The future of High Rock Lake kept wiggling at my feet.

I had just made a cast to a gravel point in Flat Swamp when the pulsations of my tiny crankbait came to a halt. I set the hook, then turned to my fishing buddy and said, “Something’s weird. This fish is going in two directions at once.”

The cause of the erratic movement became apparent once my bait came into view. Two tiny bass were grappling with the trebles of the lure. Stretched out from end to end, the fish together wouldn’t have measured 12 inches.

That “double” wasn’t unusual. Last fall, High Rock fishermen reported catching hundreds of bass from 4 to 10 inches and sometimes two at once.

“Little fish were everywhere,” said Yadkin River guide Maynard Edwards of Lexington. “I’ve never seen so many small bass in High Rock before.”

The small fish have been an encouraging sight to local fishermen. Only three years ago, anglers feared there might not be any bass left in High Rock following a four-year drought, the worst since 1927.

The “exceptional drought” of 2002 reduced the major creeks to trickles and compelled the Yadkin Division of Alcoa Power Generating Inc. to close all boat-launch areas in July when the lake plummeted more than 21 feet below full pool.

Several fish kills occurred, involving mostly baitfish and carp.

Biologists, fishermen and APGI officials braced themselves for the impending disaster as dropping water, soaring water temperatures and decreasing oxygen levels threatened to destroy the bass fishery.

Just when all seemed lost, Mother Nature, the cause of the calamity, came to the rescue. A low-pressure weather system stalled over central and eastern North Carolina during the Labor Day weekend, causing a deluge of much-needed rainfall. Record rains continued through the Labor Day weekend of 2003.

Though pleased to see the drought broken, fishermen wondered if these extremes in weather would have any long-range effects upon the bass fisheries in High Rock and its neighboring lakes. Would the traumatized fisheries be resilient? Now, three years later, the little fish I had just caught and released may have provided the answer.

Many High Rock fishermen believe the recent outbreak of small bass is a result of the heavy rains that caused high water levels during the 2003 spring spawn and again last spring.

Research supports their contention.

“There has been a good deal of work on the impacts of flooding or higher water levels on largemouth bass in the Southeast by fisheries researchers,” said District 6 fisheries biologist Lawrence Dorsey. “Most studies conclude that higher water levels prior to and during spawning can be beneficial to fish.”

Edwards foresees a bass bonanza because of the spawns.

“I think we’ve had two great spawning years at High Rock,” he said. “Bass eggs were not left high and dry as they have been in the past. The high water also gave the bass fry plenty of places to hide from predators.

“Following the 2003 spawn, every small pocket in the lake harbored waves of bass fry.

“In a few years, the bass fishing should be awesome at High Rock.”

Other fishermen agree, including tournament anglers, who view the little bass as a welcomed nuisance.

“We caught about 50 bass and hardly had a 14-inch keeper,” said Lexington’s Wayne Littleton following a High Rock Lake tournament. “But just wait until all those little fish grow up.”

While the future looks bright for High Rock, the years following the drought haven’t been too shabby, either.

Electrofishing samplings conducted in 1999, 2001 and 2003 by N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologists reveal a healthy fishery before and after the drought.

The April 2003 sampling indicates the lake’s bass fishery has recovered from the dry spell.

“The catch rate for bass is a little down from what it was in 2001, but it’s consistent with what we saw in 1999,” Dorsey said. “The catch rate at High Rock is still one of the highest in the state for bass.”