Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

April is the best month of the year for catching record-breaking largemouth bass at Falls of the Neuse and Jordan lakes. Even a novice can load a livewell with double-digit bass.

April fool!

While April is an excellent month for catching quality bass at these two reservoirs, fishermen have become too knowledgeable to be taken in by exaggerated claims like the ones above, even if April Fools' Day marks the beginning of the month.

Today's bass fishermen expend considerable time, energy and money in pursuit of quality bass and are eager to consume information that will help them put more fish in the livewell without any joking around.

One no-nonsense way to catch more fish is to assimilate the strategies of bass-fishing guides. Their livelihoods depend upon their ability to consistently catch fish from their chosen waters.

Three such local guides are Mike Dinterman of Trophy Bass Fishing Guide Service (919/593-1414), Jamie Olive of Jamie's Guide Service (919/625-0707), and Phil Cable of Phil Cable's Guide Service (www.philcableguideservice.com).

Collectively, these guides have over 65 years of fishing experience at Falls of the Neuse and B. Everett Jordan lakes, two of the best largemouth bass waters in the state and both conveniently located a short distance from Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh -- the apexes of the Research Triangle.

Before Jordan Lake reached full pool on Feb. 3, 1982, Cable hunted along much of its 14,300 acres.

"I walked the lake bottom three or four years before the lake was filled and got to observe subtle structural features that a depthfinder can't determine," said Cable, who recently moved to Holly Ridge. "Some of the landscape I used to hunt also harbored good places to fish, such as dropoffs, changes in bottom composition and creek bottoms."

Olive's family once farmed some of the land now inundated with water by the formation of Jordan.

"My family leased land for growing corn and that land is now covered by portions of Jordan and Harris lakes," Olive said. "At the time, I was too young to take advantage of what I saw to apply my observances to fishing."