JOHNSTON COUNTY -- Hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't ask John Keith of Neuse Bait & Tackle shop the whereabouts of a good fishing hole.

He's quick to tick off lakes like Wiggins Mill on U.S. 301 in Wilson; the Buckhorn reservoir, which straddles the Johnston-Wilson county line; and Lake Wheeler and Lake Benson, both in Wake County.

Within the county, there's good fishing in the creeks and rivers. He often points people to the public boat access on the Neuse River around back of his shop, and to the creek behind the dam at Holt Lake farther south on U.S. 301.

But the number of private ponds where people can pay to fish are getting few and far between, Keith adds. "It's sad," he says. "There used to be signs up, 'fishing for $2,' all over the place. Now there are fences and posted signs."

One of the reasons is that property owners are afraid they'll get sued if someone drowns, Keith says. In other cases, property owners have developed their waterfront lots for homes. Holt's Pond on U.S. 70 west of Princeton is an example, he says.

Among the few pay-to-fish ponds still left are the Jack Thomas pond near Four Oaks and the Cleve Langdon ponds in the Cleveland community. Both have been open to the public almost since they were dug.

The Thomas pond is on N.C. 96, less than a mile south of Keen Road. The owners, Ronnie and Sara Lawson, have never posted a sign nor advertised. Locals know to turn in at the dirt path next to the brick house. The fishing rules and a moneybox are posted at a white, wooden shed behind the house.

Sara Lawson, who was cutting grass on a recent Friday afternoon, said her grandfather, John Rufus Thomas, expanded the pond to about 12 acres in the late 1800s and sold minnows to the locals. He lived in a cabin on a small inlet and kept a boat for fishing.

Her father, Jack Thomas, carried on the tradition of letting people fish. "He'd get out there and fish with 'em," Lawson said. "He and my mother ate fish all the time. They loved them."

Back in 1996, the heavy rains from Hurricane Fran weakened the dam, and the pond spilled all its water, she said. But in the years that followed, the Lawsons saved up enough money to build it back.

It was her father's wish to re-open the pond. When the construction ended in April of 2002, he walked all around it, she said. In July, he passed away.

"It took six to nine months to get all the water back," Lawson said. "People were so happy to see it open."

On a typical Saturday morning, she has counted as many as 17 people casting their lines from the banks. A young man who lives nearby recently caught a 12-pound bass, she said.

But Lawson prefers to sit on the bank, relax and watch the herons and Canada geese that feed among the water lilies. "I love it," she said. "It's a peaceful place."

In the Cleveland community, a sign on Cornwallis Road less than a half-mile from Old Drug Store Road points to Langdon's Farm & Ponds.

Customers pay at an honor box, then follow a dirt path through the woods to the first pond. A sign points to the second pond, which is farther down another path and surrounded by an electric fence that keeps in the cows. To get in and out, customers must stop and unhook the fence.

Gertrude Holland said her first husband, Cleveland Langdon, built the ponds in the early 1970s. A few years after construction, he decided to start charging a small fee to let people come and fish, she said.

Ever since, the ponds have been a popular draw. On the Fourth of July, more than 60 people came to fish, Holland said.

On a recent Saturday morning, Adam Capani cast his line and waited for the big one. When his fishing float bobbled a few minutes later, he yanked his hook and reeled in a crappie the size of a nab.

"It's big enough to say I'm one up on everybody," Capani boasted to his fishing party, which included his girlfriend, a brother and two of his friends.

Capani found out about the fishing hole from a coworker whose father took him there as a boy. "It's the only place I know to fish," he said.