"There aren't any problems from the drought," Mullis said. "I'm not sure that anybody could tell the difference between High Rock this spring and the way it was before the drought. It's been in the process of coming around the past few years."

The lakes on the Yadkin fish a little differently because of differences in their physical characteristics and habitat. Badin is the deeper, most clear lake on the chain, and as such, it fishes best during the cooler months. Tuckertown is as shallow and stained as High Rock, but it has a decided advantage because its water level is more stable.

"Lakes that have the more stable water levels usually have a little better spawning success," Mullis said. "Badin and Tuckertown, they hardly ever go up and down more than a foot or so, while High Rock fluctuates a lot, and so does Lake Tillery."

Of the lakes on the lower section of the Catawba River system, Lake Wylie is a great match for High Rock: relatively shallow, very fertile and full of bass. It has long been considered the most consistent fishery on the chain, and largemouths take advantage of a great forage base and a great deal of effluent pouring into the lake from towns and cities slightly upstream.

Biologists are being very cautious about the bass fishery at Lake Norman. Spotted bass made an appearance several years ago, ostensibly moved to the lake in the livewells of bass boats.

Spots have taken hold, in part because of the angler introduction of alewives or river herring; as more of an open-water fish, spots take more advantage of that species of forage fish than largemouths.

Biologists are hoping that the fishery continues to develop, but they're worried that, with Norman being a relatively infertile reservoir, spots are going to put a great deal of pressure on the forage base. Some models from other reservoirs in the same situation have shown an initial explosion in the fishery, then a slacking off and, eventually, a decrease in numbers of largemouth bass.

Biologist David Yow of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission expects good things out of reservoirs in the foothills and mountains over the next handful of years.

Yow said that the commission is finishing up a three-year survey on the upper Catawba River, and that largemouth populations in Lake Hickory and Lake Rhodhiss are both in good shape -- especially Rhodhiss, which doesn't get nearly the pressure of its neighbors in the Catawba chain.

"At Rhodhiss, especially, our electrofishing surveys continue to show a good population of quality-sized fish," he said. "And there should be plenty of food, as there's a good population of threadfin shad in that lake."

It is up in the high country where Yow is waiting to see how several things play out.

Yow believes that a new operational plan put into effect last year by the Tennessee Valley Authority may really help out bass fisheries in TVA lakes by doing away with the drastic winter drawdowns of lake levels -- especially at Fontana, Santeetlah and Hiwassee lakes.

"In mountain lakes, it looks as if, a lot of the time, the amount of winter habitat has more to do with driving the strength of a year-class of fish than the spring habitat," Yow said. "The (lack of) winter habitat may limit what fish can do. We've looked at Santeetlah, and it may stabilize it.

"We don't know how much it will help bass and sunfish populations, but it shouldn't hurt them. In some places where there are steep shorelines, it may not make much of a difference, but if there are coves or backwater areas at the right elevation, it may add a significant amount of habitat for the young-of-the-year bass. It will be a couple of years, anyway, before we can tell whether or not it has had any benefit."