Morris said that bass will stage in pre-spawn mode on the way into the pockets, spawn there, and stage on the way back out. If he thinks the spawn is just getting underway in the pockets, he's more likely to fish a floating worm rigged wacky-style. If he thinks there are more post-spawn fish around, he's going to go more with a Senko.

"It really depends on when the spawn takes place, but you do get a long period of time when you can fish pockets and catch fish. As you get toward the end of the spawn, bass won't be sitting on certain spots; they'll be cruising a little deeper, but they'll stay in the pockets," he said.

When he's in a pocket, Morris is paying a little bit of attention to cover. He likes, as you would expect, to fish around docks and piers, along with any shallow stumps he stumbles on -- a lot of landowners have removed them from in front of their shoreline. There are enough docks in main-lake pockets on Lake Gaston that you can't fish them all in a week, much less a day.

"You can fish a wacky worm around docks and do great," he admitted.

Another reason that Ivan Morris likes to fish main-lake pockets is because they're where a lot of Lake Gaston's bream spawn -- beginning around the full moon in May -- and fishing for bass around bream beds has become a sure-fire way to catch largemouths.

"When you get to the bream spawn, the post-spawn bass stay packed in those pockets. I can get in there and work the edges of those bream beds, making real long casts with a Senko or wacky worm, and catch some real dogs," he said. "I've seen 'wolfpacks' or 3- and 4-pound bass in main-lake pockets around bream beds. I was astounded the first time I saw one. I saw about 30 bass just hanging around the outside of a bream bed. You can take a Senko on a super-light weight and a 5/0 hook and make a long cast, let it drop to the bottom, let it sit there, lift it up and let it slide back down, and you'll bust 'em."

"The shad spawn at Gaston isn't really red-hot like it is on other lakes -- like Buggs Island -- but the bream-bed bite is," he said. "And Gaston is so different, anyway. It's more like a river with pockets than a big reservoir.

Toward the end of May, Ivan Morris also keeps an eye out for Gaston's hydrilla to show up. The aquatic grass has helped make the lake's bass fishing great since it first showed up in the late 1980s.

"It depends on the spring, but by the end of May, if you start getting those first little sprigs of grass up, you can get a really good Carolina-rig bite in there," he said. "You can drag a lizard or a Brush Hog in there. That's one thing I look for if the pocket bite isn't working out. I'll go out and find those places where the little sprigs of hydrilla have grown up about 4 or 5 inches and work them with a Carolina rig. You can drag your bait out to about 7 or 8 or 10 feet and catch 'em. I've had some really good days doing that."