Spring weather finally has settled across North Carolina, freshwater lakes have warmed up, and sow largemouth bass are in the shallows, looking for places to spawn.
After a long, cold winter, bass fishing has finally turned on at the three main Piedmont reservoirs of Shearon Harris, Falls of the Neuse and Jordan Lakes, said guide Jamie Olive of New Hill.
“People have been catching bass at all three lakes, especially Harris, using lipless crankbaits and shallow-diving crankbaits around the edges of the grass, which hasn’t emerged yet,” said Olive of Haulin’ Bass Guide Service (www.haulinbass.com, 919-626-0707). “The bass are laid up along the edges of that grass.”
At Jordan and Falls of the Neuse lakes, Olive said prespawn females have invaded shallows that feature rock and stump fields.
“They’re feedin’ up to get ready for the spawn,” he said.
At a recently completed (February 26) Piedmont Team Tournament at Harris Lake, Chad and Jay Eriksen of Raleigh weighed in five bass that totaled 19.10 pounds, including the second-place lunker of 8.22 pounds.
“Air temps ranged from 34 to 55 degrees and water temps averaged 50,” said Phil McCarson, tournament director. “For our first (tournament) of 2011, we had a whopping 37 boats show up to attack Harris.
“Bass were caught on every kind of lure you can think of except topwater (lures). We had three bass over 8 pounds with the biggest (8.7 pounds) being caught on a ‘secret’ crankbait.”
Dennis Digman of Dunn and John Kane of Garner landed that fish.
Many anglers used Rat-L-Traps to land largemouths at the Harris tournament.
“Most all fish were caught in 6 to 7 feet of water in grassy areas, and we had 100 bass weighed that totaled 243 pounds,” McCarson said. “All fish were released alive back into the lake.”
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