When in Carolina...
By Tim Sherman

At right: This largemouth bass was caught with a Risto Rap crankbait in High Rock Lake, North Carolina.

Since Christmas, I have been waiting for the July 4th holiday to visit my brother Gil and his wife, Marge in North Carolina. Family is important, as is the opportunity to fish different bodies of water. My wife, daughter and I made the trek to Lexington, best known for being the pork barbeque capital of the world. To a lesser degree it is known for the quality bass fishing on High Rock Lake. I have fished “The Rock” on a few occasions, but never in the heat of summer.

Though Gil and I pursue the same species, the fisheries are vastly different. Fishing shallow on the upper bay means churning a buzzbait across a flat with two feet of water over it. On High Rock, fishing shallow means thumping a crankbait along the rocks and stumps in 6 to 10 feet of water. You can see the mindset I had to adopt when going from tidal brackish water to a freshwater impoundment.

The crankbait bite was on when I arrived. However, the better bite was on plastic worms. Gil has been fishing Carolina rigs for many years and has picked up on the shaky head worm tactic. While I know how effective these techniques are, there is rarely a need for the Carolina rig in shallow tidal waters and the shaky head is often reserved for finicky bass. Gil would have me casting the rigged worms and the crankbaits.

The first day we fished was windy. So much so that it created a bow in the line. This made a bite on the shaky head worm nearly impossible to detect. We fished on Second Creek and Gil cast the Carolina rig while I tossed crankbaits. The bite was tough, but Gil landed a 3 3/4-pound bass on the heavy worm rig. We worked our way back into the creek and found the leeward side of several points. Gil was able to land a few small bass on the shaky head worm and one on a crankbait. I landed a couple small bass with a Rapala Risto Rap in the hot mustard hue. Gil had also found some schooling bass in extremely shallow water. We each landed a few of these bass on rattle traps. Fishing this shallow made me feel right at home.

As most bodies of water are crowded on Independence Day, Gil thought it best that we stay away. The rest of the days, save for church on Sunday, we fished hard. The Risto Rap became my main focus, but I found a better bite with the Parrot color pattern. And try as I might with the Carolina rig, I could not muster a bite.

Fishing a crankbait is more than simply casting and winding. The more cover you contact with the lure, the better your chances of provoking a strike. I used a light touch on the reel handle so it will slip off slightly when a rock or stump was bumped. This momentary pause after deflection drew the strikes. We did hang up on cover, but a good plug knocker saved the replacement cost of crankbaits that, otherwise, would have been broken off below. Gil uses the Hound Dog lure retriever to get back his plugs, jigs, and plastics.

Each morning started with overcast skies. Topwater tactics were definitely in play as shad were popping in the shallows. I just had to cast a buzzbait to see if any aggressive bass were about. I was successful on one account, landing a bass that equaled Gil’s 3 3/4-pound bass. The rest of my casts went unnoticed.

Our pattern was to fish rocky banks. On The Rock, the cover you see on the bank typically extends into and below the water. The Risto Rap drew strikes from bass, white perch (known as white bass by the locals), a crappie, and a yellow perch. By High Rock standards we were cranking shallow water as most of the strikes came in 6 to 10-foot depths. We did find a productive bank a bit shallower in 3 to 6 feet. From passed trips I remembered that a Norman Lures crankbait in Tennessee shad works well at the depth. Gil got into the action by casting the shaky head worm. While these bass were shallow, they were in close proximity to deeper (10 to 12 feet) water.

Our catch didn’t set the lake on fire, but we did have decent fishing on High Rock Lake. I would like to have caught a few on the Carolina rig, but that will come in time. The lesson for anglers -- when in Carolina, fish as the locals fish.