RALEIG -DURHAM AREA
Heading to the "big city" to fish may sound a little strange, but there's little question that residents of the Raleigh-Durham area are among the luckiest in the nation in terms of having quality fishing opportunities close by.

Three major reservoirs are within a 30-minute drive of either city: Falls of Neuse Lake, Jordan Lake and Shearon Harris Lake.

Falls is a fantastic fishery located north of Raleigh and Durham, with its headwaters just upstream from the I-85 bridge between Durham and Butner. Impounded in the early 1980s, it has been an excellent summertime bass fishery and has a good population of crappie and channel catfish.

Fishing plastic worms and jigs around stumps along the old Neuse River channel is a great way to do battle with a big bass during the summer. Slow-trolling the mouths of major creeks with mini-jigs is an accepted way to catch a cooler full of slab crappie, and drifting shallow flats on the main river with cut bait or chicken livers will put a few catfish in your boat. Kennon Brown of Oxford (336/358-3207) has guided for bass for years, and Chris Coleman and Steve Tollerson of W&S Outdoor Adventures (434/374-4011) offer crappie-fishing trips at Falls of Neuse.

Jordan Lake is south of Durham. It is also an excellent bass fishery in the summer for fishermen using crankbaits and Carolina rigs around deeper dropoffs and creek channels, and in the past two or three years, a very good fishery for striped bass and hybrid bass has developed. Phil Cable of Holly Springs (919/815-1185) guides bass fishermen at Jordan and Shearon Harris, and Troy Roberson's Striper Sniper Guide Service (919/656-1887) offers trips for stripers and hybrids.

Shearon Harris is the third RDU area reservoir, impounded on a tributary of the Cape Fear River just off U.S. Route 1 between Raleigh and Sanford. Harris has a very heavy covering of hydrilla in the shallow areas that has been a shot in the arm to the lake's excellent bass population. The lake also has crappie and channel catfish, and it is one of the better large reservoirs for sunfish, having an excellent population of shellcrackers that can be caught on live bait in relatively shallow water -- especially around full moons -- throughout the summer. Jeffrey Thomas of Broadway (919/258-3757) guides for bass on Harris when he's not off fishing in national bass tournaments.

Besides the three larger lakes, there are a handful of excellent fishing opportunities at municipal lakes in Raleigh (Shelley Lake) and Durham (Lake Michie).