Four larger reservoirs that are long-standing favorites among bass fishermen -- Buggs Island (Kerr), Lake Gaston, Falls of Neuse and Jordan Lake -- should keep right on spitting out good fish.

Falls and Jordan may not produce as many of the double-digit bass they did in the late 1990s, when both lakes were only 15 or so years old and at the peak of their productivity, but both are still great in terms of numbers and quality. Both are managed with 16-inch size minimums to try and produce a better-quality fishery.

On the Roanoke River, Buggs Island (Kerr) Lake and Lake Gaston keep rolling along, with very few highs or lows. Growth rates and relative sizes at both lakes are good. Very few lakes can compare with Buggs Island in terms of the astounding number of fish that the 49,500-acre reservoir produces.

What have we missed? Only the lake that most biologists consider the best in North Carolina: Shearon Harris Lake off Route 1 between Raleigh and Sanford.

McRae said that electro-shocking surveys at Shearon Harris in recent years have been tremendous. Last spring, biologists found that approximately 60 percent of all bass in the lake were 14 inches or better, and 11 percent were 20 inches or longer -- a tremendous concentration of trophy-sized fish.

The commission manages the lake with a 16- to 20-inch slot limit, which effectively prohibits the harvest of fish between 2 1/2 and 5 pounds,

"We still need to evaluate (the slot) for a few more years before we jump to any conclusions, but we just aren't finding fish at any other lakes like we're finding at Harris," McRae said. "The forage base is pretty good, and all the fish are short, stocky footballs."

MOUNTAIN MAJESTIES
Largemouth fisheries in the western third of North Carolina generally take a back seat to smallmouths, which make up a large part of reservoir fisheries in the mountains.

Not surprisingly, the best fisheries, according to biologist David Yow of Asheville, are in lakes at a lower elevation than the extremely high, western mountains.

Yow points to Lake Adger and Lake Rhodhiss as probably western North Carolina's top fisheries for largemouth bass.

"As far as I know, we haven't had any major changes in any of our reservoirs," Yow said. "Lake Rhodhiss continues to produce a lot of fish; it's the largemouth-producing machine it always has been. It's probably the best quality bass fishery on the Catawba River. The threadfin shad have bounced back there, and the lake is just full of good bass.

"Lake Adger (on the Green River in Columbus County) is also a good largemouth lake, especially for larger fish, and it hasn't really been discovered by a lot of people yet; you don't get the big numbers of fishermen coming in there.

"It's a relatively small lake, and we only have one ramp there, but it's got an excellent forage base for the bass and the muskies there -- bream, shad and perch."

Of other major reservoirs in the western third of the state, bass fisheries are fairly good at Fontana Lake, Santeetlah Lake, Lake Chatuge, Glenville Lake and Lake James, despite smallmouths being the top draw in most areas.

One fishery related to largemouth bass that appears to be on the upswing is at Hiwassee Lake near Murphy. For a handful of years, spotted bass have been making inroads in the lake, introduced in most cases by fishermen who are believed to have brought them back from lakes in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama where they are plentiful or native -- or both.