By Tony Garitta

For the past several years, Mother Nature has tested the resiliency of largemouth bass populations in North Carolina's lakes and rivers from Murphy to Manteo.

First, there was central North Carolina's four years of below-average rainfall that culminated in the "exceptional drought" of 2002, the worst since 1927. Heavy rains that persisted throughout the Labor Day weekend of 2002 broke the dry period. Thereafter, a pattern of rainfall developed that would yield record-breaking amounts of rain through the Labor Day weekend of 2003.

Greensboro recorded its wettest August since 1901 with 9.22 inches of rainfall and by Labor Day weekend, it had a total rainfall of 48 inches, a mark that threatened the record rainfall of 57.95 inches set 102 years ago.

The fishing community hailed the downpours as they filled dwindling municipal water-supply lakes and nearly bone-dry reservoirs, some of which had dropped to such low water levels that access areas were closed and fishing either had to be halted or restricted.

The transition from dry to wet counties resulted in an ironic turnabout for fishermen.

Two years ago, some of their fishing waters became inaccessible because of the drought; one year later, some became inaccessible because of high lake levels that covered ramps and roads.

Major creeks at High Rock Lake were reduced to trickles during the drought in 2002. Photo by Tony Garitta

Kerr and Jordan lakes, two flood-control reservoirs, had temporary ramp closings last spring as did Falls of the Neuse.

Kerr's high-water woes extended into the summer when its water level reached the 317-foot mark, putting roads, bridges, ramps and picnic tables underwater.

But when it came to highs and lows, no other reservoir could match High Rock Lake.

After having plunged to an unprecedented 23.97 feet below normal pool on July 20, 2002, because of the drought, High Rock Lake sustained a lake level within 1 or 2 feet of full pool throughout the spring and summer of 2003.

At times, boaters couldn't pass under the Abbotts Creek and Flat Swamp bridges. The lake's annual drawdown after the Labor Day weekend was curtailed as High Rock remained near full pool through the first week of September.

The bloated lake levels not only created closings and inconveniences for anglers, but they also affected bass fishing.

The influx of cold, muddy water instigated by the steady rains delayed the spring bite in Piedmont and Raleigh reservoirs.

On Feb. 22, 2003, not a single bass was brought to the scales at the Two-Man Team Bass Challenge on Jordan Lake. On March 8, 2003, a 2.06-pound bass was the only fish caught during the American Bass Anglers tournament on High Rock Lake. A weight of 3.97 pounds topped at the March 23 Piedmont Team Tournament on Tuckertown Lake.

Although lake waters were slow to warm, once they did, the fishing exploded.

From late March through May, bass fishermen needed five-fish tournament limits of 20 pounds or more to win team events at High Rock, Falls of the Neuse and Jordan lakes.

In many reservoirs, the spawn itself got a boost from swollen lake levels, which prevented bass eggs from being left high and dry and created more shoreline cover where bass fry could hide from predators.

Despite favorable spawning conditions, fisheries biologists cautioned that only time would tell if high lake levels would result in significant changes in bass populations.

"We won't know the effect for a couple of years," said Wayne Jones, fisheries biologist for District 3.

Scott Van Horn, aquatic non-game supervisor for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said that high water can impact the spawn differently depending upon the size of the body of water.

"High water in a reservoir in the spring is probably an advantage to bass spawning," he said. "It may be neutral in terms of eggs produced and hatched, but flooded brush probably raises young-of-the-year bass survival by putting them in an environment that is cover rich and potentially food rich.

"High water in a much smaller reservoir might flush zooplankton from the system making it difficult for small fish. Young-of-the-year game fish rely on zooplankton before they get big enough to feed on insects and fish."

Van Horn put to rest the fear that largemouth bass could be washed downstream - he does not expect that many bass were washed downstream with high flows. Besides, in most reservoirs, flooding does not translate into high flows within the reservoir.

Van Horn said if flood conditions have a negative impact, it's usually upon rivers and streams rather than large impoundments.

From the Piedmont to Raleigh, the soggy conditions were preferred over the multi-year drought.

"It's better to have too much water than no water at all," said Brian McRae, assistant fisheries biologist for District 5. "It's easier to cope with high water levels than it is with low water levels."

However, the favorable outlook upon high water waned in the west. While mountain reservoirs benefited from the heavy rainfall, the rushing waters could have adversely affected the smallmouth bass spawn in streams and rivers.

In the east, the heavy rainfall compounded existing problems in coastal rivers where bass populations were still struggling to recover from high salinity and low oxygen levels caused by hurricanes in the '90s, especially Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Then a new hurricane hit, again seriously stressing may freshwater fish species living in rivers near the coast.

Let's journey from west to east across the state to examine the impact of last year's rainy season.

"Because our boat ramps on western lakes are affected more by low water, access was probably better overall this spring than in recent years," said David Yow, warmwater research/survey coordinator for the NCWRC.

For reservoirs, the influx of high water was largely positive; for streams, just the opposite.

The heavy rains raised spring water levels on Fontana and Hiwassee lakes, which usually don't fill until midsummer. Last year, they remained high through July.

The high spring levels of mountain lakes probably enhanced the spawn, assuming good numbers of young fish survived their first winter. The extent to which the spawn was successful, however, won't be known for three to five years. Conversely, the flooding in large western streams combined with increased land development might have harmed the smallmouth spawn.

"Increased rainfall also means high levels of sediment washing into the streams," Yow said. "We don't have any information on what effect last year's rainfall had on our smallmouth fisheries, but . . . smallmouth populations are resilient enough to withstand such natural events, at least in areas where human activities haven't severely damaged watersheds and tributary streams," he added.

The heavy rains washed more nutrients and prey into streams for larger fish and brought about changes in water clarity and water temperature that affected fishing, Yow said.

"Overall, the cooler, wetter weather made for a longer spring fishing season in many places, whereas in previous hot, dry springs, spawning and other fish behavior seemed to occur earlier than normal," he said.