Crappie on fire, bass biting on Yadkin system reservoirs

Slabs hitting various artificial lures in shallow water, but also hitting minnows

Nearly every species of gamefish is biting at the Yadkin chain of lakes now — especially crappie and largemouth bass.

“Crappie have been on fire the last three weeks at High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin and Tillery,” said guide Maynard Edwards of Lexington. “The surprising thing, too, is they can be caught just about anywhere on the lakes and any way you want to fish for them.”

Those techniques include casting small artificial lures at banks, tight-line trolling and long-line trolling minnows and jigs or only jigs.

“When we tight line, people pull lures from 12-, 14- or 20-feet deep,” said Edwards (336-247-1287). “Instead of jigs or minnows, some long-line trollers are using small crankbaits and trolling from .6 to 1 mph.”

Another favorite crappie tactic is casting 1/16-ounce Roadrunners at shoreline banks.

“We went to Tuckertown Lake recently and cast 1/16-ounce Roadrunners at the banks for crappie but caught 12 to 14 largemouth bass weighing from 2 to 4½  pounds,” Edwards said. “They were probably males, although we couldn’t see the (bass) fry they were guarding.”

In the past Edwards also had caught striped bass during May in shallow water throwing Roadrunners.

“We didn’t catch any stripers, but it just blew me away how shallow the bass were,” he said. “We also caught crappie. The bass have been on fire at Badin and Tuckertown the last two weeks.”

Edwards said 50 percent of the crappie have been keeper sizes from 8 to 12 inches in length.

“You can catch 100 crappie in a day, but the keeper limit is 20 crappie per person of at least eight inches in length,” he said.

Badin Lake has the best current Yadkin lakes bass bite.

“They’re hitting everything — topwater lures, Senkos, spinnerbaits, anything you want to throw, and they seem to be post-spawn,” Edwards said. “We caught a 4-pounder two weeks ago and her tail had been ground off a bit, but it was completely healed. She was a really healthy fish, another sign the spawn has been over for a few weeks.”

Favorite casting targets are secondary points in feeder creeks and coves along with shallow flats and docks.