There are very few places in North Carolina where you can't leave the driveway and be on some kind of decent bass water within an hour.

But it's more true in some places than others, because not all of the Tarheel State's rivers and reservoirs were created equal.There's little doubt that North Carolina has some world-class fisheries for largemouth bass. Buggs Island (Kerr) Lake, Lake Gaston, High Rock Lake and Lake Wylie have been the site of national bass tournaments over the past half-dozen years, with quality catches being the rule rather than the exception.

The best waters are generally in that all-encompassing region known as "the Piedmont" -- a 150-mile-wide swath of land wedged between the "fall line" in the east and the foothills in the west. It includes reservoirs of all shapes and sizes, from the deepest, clearest lakes to shallow, little "mud holes."

Fishermen in the eastern third of the state have to rely mostly on moving water for their largemouths, and in the wake of hurricanes and tropical storms that moving water hasn't held a lot of fish.

A massive fish kill spawned by Hurricane Isabel in September 2003 will probably affect bass fishing in blue-ribbon waters like the Chowan and Roanoke rivers for years to come, despite a restocking program undertaken last spring and fall by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Those waters, along with tributaries like the Scuppernong, the Cashie and Middle rivers, were wiped clean of most species, including bass, when huge wedges of oxygen-poor water flushed down the rivers in the wake of post-storm flooding.

The commission has stocked adult bass, fingerlings and bass fry across the region in hopes of jump-starting the fishery, but it may take a couple of years for fishermen to enjoy productive trips.

The Neuse, Trent and Cape Fear rivers continue to produce decent fishing along their lengths, but nothing to compare with the fishing from Piedmont reservoirs -- in terms either of numbers or quality.

The Piedmont can be divided into four major groups of reservoirs: the Roanoke River lakes along the Virginia border, the Raleigh-Durham trio, and the Yadkin and Catawba river systems.

Buggs Island (Kerr) Lake and Lake Gaston are most likely among the top three or four lakes in the state. They are in extremely fertile drainages and have developed great bass fisheries. Buggs Island is famous nationwide for its shallow shoreline fishing in the spring, when rising waters push back into the buck bushes, poplars and willow trees that line its banks. Just downstream at Lake Gaston and farther downstream at Roanoke Rapids Lake, the presence of aquatic grass has made for extremely healthy fisheries.

"Buggs Island and Gaston are still real good lakes, particularly in March, April and May," said bass pro and guide Joel Richardson of Kernersville. "Lake Gaston has got a lot of boat docks and a lot of grass, and the lake level doesn't fluctuate much. It warms up a little bit earlier than Buggs Island because it's farther east; it's more likely to be turned on by March 1.

"Without a doubt, you have a chance to catch a lot of big fish at Gaston, but you can also catch numbers at Gaston. I had a few days last spring when I caught 30 a day."

Buggs Island, Richardson said, probably has a bigger potential upside than Gaston, in part because of what he considers tremendous spawns the past three years.

"For the past two years, I've seen a lot of fingerling bass at Buggs -- schools of 'em," Richardson said (336-993-8704). "They've had really good spawns, great spawns, the past couple of years. I think 2 1/2 years ago -- when we had that flood at Buggs in the spring -- that was the best spawn I've ever seen. I found out they can spawn in places I never could have imagined. I expect the fishery at Buggs Island to explode in the next couple of years."