Tuckertown bass heat up as summer approaches

Maynard Edwards

Maynard Edwards likes fishing Tuckertown Lake during June for shallow-water largemouths.

Anglers who spend time on the Yadkin River impoundments talk about High Rock Lake as the gold standard of the chain’s bass fisheries, but during June, nothing is finer in Central Carolina than Tuckertown Lake.

At least that’s what now full-time guide Maynard Edwards of Yadkin Lakes Guide Service in Lexington believes.

“We caught four or five bass this morning,” Edwards said on Wednesday, the first day of his retirement after 28-1/2 years as a high-school teacher and coach, “and we lost as many or more.”

 

According to Edwards, the biggest weighed 3 1/2 pounds and hit a buzzbait fished in lily pads, vegetation that High Rock lacks.

 

“Summer is a great time to bass fish at Tuckertown, even through July,” said Edwards (336-247-1287). “When I was a teacher, I only could fish in the afternoon, so me and people like David Wright, who also was a teacher, learned how to catch these bass in summer.”

 

Effective lures fished around lily pads are Senkos rigged on 4/0 or 5/0 hooks.

 

“I use 16-pound test line and put a swivel about 12 inches up the line, then add another foot of 16-pound mono,” Edwards said. “You want to set the hook hard and horse him out of those pads that grow in 2 or 3 feet of water. Some people also are using ‘rats’ and catching fish at the pads.

 

“But my favorite lure, especially in the morning, is a buzzbait. It makes a lot of noise and I think draws reaction strikes. I like a little wind to put a little chop on the water when I’m using a buzzbait, too.”

 

When the sun gets up, Edwards will try Carolina-rigging 6-inch plastic worms and 8-inch plastic lizards at points and submerged rock piles.

 

Anywhere anglers see fish slashing schools of threadfin shad is a good spot to try a shallow-running crankbait.