot them to cast to them. They aren’t holding on anything (structure).”

Richardson’s favorite lures to cast in open water are Zara Spooks, Alabama rigs and Zoom Flukes.

“But I’ll tell you, the largest fish still are coming from the boat docks, up and down the lake, from one end to the other,” he said. “There’s not as many bites, but the fish are bigger.”

From the mid-lake area upriver to the I-85 bridge, Richardson has found bass hanging around grass beds.

“There’s a lot of grass, some of the  (are) in the middle of the lake,” he said.

Richardson said he’s been using topwater lures early in the morning around the outside edges of grass beds.

“When the sun gets up, I’m fishing Texas rigs (with soft plastic lures) and Rat-L-Traps,” he said. “A lot of the bass are at grass beds off the flats in four to eight feet of water.”

Senkos, trick worms and soft-plastic lizards and worms are his top lures near grass.

“The best bite with soft plastics is between 9 a.m. and noon,” he said.