Roanoke Rapids Lake doesn't get a ton of fishing pressure from outside its immediate area, in part because the lake level fluctuates greatly and it's a very shallow, stump-filled reservoir -- making navigation a little iffy for fishermen who aren't familiar with the bends of the river.

However, the extensive hydrilla beds, which are often matted out on the surface of flats all the way out to the channel drop, have created a fishery that's excellent even through the heat of the summer. Bass tend to hang out right along the outside edge of the grasslines, or they lie up under the mats of hydrilla. That can make for excellent topwater fishing using plastic rats and frogs or soft-plastic jerkbaits throughout the summer.

Guide Phil Cable of Cary said that the three big reservoirs around the Raleigh-Durham area -- Falls of Neuse, Jordan and Shearon Harris -- aren't spitting out the big fish they did five or 10 years ago, but he believes that's just a matter of the lake's "growing older," having left the developing period when they were phenomenally productive.

Cable, who owns the Jordan Lake record of 14 pounds, 6 ounces, said that all three reservoirs have something going for them. The commission manages them with special regulations to promote big bass (16-inch size minimums on Jordan and Falls, a 16- to 20-inch slot limit at Harris), and all three can be among the state's top lakes on any given day.

"It's hard to say which one is the best," Cable said (919-363-6929). "I still say that Falls is one of our better lakes, just because it has a lot of different kinds of fishing to offer. Both Jordan and Falls have good offshore structure, but Falls also has a lot of good shoreline cover, and Jordan doesn't. And Harris has all that grass -- it's still good, but the fishing pressure there is very heavy.

"The slot limit didn't cut back on any of the pressure at Harris, but it has helped in that guys can't haul those 2 1/2- to 5-pound fish out of there. This past year, we caught an awful lot of slot-size fish."

Cable isn't bothered by no longer seeing 10-pound bass from Jordan or Falls on a regular basis because he knows that "they're real lakes now, and the fishing is a little tougher," he said. "They're still good, but none of them are spitting out big fish like they used to. You'll hear of an occasional big fish, but I'm not seeing as many fish over 7 pounds as I used to. A 10-pound fish was always rare, and there are still some out there, but not as many."

Cable would rate Falls as his favorite lake for running down the bank with a spinnerbait, and he'd rate Jordan and Falls about equal for offshore summertime fishing a crankbait or Carolina rig. In the fall, he loves Harris because, he said, there will be groups of fish both deep and shallow -- along the grass lines -- that will bite.

There is only one name to know when discussing the Yadkin River system: High Rock Lake.

The big, shallow, stained reservoir has established itself as a top-drawer fishery. It didn't appear to have been affected negatively by an enormous, long-lasting drawdown during the drought of 2002 -- especially when the lake filled back up with fish into once-barren, muddy flats that were fully grassed.

This past year, a wet spring and summer kept water levels up for an unusual length of time. Guide Maynard Edwards of Lexington said that kept fishermen from really pounding the bass.

"I think the high water really scattered the fish out," Edwards said (336-249-6782). "You could catch a few fish about anywhere you wanted to fish, but you couldn't catch a load of fish anywhere. There was just too much water."

But there's a bright future ahead at High Rock, Edwards believes. "We had a real good spawn in 2003; that spring, bass fry were everywhere. Now, they're 8 to 12 inches long and there are millions of 'em. I've even seen some schooling activity, and High Rock has never been much of a lake for schooling. In a couple of years, it will be awesome."